JIM SCHWALL TODAY
Jim Schwall, the other half of the old Siegel/Schwall Blues Band, has been appearing with a new band on the coffeehouse circuit. He’s been doing a lot of gigs in the Chicago area and offered us his insights into what’s happened to that once flourishing scene.
JIM SCHWALL TODAY
Jim Schwall, the other half of the old Siegel/Schwall Blues Band, has been appearing with a new band on the coffeehouse circuit. He’s been doing a lot of gigs in the Chicago area and offered us his insights into what’s happened to that once flourishing scene.
“A lot of the blues clubs are off limits about half the time. There’s a whole lot of shit going down, see? And even though the neighbors are cool, the cops aren’t. It’s a very sticky scene. Old Town is just about burnt out.” According to Schwall, this means that there are almost no places for young, white bluesmen to play in Chicago. As a consequence a lot of them have left.
There are a couple of places left to play if you want to eke out a living; and, as Boot Hill says, if you’re into blues you’re not into money. So guys pick up jobs at Beaver’s once in a while, the Aragon (which just re-opened for Fred Fried’s Triangle Productions) and every few month s a date at Aaron Russo’s Kinetic Playground.