Hey Phil,
I'm always awake bud. Just had a bit of tour business lately, as well as having to travel down to Birmingham for family stuff. The Spoke will re-open this weekend and I am sure the turn out will be a good one. A lot of the old hands will show up, Reese Wilson, Craig Martin, Chris Wallin, Tony Lane, I am sure several others who came through at that time, will be there.
Should be a cool two nights.
As far as going further, we'll see. The Broken Spoke is in a pretty bad section of town. One of the problems it had a long time ago, were people having their cars broken into. And with a lot of places like that, the old HALL OF FAME, BOGEY'S, etc. that were attached to hotels (The spoke was a Ramada Inn) ran into problems when the hotels decided to divest themselves of the bars or lounges. They would contract those out to other people and the income was not enough to keep them open.
Songwriters are traditionally, water and tea drinkers. And much less food. They have very little money, so it is not enough to keep a bar open. For a few years, the Spoke had a front bar, which featured a band, food, and a good deal of activity. That is where the tourists would come and stay. Now, with the onus to get people to the downtown area, (we are now New Orleans every night) not many people stick around the hotels.
And, as I said, the area is not the best. So we will see what happens. I would look to them to have two nights a week at first. We'll see if they do week nights or weekends. If It were me, I'd be pushing Monday and Tuesday nights. The overflow from the Bluebird on Monday and Douglas on Tuesday, would create a decent crowd.
The thing to remember now is that there are so many people wanting to do this, you get a lot show up, play and then leave. And they are often pretty rude while they are there. Phil I'll tell you, that the "listening room" aspect in most places are not there anymore unless someone REALLY blows people away. And some times even if that happens, a large segment of people just don't listen. They are on their phones and into themselves.
As I have said on numerous occasions, music is NO LONGER IN THE FOREFRONT OF OUR LIVES. It is in the BACKGROUND OF OUR LIVES. Music is everywhere now. And for the most part, free. People don't have to work (or pay) to get it. It is just another APP on a phone, or something that plays in the background of a bar. Most writers/artists don't command attention with their performance or songs in the first place, so why should people be that concerned with it? And of course in this day and age EVERYONE is a writer or artist also, so they would just as soon have their own music as opposed to someone else's.
So yes Phil, the Spoke will be back, at least for now. But like all places that do this, we'll have to see how long it goes. My bet is probably not too optimistic.
MAB
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