Keeping the Blues Alive and Well
There is a fight to preserve the genre that laid the foundation for every music genre on the planet. With only one remaining master of the first great generation of musicians in Buddy Guy, it’s important to highlight the next wave of young blues prodigy’s and support them through and through to preserve the greatest genre on the planet.
When it comes to keeping blues music alive, there is nobody who works harder at persevering the genre then Ron Onesti. Onesti is a three-time Emmy winning producer and an entertainment producing icon in the Midwest and around the country. Over the years, he has worked with Koko Taylor, BB King, Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Jimmie Vaughan and many others.
I was fortune it enough to sit down with my wonderful boss to interview him about why preserving the blues is so important shortly before the David Crosby (Crosby Stills and Nash) hit our stage in beautiful St. Charles, IL .
The main focus and discussion was to the importance of keeping blues music alive.
“It’s important to give the people of that era and the people who really enjoy the blues and the music of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s,” Onesti said. “That generation is getting older. I’m providing an opportunity to the people who are apart of that era to enjoy their music.”
Onesti certainly is doing just that at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles, IL, Onesti books over 400 plus shows a year at the Arcada, pulling names like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray, Jonny Lang, Dweezil Zappa and an endless amount more of blues rock artists, following through on a lifelong promise to keep a genre he love’s dearly alive.
“When I look out into the crowd at my shows and I see dads with their 12 and 15-year-old sons and daughters I’m providing an opportunity for these parents to expose their children to the real music which laid the foundation of the music to come.”
Buddy Guy has without question become the face of the genre since the passing of the King of the Blues in 2015, but being a legend who’s won everything doesn’t always mean you have all the money in the world….that is if you’re a blues performer at least it seems that way.
After owning and operating the largest blues clubs in the world for over 30 years, Buddy Guy finally broke even this past year as the owner of his blues club Buddy Guys Legends, which sits just below the train tracks near Wabash in the South Loop near State Street in Chicago. Crazy to think about it right?
Onesti chimed in and gave his thoughts on that rather mind-blowing information, “He’s legendary, he’s an icon, but he wasn’t always treated that way and Buddy will be the first to tell you”
For a man to have accomplished so much and be so decorated with awards like the Kennedy Center Honor, 8 Grammys and being the only musician to ever play in the White House two times with two different presidents, you’d think he’d be basking in all the money and fortune that comes with opportunities like that, right?
“The music sadly as a genre was never a high paying or high grossing genre, which is why blues guys now don’t get paid the most,” said Onesti. So why does Buddy keep a blues club open for so long when he doesn’t make much money? “It’s truly a testament for his love and anybody who’s plays the blues and that music because for a lot of years and including today to an extent you’ve almost got to make a choice, either you make money, or you play the blues.” said Onesti.
The state of the blues genre today is quite sad. Out of all the legends that have blessed our ears over our lifetime from Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Jimi Hendrix, and John Lee Hooker, all of them have passed away. Many of them passed far too young like Hendrix and Vaughan, leaving us with only one man left from that first generation, that man happens to reside here in the greatest city on the planet Chicago, IL, his name…. Buddy Guy.
At 82 years young, Buddy Guy is still producing and touring like a mad man because he knows that once his time is up the state of the blues genre in this world will be changed forever. He is fulfilling a promise he made with his best friend B.B. King shortly before King passed away in 2015 to keep the genre alive and to keep on inspiring and introducing the younger generation to blues music. Guy certainly is doing that and much more.
There are many people that Buddy has influenced in his life and there any many artist who’ve been quoted saying that Buddy was the biggest influence on their life and career such as the late great Jimi Hendrix. However, there’s this one young man who became a disciple of the master Buddy Guy at a very young age, his name Quinn Sullivan.
Residing in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Quinn Sullivan and his father Terry attended a Buddy Guy show in 2007 when Quinn was just 8 years old. Buddy spotted this young boy in the crowd and called him up on stage and asked if he could play, Quinn said yes. Now the story has it that Buddy wasn’t expecting much from Sullivan, he was expecting him to hit the three basic chords…. but Quinn blew the roof off the place. Just watch this clip which will start playing at the 1:20 mark watch about 4 minutes of this and you’ll feel and see the power of the blues and music as the two share a moment on stage that this 8 year old Quinn will never forget.
From that moment on, Quinn and Buddy have toured and bonded over the years forging a unique relationship and creating memories. I was honored to talk to Quinn back in September when he came to our theater in St. Charles, IL.
The message is clear. The love is real for the genre. Sullivan is one of the many young guns who are the driving force behind the movement to keep the genre that laid the foundation for every type of music on the plantet relevent.
So to keep the promise that one of my heros Buddy Guy has kept from his best friend BB King to keep the music alive, here are some names for you to check out!
- Quinn Sullivan
- Kenny Wayne Shepherd
- Jonny Lang
- Samantha Fish
- Eric Gales
- Corey Dennsion
- Mike Welch
- Erin Coburn
- Devon Allman
- The Peterson Brothers
And remember. Like the master Buddy Guy always says, “Keep The Blues Alive and Well.”
