Just like taking lyrics from a typical blues song, Chicago blues is the neglected bastard child of Chicago FM radio. Why does it get no airplay, you ask? I don’t have an answer for that, but I bet it has to do with money (or rather, lack thereof).
I was born in the great blues mecca of Chicago and have listened to blues music my whole life, so not being able to hear it on a regular basis on the radio in my home city is a bit disturbing, and tragic, in my opinion. Sure, blues can be heard for a few hours at a time on WDCB 90.9 (a local jazz station) on Sundays from midnight to 5 a.m. and you get a two-hour teaser block of blues from them during the week a couple of times, but having to clear your schedule for radio in this day and age is equal parts amusing and sad.
There are over 50 blues clubs in this city, ranging from the well-known institutions such as Buddy Guy’s Legends and Kingston Mines to the local neighborhood joints like Rosa’s Lounge and Wallace’s Catfish Corner. There are also a bunch of local Chicago blues record labels that include the likes of Alligator, Delmark, Earwig and Sirens. Chess Records and Checker Records were two of the pioneering, post-WWII blues labels that originated in Chicago and put Chicago blues on the map, but both are now owned by Universal/Geffen. Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Lonnie Brooks, Son Seals, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson and Magic Sam are a testament to the signed talent of Chicago-based blues labels, and reason enough why this music should be accessible on the airwaves 24 hours a day.
I know that I’ve only mentioned acts from the past and some of the modern blues artists might not compare to those of before, so why bother getting pissed-off that this genre of music isn’t being played on the radio, you ask? Well, this city has more fuckin’ classic rock stations than R.E.O. Speedwagon has reunion tours, and nobody seems to give a shit, and you can easily say that some of that ’70s douchebag-rock is a pre-cursor to today’s rock; after all, all genres of music evolve into something else.
Oh, I’m not knocking all music from the ’70s, just the kind that sounds like R.E.O. I’ll bet the Speedwagon’s music ended up morphing into some of the drop-tuning, talk/whine, feel-sorry-for-me, flavor-of-the-day bullshit that gets all the attention in and is currently clogging up the present day music scene, but that’s a whole other opinionated topic that I’ll save for another time.
Bottom line is, when I’ve got the blues, I need to flip on the radio and hear the blues—especially being in the land of electric blues, Chicago. Now excuse me while I pull it out, plug it in, and get my mojo working.
