Slam Allen and New Napkins  | Back

September 18, 1999

 

Rosa's has new napkins. As you probably have noticed, all bar napkins are supplied by cigarette companies. Napkins are cheap, but cigarette company napkins are free so most bars use them, especially bars where a napkin is just a napkin. At Rosa's, a napkin is just a napkin, so they use the free ones supplied by the cigarette companies. These new napkins are from Winston. They're clever, because they look like plain white napkins that someone wrote on with a felt tip pen. Some have fictional drink orders on them. Others suggest a person trying to solicit a phone number. If you fall for the gag for more than 10 seconds, you might be a little dim, but 10 seconds of amusement is more than most advertising supplies, so I like the new napkins. Cigarette companies are scrambling. Because of all the lawsuits, government regulations and social sanctions, they're running out of room to maneuver and, consequently, running out of ideas. Some of the recent stuff I've seen for Salem and Camel (now that they've abandoned the penis-headed cartoon character) is simply bizarre. Bars are their last refuge, since everyone in the bar is supposed to be over 21. I have worked on tobacco products, including Winston, at various times in my marketing past. Maybe these napkins were my idea. I don't remember. I've been doing this stuff for more than 25 years. I'm old and forgetful. Last night I dragged my creaking carcass downtown to Celtic Fest, a reminder that in their centuries of struggle, the English may have had better weapons but the Irish always had better songs. Most of the European influence in blues, i.e., the non-African influence, is Celtic, so it isn't surprising that a few hours of pipes and fiddles made me long for a little Stratocaster. I also knew that Rosa's was featuring someone new to me, so I arrived expecting a new face on stage. The new napkins were a surprise. Slam Allen is from Monticello, New York, a town about 90 minutes outside of New York City. He and his band are young, under 30, a rarity for blues performers and maybe even more so for Rosa's. Tony does noble work when he features some of the last remaining blues legends, like Pinetop Perkins, Little Mack Simmons and others. Even Rosa's regulars like Sugar Blue and Melvin Taylor, while not old by any means, are both veterans and certainly familiar to the Rosa's audience. It is nice to see someone young and fresh up there for a change, even better when they put on a terrific show, as Slam Allen did. Slam plays lead guitar and sings. His rhythm guitarist and drummer sing back-up. The bass player, with long black hair, beard, and energetic dancing, provides mean bottom and a little bit of hoo doo, especially compared to the drummer and rhythm guitar player, who look like Iowa frat boys. Slam looks like a guy who was the star on his high school's offensive line, but was just a little too small for college ball. Saturday night, the playing of their four-piece unit was crisp, tight and confident. Slam is in his late 20s, but seems younger. What's the point? What's youth got to do with it? As a matter of practical reality for anyone running a bar, young people go out more often than do old people like me, and young people generally want to see other young people on stage. Old guys like me who love the blues tend to be a little bothered by this. We think everyone should feel as privileged as we do to see a giant like Pinetop Perkins perform in an intimate venue like Rosa's, but the simple truth is most of the under-30 crowd doesn't feel that way. They don't know Pinetop's history because they don't read books about blues. (They sure didn't read mine.) Nine times out of ten with a young audience, music is just background for the mating dance anyway. Music has to be strong, focused and immediate to cut through the hormone haze. So Slam Allen is perfect for a young audience, and the twenty-somethings at Rosa's last night ate him up. He has great chops and pipes, and all the energy and charisma in the world. Few performers connect with an audience so effortlessly, which is the whole point of a live performance. His record company bills him as a "blues and soul powerhouse," or maybe it was "dynamo." As for the "blues and soul" part, my impression was more rhythm and blues. He plays a lot of Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and other classics from the Stax and Atlantic canons, but also Sly and the Family Stone, and Santana, and original songs in that same 60s soul-rock vernacular. In other words, he is a young guy appealing to a young audience playing the same music that excited me 25-30 years ago when I was a young guy too. That should make everybody happy. Someone years ago worried that the Chicago blues scene might one day degenerate into a static, tourist-based artifact like Preservation Hall in New Orleans, where bored musicians endlessly repeat joyless choruses of "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Hoochee Coochee Man." A couple of the Chicago blues clubs are not too far from this particular hell, but Tony strives to make sure Rosa's is not one of them, in part by discovering fresh and energetic performers like Slam Allen. I am always happy to see young people enjoy the blues, and especially the unique pleasures of a venue like Rosa's, because they want to and not because someone told them they should. Blues is not spinach. You shouldn't listen to it because someone told you it's good for you. You should listen to it because it moves your soul. Blues is about living and being human, and as such it is timeless and universal. Selfishly, I like to see young people enjoy the blues because that means there will continue to be places where I can go and enjoy the blues too. My doddering compatriots and I don't get out enough to support places like Rosa's all by ourselves. Last weekend I saw Melvin Taylor at Rosa's and all the streets on that side of town were filled with Mexican-Americans driving around, honking horns, and hanging out of car windows waving Mexican flags. This Saturday it was the Puerto Ricans, even at 2:00 AM as I was on my way home. Is this really necessary? I'm grateful that the city's other 150 or so different ethnic groups don't celebrate their holidays the same way. If they did, we would be in a state of perpetual and noisy gridlock. Today is Yom Kippur and I haven't seen one star of David plastered to the hood of a Chevy. Can't we save the impromptu parades for when a Chicago sports team wins a national championship? That should keep things quiet for at least the next decade. As for Slam Allen, I hope he'll be back. He has the stuff to become a major star, so next time he might be at the United Center instead of Rosa's. I hope maybe it will be both, and that someone will tip me off ahead of time so this old codger can get his usual seat at the bar

by Charles K. Cowdery

 
 

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