Blues Portrait Vol 2 – Pauline Bailey

Pauline Bailey – Blues Portrait: A Profile of the Australian Blues Scene Volume 2.

Book review by Tony Smith

TN2545-B $40

TN160 Dec 23

Coping with the Coronavirus ‘lockdown’ threw musicians back onto their resourcefulness.

Blues musicians are eminently qualified to cope with such emergencies.

As their entries show, most have been self-reliant and independent right through their careers, being either completely or predominantly self-taught.

The pandemic hit emerging and fringe artists harder than established ones perhaps as they relied to a greater extent on live performance and travel.

No doubt one development during the lockdowns was greater reliance on co-operation over the internet.

Prominent names among the 42 in the second (2021) volume of 351 pages include Tim Rogers, Darren Jack, Jeannie Lewis, Angry Anderson, Margret Roadknight and Jim Conway.

It would be ideal to list every name, but at least those who contributed to this volume must have felt the support of all the 88 musicians so far represented in the first two volumes.

Again the diversity of performers and their interests is obvious.

Tim Rogers was not born when some of the veterans began working, so you would not expect the pattern of his career to be the same.

Nevertheless, he has crammed a wealth of experience into a relatively few years.

His time with the band, ‘You Am I’ took him on several overseas tours including four to the USA.

Rogers was born in Kalgoorlie, a reminder that blues musicians are found all around Australia including regional areas.

Moreover they tend to move around to seek venues and for purposes of collaborating with other artists.

In this regard, they resemble the troubadours of old.

While travel was not possible at the height of the Covid emergency, the artists again speak about going back to their roots.

Apart from finding the biggest markets in America, blues artists look to the birthplace of the blues firstly as a place of pilgrimage and also to test their own credentials.

If they are accepted in the blues capitals such as Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans, then they know they are doing something right.

While the socio-economic circumstances of their families varied, one consistent factor about these musicians is that they were exposed to music at an early age.

Indeed, some reckon they began to absorb music while still in the womb, which is not such a fanciful idea.

Many are of an era when radio was an important source, and this meant a certain dependence on the big record labels.

Many also report that their parents were of the era when 45 rpm records were popular, rather than more modern forms of sound reproduction.

Nicknames, or more poshly professional sobriquets, are common among blues musicians.

In this Volume appear ‘Continental’ Robert Susz, Mark ‘Harpo’ Greenway’, Peter ‘Boom Boom’ Beulke, Denis ‘Salty’ Trevarthen, and Nicole ‘Nikki D’ Brown.

And if individuals lack names that immediately identify them as blues musicians, many of their groups have names derived from blues experience, such as ‘Blues Doctors’, ‘Blues Preachers’, ‘Big Wheel’ and ‘Backsliders’.

Nor should it be thought that blues musicians necessarily stay in the same band for long.

Many, such as harmonica virtuoso. Jim Conway, are fine studio musicians and give first class support to some of Australia’s most successful performers across genres, not just blues, but rock, pop and country, and some change directions for other reasons.

Lockdowns also saw many musicians using their other skills such as art, illustrating and guitar building.

The established Darren Jack comments that writing songs has provided his satisfaction and he gets a ‘buzz’ even when playing at home, which he does daily.

That’s why he likes the blues, it is about feeling and emotion and is not just a theoretical exercise.

And Snooks La Vie says that ‘Songwriting doesn’t always have to be so intellectual as long as the narrative is real and creates a mood.

‘It’s got to paint a picture and that’s what great songs do.’

In the Foreword, Kerri Simpson describes Pauline Bailey as an ‘Alan Lomax type figure’.

Indeed, this is a good comparison, as like any good music editor or song collector, Bailey is bringing to print numerous anecdotes and previously unrecorded stories.

In the process, she encourages others to think about what they might say if approached to describe their own experiences.

Margret Roadknight uses some Irish wisdom as her sign-off: ‘When you’re happy, sing’ When you’re sad, sing louder!’

Paradoxically perhaps, singing the blues makes you feel better and reading about these musicians certainly will.