a call to Live Looping Artists everywhere

["Rick Walker (Loop.pooL)" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>]

Dear Delightful Loopers (thanks Kim!),

  I am happy to announce that Laurence Bedford (owner of the beautiful, 
huge
old movie theater, the RIO THEATRE in Santa Cruz) and I have struck a deal
to produce an ongoing LOOPING FESTIVAL (probably once a month) in this next
year.    The festivals will be free to the public and the performers will
donate their time and performances as well (just like the SOLO BASS LOOPING
FESTIVAL which commences this coming Tuesday, January 23rd with Steve 
Lawson
from the United Kingdom headlining.

      I am very excited about this!!!   Our small community (50,000 people
or so) actually has
8 solo looping artists (including long time Loopers Delight contributor,
Miko B!) that I am aware of and there are a handful of artists from the Bay
Area as well (Scott Kungha Drengsen will be playing our bass fest and the
inimitable Matt Davignon of CT-Collective fame) that I'd love to showcase.

    I would also like to throw it out there to solo loopers (or groups that
are primarily based around looping as opposed to a group that has one 
person
who loops occasionally) outside of the
greater Bay Areas (Monterey and San Francisco) who know that they will be
traveling through the
area to please contact me ahead of time and see if we can put together a
showcase for you.

    The whole Solo Bass Looping Festival arose because Steve Lawson
contacted me, letting me know that he would be in the area and wanting to
know if I wanted to do a show with him (who wouldn't :-).   The response
form people, the press and radio has been really envigorating.
What started out as a gig has now mushroomed into a larger event (and,
depending on continued interest, possibly a yearly occurence)

    I've thought long and hard about the vicissitudes of promoting this
emerging art form:  hearing back from people that only 15-50 people were
coming to there respective local looping shows.
As with most emerging art forms and underground musical and artistic
movements there really is no money to be made so bars, nightclubs and
promoters tend to steer cleer of us.  This can be pretty discouraging and 
it
can all seem so futile after a while.

      What comes to mind is an interview I read with one of the early
rockabilly musicians from Texas a few years ago (I wish I could remember 
his
name but I cannot).   He said, and I paraphrase wildly,

    "These young musicians, nowadays, don't seem to be very committed to
their music.  If they don't make a certain amount of money, then they don't
want to get their guitars out of their cases.   When we were first 
starting,
we felt that we were on a mission to take this music (rockabilly) to the
people. We would pile into our station wagon and set out across Texas
looking for places to play. We would go up to a local Piggly Wiggly Market
and ask the manager if we could play up on their roof for free.   We would
play anywhere and as often as possible for anyone."

    This small interview was so inspiring to me and I realize that I got
into music because
it was so exciting.   Unlike some people,  I never did it to meet girls or
be famous or make money.   The music was the most important thing and I
wanted to play anywhere and as often as possible.   I actually was lucky
(and really naive) because I learned my instrument in the public eye-even 
if
it was a crappy drunken frat kegger at San Jose State ;-)

    Anyway, I just wanted to exhort people to get out there and start doing
it for free..........
ANYWHERE.    You'd be suprised how many little coffee shops and bars are
struggling and would love it if you brought 10-20 people to their
establishment as long as it doesn't cost them.
You'd be suprised how ready most people are for something new and audacious
and unconventional here at the start of the Naughties.

    People forget that during the heighth of the Psychedelic era, the
average attendance at the
Fillmore Auditorium was only between 150-250 people a night.  It was always
the same 10 bands that rotated on the bill with occasional outside acts.
The energy and creativity of a movement
always proceeded the social acceptance and monetary viability of that
movement.

    Let's be obnoxious and put live looping out there as a community.   
I've
done it a lot.   Please contact me if you want any input on how to do it in
your own community.

    Thanks for tolerating my little soap box rant, fellow loopers,    
yours,
Rick Walker  (loop.pool)