Credits

For my project, I have used:
http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/dallas/, the website for the House of Blues Dallas
http://www.pbs.org/theblues/
Information gained at the House of Blues Dallas during these events:
Back Door Slam, Cambridge Room, 2008
Sister Hazel with Edwin McCain and Armand Margjeka, 3/4/3011
Crawfish-N-Blues Festival, 3/6/2011
Yonder Mountain String Band, 4/1/2011

Yonder Mountain String Band

On April 1, 2011, my entire family visited the House of Blues for dinner and a concert by the Yonder Mountain String Band.  We ate at the restaurant there, having burger plates, fried fish, and chicken-fried chicken, along with all the sides.  Following dinner, we went downstairs to the main Music Hall.  My brother and I stood at the foot of the stage.  While we were waiting for the band to appear, I encountered a Yonder Mountain String Band groupie, and had a long conversation with him.  He was in a somewhat altered state due to alcohol consumption, but we had a productive conversation nevertheless.  He introduced himself to me, and asked if I had seen Yonder before.  I told him that it was my first experience, and he was surprised and said that he had seen the band at least fifteen times.  He claimed that the group members fully recognize him as one of their “regulars”, and pointed out another group standing nearby.  He told me that that group had seen Yonder more than 30 times; needless to say, Yonder Mountain has a very devoted fan base willing to follow them around the country.  This man had been to their Austin show the night before, and was planning to follow them to Houston on April 2^nd.  It was interesting to experience this band standing next to one of their most rabid followers.  

When the band took to the stage, they acknowledged right at the beginning their followers, saying, “It’s good to see that our hippie culture is alive and well in Dallas tonight.”  The crowd at this concert was the most interesting and eclectic of any show that I experienced thus far.  The ages ranged from teens to Hippies from the Woodstock era.  Even though smoking is not allowed at the House of Blues, there was a strong aroma of marijuana wafting through the air throughout the evening.   Most of the crowd was pretty mellowed-out, but at one point, there was a bit of a dust-up  between several parties that was quickly resolved.  Everyone danced during the music, twirling around, laughing and enjoying the experience.   I was not drinking, but was doused several times accidentally by enthusiastic dancers in the crowd.  

Yonder Mountain String Band is a progressive bluegrass group from Colorado.  There are four band members, and their instruments are banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar and electric stand-up bass.  All four band members sang, each taking the lead on different songs.  They were all very accomplished musicians, and talented vocally as well.  It is easy to understand their appeal, and the fun atmosphere of the concert made the experience one that I would enjoy repeating.   Before leaving, I thanked my new  friend for introducing me to “Yonder Culture”.  We left while the music was still playing, and it was around midnight, which means that the band played in excess of 3 hours.

They used a large number of lighting effects

Crawfish-N-Blues Festival

Then, two days later, on March 6, my father, brother, and I went to the House of blues for the first annual Crawfish-N-Blues Festival.  The price of the ticket included all you can eat boiled crawfish and live blues music for the entire Sunday afternoon.  The enormous amount of crawfish needed to feed the crowd necessitated the use of a third-party crawfish catering company called Crawdads of Dallas.  They arrived with all the necessary appliances on a trailer and pulled up into the front sidewalk area.  They had an open-air propane boiler on the trailer, and they stirred thousands of pounds of live crawfish, stirring them with wooden paddles.  After the boil, the workers strained them out of the boiling liquid, seasoned them, and then served them to the waiting crowds by the pound.  I ate 5 pounds of crawfish on my own, and my father and brother did the same, so we certainly got our money’s worth.  

While we ate, several different artists played.  We heard a Big Band-style group first, with a stand-up bass, a tuba, trumpet, and trombone, very similar to a New Orleans Brass Band.  Following them, a country blues band played, and the main interest element in this group was the African-American lead singer who played the accordion.  He also had very strong country attire, with a cowboy hat, belt buckle, and an ornamented denim shirt and jeans.  I don’t know the names of the two opening acts---the main interest at this point was the crawfish and beer.  These acts together lasted about an hour and a half.

 The headliner for the day was the Zac Harmon Band.  Zac Harmon has been named “best new blues artist” by XM Radio.  This band would be classified as electric blues.  Zac Harmon hails from Jackson, Mississippi, and he completely fits the stereotypical image of a blues guitarist.  He is African American, gifted at blues guitar playing, and has a soulful, rich baritone voice.  At times, I thought he sounded much like Louis Armstrong.  He made a definite, personal connection with the crowd, breaking into conversational style mid-song.  The crowd was totally engaged in his performance, and responded enthusiastically with dancing and cheering.  In this case, it is totally appropriate to say, “the crowd went wild.”   His set lasted over two hours, and the time went quickly because he was quite the entertainer.

This is about a pound of crawfish.  It comes with a corn on the cob and a whole new potato.  For those that have never eaten crawfish,  the only significant portion of meat is the tail, so you have to work a little and peel the shell off the tail. It's delicious.

This was the first opener to the afternoon

These next few pictures are of the second opener

Sister Hazel

On March 4, 2011, my brother and I went to see Sister Hazel.  Being a more famous group than Back Door Slam, the Sister Hazel concert was held in the Music Hall, where there was much more room for the larger audience.  The first opener was Armand Margjeka, an Albanian-born country folk singer.  For his performance, he only used his guitar and his voice.  His music is a fusion of folk pop and blues and given that he is Albanian born, his music is the perfect example of the worldwide influence of blues. 

 Next on stage was the Edwin McCain band.  Their music is bluesy country with wide, crossover pop appeal.  In fact, the single, “I’ll Be”, which he closed his set with receives substantial airplay on local pop radio stations.  On a few occasions, during a peppier song, McCain would be very energetic and would jump around the stage with his acoustic guitar and microphone, which was entertaining in and of itself, adding to the concert as a whole. 

 Finally, the headliner, Sister Hazel, took the stage.  The crowd became very excited and was very responsive to the lead singer asking questions of the audience.  The audience was a mix of young and middle-aged people, since Sister Hazel has been in existence since 1993.  There were five members in the group, of which four sang.  There were two that played guitar, one bassist, keyboardist, and the drummer.  Similar to the Edwin McCain Band, Sister Hazel’s style of music is a blend of folk rock, country, pop, and Southern blues.  Their music, contrary to normal blues, has more optimistic and upbeat lyrics.  They’re very talented vocally, with almost the entire band singing in harmony.  This is present in their most famous song, “All for You”, which has a very melodic chorus and a tight harmony.  This entire concert, from beginning to end, lasted nearly five hours, and the audience was responsive and energetic into the night.  I apologize for the quality of these photos and videos.  I forgot my camera so these were taken with my phone.  Also, since Sister Hazel is a much more famous band, the security placed a firm rule against recording equipment during their show.

This is Armand Margjeka

This is the Edwin McCain Band

Back Door Slam

My first time At the House of Blues was in 2008, when I saw Back Door Slam.  They were a very young band from the Isle of Man, and my brother saw them at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin.  My brother and I arrived a few hours early to ensure that we had a good spot at the concert, specifically in the Cambridge Room, since we had standing tickets.  Soon there were 50 people behind us.  As soon as we were let into the room, we claimed our spot, standing right behind the railing in front of the stage on the left side.  As you can see in the pictures, we were literally feet from the performers(I used no zoom).  The people around us were talking about how they had heard of Back Door Slam, giving little attention to anything but the upcoming music.  The music was a combination of blues and rock, with a strong guitar emphasis and soulful vocals.  The leader of the group, Davy Knowles, played lead guitar and sang the lead vocals.  There was also a bassist and drummer playing, but they seemed to play more in the background than the guitar.  Most songs played had a guitar solo, furthering its importance in the songs.  The songs were quite tonally varied, from soft, slow acoustic songs such as “Stay” to heavy, electric, upbeat songs such as “Come Home”.  Afterwards, I bought a shirt with the Back Door Slam logo on the front and went home to see what music they had available on iTunes.

Material Culture of the Blues

The House of Blues Dallas has a very strong material culture.  One of the most significant parts of this is the instruments used, and of that the guitar being the most significant.  While instruments are not sold at the House of Blues itself(except for the harmonica), there are many stores in the Dallas area, such as Guitar Center, that focus entirely on these kinds of instruments.  The store at the House of Blues focuses more on memorabilia.  The store offers many House of Blues shirts, as well as hats, glassware such as shot glasses, collectibles, and even art.  The artists themselves generally have a makeshift store, called a Merch Table, located just outside the room that the performance is in.  The House of Blues, as well as the artists themselves, also sell CD’s and DVD’s to the attendees.  There is a strong influence of alcohol at the House of Blues.  For example, the Main Hall has three separate bars accessible to the performance-goers.  Every event space has at least one bar, and there is no point in the performance when the bar is closed.  Art is also a very important aspect at the House of Blues.  The walls inside are covered with art, either in frames hung on the wall or painted directly onto the wall itself.  Art is also available for purchase in the store.  Some of the art is seen in the following pictures in the Music Hall.

Repertoires of the Blues

The lyrics in blues are one of the most important aspects of blues music.  Blues originated lyrically with a line simply being repeated four times.  It eventually developed into the twelve bar AAB format in order to make it less repetitive.  The lyrics of a blues song are logically about rough times and struggles that the writer has.  For example, The song “Dallas Blues”, which I mentioned earlier as the first produced blues song has these lyrics: “There's a place I know, folks won't pass me by, Dallas, Texas, that's the town, I cry, oh hear me cry.  And I'm going back, going back to stay there 'til I die, until I die.”  Even the term “the blues”, the name of the genre itself, was a result of the thematic lyrics that the singers produced.  

There is a great amount of body movement in the blues.  There is simply no way to be still when listening to an accomplished blues musician.  At the bare minimum, it makes you want to tap your foot to the dominant beat, and in the case of one concert I attended, the audience was free-form dancing and twirling.  There is wide freedom in blues music to express yourself in your own way as the music moves you, and there is no negative judgement  or elitism among the musicians or the audience members.  The music simply draws people together, and however they wish to display their emotion is perfectly okay in this genre.