Music Scenes Local, Translocal, and Virtual

Edited byAndyBennett and Richard A. Peterson

Vanderbilt University Press NASHVILLE 1

The Symbolic Economy of Authenticity in the Chicago Blues Scene

DavidGrazian

During the first halfof the twentieth century, Chicago blues music helped to define a certain kind of urban life for local blacks seeking refuge and entertainment in the South Side and West Side neighborhoods where they worked and resided. But during the 1960s, blues music would develop as a viable moneymaker in a handful of the city's white neighborhoods as well. In the 1960s, the emergence of the folk music revival brought many of Chicago'sbluesmen to pseudobohemian pubs and countercultural clubs in gentrifying neighborhood areas such as Lincoln Park. Bythe mid-1980s, the patronage of these clubs gaveway to a flood of suburbanites and tourists in search of the globally diffused cultural images made popular not only by internationally successful blues legends like Muddy Waters and Junior Wells, but also by blues-rock icons such as Eric Clapton and the Allman Brothers, and Hollywood motion pictures like TheBlues Brothers. In recent years, the commodification of the city's local blues scene has exploded into a full-blown tourism industry, and the blues music once made popular by classic standards such as Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" can be heard throughout the week in more than fifty venues located not just in predominantly black neighborhoods, but in all areas of the city: South Side, North Side, West Side, and the downtown area, known locally as the Loop.

31 32 Local Scenes Authenticity in Chicago Blues Scene 33

Urban entertainment zones are dense commercial areas of the city that feature a concentration of businesses oriented toward particular kinds of leisure activities,such as dining and dancing. From Bronzevilleto the Loop, entertainment zones have always served as anchors for Chicago's blues clubs (Reckless1933). In part, these clubs rely on the reputation and draw­ ing power of their entertainment zones to attract patrons with specifickinds of consumer tastes. Downtown clubs attempt to draw affluent tourists and business travelers; established clubs in neighborhoods that surround the downtown hub attract a mix of tourists and city residents; off-the-beaten­ path venues draw on an exclusivepatronage of Chicago residents; and small local bars serve regulars who reside on neighboring streets. Byestablishing niche-based commercial districts that consist of businesses that offer simi­ lar kinds of social and aesthetic experiences, local entrepreneurs transform urban neighborhoods into nocturnal playgrounds ripe for specific kinds of cultural consumption. However, to fully comprehend how cultural commerce operates in the city, one must also understand how consumers themselves invest en­ tertainment zones and other spaces in the city with personal significance and import. Urban dwellers adopt neighborhood terrains for themselves by reconstructing their spatial identities and reputations through active strategies of consumption. In the case of the Chicago blues scene, tourists and residents alike evaluate local clubs according to the reputations and images which their entertainment zones evoke vis-a-vis other areas of the city,and organize their consumption accordingly. Because consumers fre­ quently grow anxious and skeptical about the intense commercialization of tourist-oriented clubs, they often seek out what they perceive to be the "authenticity" found in venues in neighborhoods outside the city's central entertainment district, and they value those clubs over their downtown counterparts. The search for authenticity in the urban milieu presents a fascinating example of the social production of collective meaning and myth. In spite of the importance placed on authenticity by cultural consumers in the postmodern era, sociologists and historians serve us well by reminding us that authenticity itself represents little more than a "fabrication" and "in­ vention" (MacCannell1976; Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983; Peterson 1997). Like similarly loaded terms such as "community:' "authenticity" is not so much an objective quality that exists in time and space as it is a shared be­ Photo by Joe Carey lief about the nature of the places and moments most valued in any given social context. Likewise, since authenticity is as subjective as any other 34 Local Scenes Authenticity in Chicago Blues Scene 35 social value, it follows that different kinds of audiences measure authen­ Studying the Chicago Blues Scene ticity according to somewhat divergent sets of criteria, and therefore find I first discovered the world of the Chicago blues for myself during my first it in somewhat remote types of cultural experiences (see Cohen 1988).As year of graduate school as a student at the University of Chicago. In a way, authenticity, like beauty, can truly exist only in the eye of the beholder, the the city'sblues clubs represented a place where I could take a break from the search for authenticity is rarely a quest for some actual material thing, but world of sociology, free from the rigorous demands of the academic world rather for what consumers in a particular social milieu imagine the sym­ and the drabness of the university library. But despite my best efforts, over bols of authenticity to be. time I discovered that the Chicago blues scene provided an ideal laboratory Along these lines, participants in Chicago's blues subculture invest in for analyzing cultural processes in the urban milieu, at least in comparison a network of signs and spaces that one could call a symboliceconomy of to the sterile and bookish environment of the university. Consequently, I authenticity, in which various interpretative communities evaluate local began conducting intensive ethnographic fieldwork at a local North Side music scenes according to multiple definitions of authenticity. According blues bar, appropriately (if unimaginatively) named B.L.U.E.S. That activ­ to many consumers, clubs located in transitional entertainment zones with ity transformed the world of the blues club from my space ofleisure into a romantic and storied reputations seem less commercialized and thus more research site for social inquiry. special than those in the downtown area. Since local tastemakers organize On multiple evenings during the week, I would arrive at the club shortly the city's blues clubs and their entertainment zones along a sliding scale after its house band began its first set, order a beer, and strike up open­ of authenticity from the most seemingly "mainstream" to those they con­ ended barroom conversations with musicians, bartenders, tourists, bar sider the most authentic and hip, tourists begin their search by patronizing regulars, and club owners, during which I would ask them about their clubs located downtown and work their way toward the outer limits of the tastes in music, expectations of the club, and reflections on the contem­ city center until they reach what they imagine to be a satisfactory level of porary Chicago blues scene. At the same time, I would document the club authenticity. surroundings, with special attention to the onstage performances of the This sliding scale of authenticity not only represents how musicians, entertainers. After a certain point in the research, I began playing the alto consumers, and cultural critics manufacture authenticity through their saxophone at a number of jam sessions at various nearby clubs, and that reliance on stereotypes and urban myths, but also demonstrates how they participant-observatory fieldwork offered me the opportunity to observe rankvenues and their locales in relation to one another according to those the world of the blues club from the point of view of its stage musicians. subjective measures. For example, spatially marginalized entertainment dis­ At a certain point, I realized that my emphasis on B.L.U.E.S., while tricts in transitional areas may depend on socially peripheral yet romantic providing me with an increasingly familiar space in which to conduct my identities for their survival by serving as ideological counterpoints to more research, could hinder my ability to accurately depict the variation among centrally located and less risque nocturnal zones. Likewise, just as work­ blues clubs in other regions of the city. To supplement my ethnographic ing-class subcultural scenes frequently establish reputations based on what study of this venue, I conducted additional observations in thirty-six blues­ consumers imagine to be a heightened sense of exoticism and authenticity, oriented bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and cafes in an ethnically diverse late-night revelers frequently seek out these dramatic spaces of entertain­ range of neighborhoods and entert~inment zones throughout the city. ment in the hopes of increasing their own nocturnal status as consumers. This expansion of the study brought me to places like the Checkerboard In the case of Chicago blues music, consumers draw on highly elaborated Lounge, a well-worn tavern in Bronzeville, one of the city's historic black images oflocal place and racial difference when comparing local clubs in districts, as well as a series of downtown tourist attractions such as Blue terms of their alleged authenticity, and direct their consumption on the Chicago, Buddy Guy's Legends, and the House of Blues. By extending my basis of those stereotypes. research to these clubs, I intended to compare and contrast how audiences and participants experienced their different environments, and where they located these clubs within their own mental maps of the city's entertain- 36 Local Scenes Authenticity in Chicago Blues Scene ment landscape. (For a further elaboration of my methodological approach, a cigarette dangling from his mouth and a bottle at his side. In its efforts see Grazian 2003.) to market culture and place, the club sells T-shirts displaying images like I rely on the ethnographic research in this chapter to explore how cul­ these for eighteen dollars each, along with a special soundtrack collection tural producers and consumers in different spatial contexts within Chicago of compact discs produced by the club. generate myths of authenticity through appropriating and exploiting sym­ As for the music itself, downtown clubs rotate the same blues bands bols of black culture and urban space. Specifically,I compare the reputa­ for their nightly bookings, and so while the music often seems fresh to tions of blues clubs located in three entertainment zones: the downtown weekend visitors, it grows somewhat predictable for regular customers. The area surrounding the Loop, the affluent North Side neighborhood of Lin­ repertoires of these local Chicago bands typically include well-known blues coln Park, and the black working-class neighborhood of Grand Boulevard standards, as well as rhythm-and-blues and pop hits; local favorites such on the city's SouthSide. At clubs ranging from RL.U.E.S. to the Checker­ as the aforementioned "Sweet Home Chicago;' Muddy Waters's "I'm Your board Lounge, observations and barroom conversations reveal how par­ Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Got My Mojo Working;' R B. King's "The ticipants rely on stereotypical images of authenticity when comparing local Thrill Is Gone" and "Every Day I Have the Blues;' Albert King's "Crosscut clubs and their entertainment zones along a sliding scale of urban authen­ Saw;'and the perennial favorite "Call It Stormy Monday" draw enthusiastic ticity, and draw on such definitions of place when consuming blues music applause from audience members, who lip-synch and play air guitar to the in these areas. music, bouncing on their barstools all the while. Among these songs, the most popular are those that encourage audience involvement through singing along, dancing, or trading off lyrics with the Downtown Blues band, such as Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" and Sam and Dave's "Soul The bright lights of downtown Chicago draw tourists into a world of con­ Man:' When performed at RL.U.E.S., these songs energize nightclubbers, sumption, where theme-park restaurants and crowd-pleasing entertain­ who rush the dance floor and growl aloud to their dates, "Ride, Sally, ride!" ment meccas like Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Cafe (see Sorkin and ''I'm a soul man!" Since many ofthese songs have been popularized by 1992; Hannigan 1998) have transformed a once homegrown commercial pop stars with broad crossover appeal, including, not coincidentally, the zone into a playground of brand-name kitsch. This commodified milieu BluesBrothers, they tend to be much more familiar to a mass audience than envelops the city's downtown blues clubs, which, like their nearby coun­ lesser-known hits by more traditional blues recording artists like Junior terparts, rely on themed images, logos, and catchy menu selections to at­ Wellsor Howlin' Wolf.In fact, a rather wide range of pop songs, particularly tract tourists into their nonthreatening environments. As just one example, those by black artists, finds its way into the set lists of local blues perform­ Joe's Be-Bop Cafe and Jazz Emporium hosts vacationers who enjoy blues ers at the club, including Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay:' piano and jazz combo sets over Duke Ellington Baby Back Ribs with Joe's Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode;' Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry:' and Sideman Be-Bop BBQ Sauce, Blow Hard Garlic Bread, and Banana Lama James Brown's "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine):' Ding Dong Smoothies. Perhaps not surprisingly, blues players tire of performing these same Elsewhere, local blues performers exploit their celebrity to market tour­ songs week after week. According to Philip, a local guitarist: ist-oriented clubs, ranging from the popular Buddy Guy's Legends to the recently revived Koko Taylor's Celebrity. Meanwhile, in the sleek atmo­ We usually play the same songs.... You know, we add a new one every sphere of Blue Chicago, affluent international tourists from Germany and three or four months, and we don't have a set order or anything. But Italy sip cocktails while listening to local characters like Eddy "the Chief" yeah, we mostly play the same songs, and man, I get so tired of playing Clearwater sing the blues. Posters and framed photographs cover the walls, them, you know, like "Got My Mojo Working:' "Sweet Home Chicago:' along with paintings that feature black caricatures of shouting blueswomen and let's see, urn, "Crosscut Saw:' ... But, you know, we have to play them, because they're the songs that people know and they want to hear. and carnivalesque scenes of southern juke joints. On the outside of the club, I'm so sick of playing those songs. a large mural depicts a black blues guitarist who plays his instrument with Authenticity in ChicagoBlues Scene 39 38 Local Scenes

Finally, it is significant to note that audiences not only demand to hear suggest the romanticized allure of the so-called underground city, rather these standards performed early and often, but also expect that they will than the more traditional renderings ofmetropolitan sophistication, many be played by black musicians, as authenticity in the Chicago blues scene contemporary consumers fashion themselves as urban pioneers involved is almost always evaluated in accordance with coarse racial stereotypes of in a constant project of cultural colonization as they venture through en­ black culture. Elliot, a white singer and guitarist who performs in several tertainment zones as imagined frontiers ofthe city (Smith 1996). For these downtown clubs, explains: tourists, clubs in neighborhoods outside the city center seem attractive be­ cause they are thought to offer a more authentic Chicago experience than It'sbecausewhite audiencesand ownersare ignorant. Theownersknow more theme-oriented entertainments indicative of the downtown area, that tourists willask at the door, "Well, is the band playingtonight a such as the House ofBlues. blackband, or is it a white band?" Because the tourists only want to hear For some cultural consumers, this turn to a postmodern brand ofslum­ blackbands, becausethey want to see an authentic Chicagobluesband, ming involves a search for the prototypical urban communityas a symbolic and they think a blackband is more real, more authentic.When they space ofauthenticity. Tourists often measure a club's authenticity accord­ come to Chicago, it'slike they want to go to the Disneylandof the blues. ing to its ability to project a sense ofintimacy, imagined or otherwise. For You know,it'slikethis: Peoplewant German cars, Frenchchefs,and, example, global travelers evaluate clubs favorably by envisioning tourist well, they want their bluesmenblack.It'sa designerlabel. attractions as unassuming and anticommercial nightspots where locals regularly fraternize, instead of tourists like themselves. By internalizing The consequences of this audience demand are startling, according to myths that celebrate these clubs as bastions ofcommunity and social soli­ Shawn, a black bass player: darity in contrast to the asphalt jungle ofthe city at large, these "anti -tour­ ists" (see MacCannell 1976) take pleasure in locating and experiencing I'vealways been treated okay, but a lot of times the ownerswilltry to what they imagine to be islands of authenticity in a sea of urban anomie break up your band if you havetoo many white guys. Like, if a band has and commodified culture. three blackguys,the ownerssometimeslet them havetwo white guys, B.L.UE.S., a club located just outside the downtown area in the afflu­ but a lot of times they'll saythere'stoo many whiteguyson the stage, because,well, you know,the bluesis supposed to be the music of blacks, ent North Side neighborhood of Lincoln Park, serves such a purpose for and they're doing it for the tourists, and it'sall about business. many of its patrons. On weekends, a well-heeled crowd of tourists, busi­ But if you can playthe blues,it doesn'tmatter who you are-anyone ness travelers, and international exchange students crams inside the club's can playthe blues.It doesn'ttake a certain kind of person to playthe long, narrow interior under the glow of yellow lamps and a haze of cigarette blues.... Everybodygetsthe blues,right?So,either you can playthe smoke. The intimate and modest decor ofthe club, exemplified by its worn bluesor you can't,and it doesn't matter if you'rewhite or blackor bar stools and cheap plaster walls, accentuates the kind ofrun-down envi­ whatever.... But the owners,they'll try to break up your band if you've ronment that symbolizes authenticity to consumers of the Chicago blues got too many whites. scene. Suchi, a tourist from Iowa, explains her appreciation of B.L.UE.S.: "It'ssmaller here, and it's cozy, you know, people seem to know each other, Urban Authenticity and the Sliding Scale it'sless touristy:' Lisa, a seasoned visitor from California, favors peripheral clubs like B.L.UE.S. over larger downtown clubs like Blue Chicago, and But while many tourists in Chicago accept such racial stereotypes as given, characterizes them as informal havens indicative ofthe iconic urban com­ one should not downplay the role which additional definitions ofauthen­ munity in contradistinction to the sprawl ofLos Angeles nightlife: ticity play in structuring their experiences of consumption in local blues bars. For example, many consumers patronize clubs outside the central I go to clubsto hear music all the time in L.A., and especially in commercial district because they imagine that such places provide a height­ Hollywood, ... but there'sreallynothing like this out there.... I mean, ened sense of the authentic. In their quest to consume urban spaces that 40 Local Scenes Authenticity in Chicago Blues Scene 41

out in L.A.all the clubs are so huge.... There'sjust nothing like this, you Back in those days, B.L.U.E.S. just had more authentic bands, you know, know? This place is just smaller and has a real neighborhood feel to it, guys who were really big in the '50s would play there, like Sunnyland ... and after going to Blue Chicago, this place seems much cooler, much Slim,Smokey Smothers, BigWalter Horton, Floyd Jones, BigLeon, more homey. and I just remember the music was really great. ... Of course, the audience was basicallywhite, because it was a North Side club, but for Likewise, Maria, a student from Barcelona on a ten-day tour ofChicago, some reason, the crowds never seemed as shallow or loudish as they do explains her touring group's decision to attend B.L.UE.S.: today.... Then one day,I came to this realization that these audiences at these Maria: Well,today we saw Les Miserables ... it was really wonderful, ... clubs had changed, they were really shallow now; it had become a and we wanted to go someplace typical for Chicago, so we wanted kind of culture for fraternity guys and tourists At B.L.U.E.S., they to hear blues and jazz, and somebody told us this would be a good had become much more concerned with maintaining a glossy image.... place. First we went to the House of Blues,... you know the House Like one night, I remember we found Good Rockin' Charles a few of Blues?But we left, because it was too big and, you know, for blocks awayfrom the club, and he was really drunk and had hit his head tourists, so we came here, and it's much better, it's smaller and more and was just bleeding everywhere, and we realized that we had to get personal. ... Do people from Chicago come here a lot? him inside and we wanted to call an ambulance, and so we thought we David: Yes. could bring him into B.L.U.E.S. and take him into the back room, and Maria: Oh, good! The House of Blueswas just so big, and we wanted a the bouncer knew us, and he gave us a really hard time and he almost place that was small and more, urn, typical, ah, more, um­ didn't let us in, and it was just terrible, because Charlie'shead was really David: Real? bleeding badly, and the bouncer just stood there arguing with us, and Maria: Ah, yes!Real!That's it! after that he finallylet us in.

For an international tourist such as Maria, B.L.UE.S. provides a means While North Side bars like B.L.UE.S. appeal to tourists and many lo­ ofexperiencing the authenticity suggested by local neighborhood life, and cals, musicians like Darryl find even these clubs too commercialized and thus she romanticizes the "personal" aura of B.L.UE.S. by imagining that inauthentic for their taste. According to Jack, another musician: "real" Chicagoans take their pleasures there. Meanwhile, the House of Well,back then the audience was a lot older. I mean, there were hardly Blues disappoints Maria because she finds that its self-conscious hubris any kids at all; most of the crowd was in their midthirties and older, and in tourist-ridden downtown Chicago contradicts the subaltern, populist there were some seniors here too, and a lot of old hippie types. They meanings she attributes to urban blues music. She envisions B.L.UE.S. to were people who were really acquainted with the music; ... on any be an authentic blues club and neighborhood bar, set miles away from the given night, you could imagine overhearing a thorough discussion in centrality of downtown. Likewise, Hiroshi, a blues fan from Japan, revels the back about the styles of Blind Lemon Jeffersonor Sunnyland Slim, in the intimacy he attaches to B.L.UE.S as he carefully remarks: "I like this because these people knew all about the traditions of the music. Today, club very much.... Some places, they are too big. But here, it is small, and the audiences don't know anything about blues; ... if you mentioned the music and the people and the beer are all together:' He clasps his hands Sunnyland Slim, they might think it was a drink or something. to express this intimacy and adds: "And when the musicians come off the stage, they are right here, and you can talk to them:' Longtime regulars at clubs like B.L.UE.S. frequently echo the same In contradistinction to the enthusiasm ofmany tourists, local regulars concerns. During a Tuesday night show at B.L.UE.S., Sean, a former regu­ and musicians often evaluate the club differently. For example, Darryl, a lar, suggests how the experience ofattending the club has changed for him harmonica player, suggests how the club's popularity among tourists has over the past decade: dampened his impression ofits communal atmosphere in the 1970s: 42 Local Scenes Authenticityin ChicagoBlues Scene 43

I'vebeen cominghere for, well, twelve yearsnow, yeah,since1987.... seek to avoid the intensified commercialism and popularity suggested by Backthen the crowdwasreallyinto it, and nowthe audience seems more upscale North Side establishments. As a result, Chicago's most racially like,I don't know, it'smore for "the masses:' Likenow, the bluesis segregated and impoverished areas have been transformed into commodi­ more "chic;' and comingout to hear bluesis more the "thingto do:' For fied tourist attractions. For example, the Checkerboard Lounge attracts a them, it'sjust about goingout for "blues;'insteadof goingto hear one sizable pool of white consumers, largely made up of business travelers and particular artist,whileback then the audience reallyknewabout the music,and the namesofpeopletheywantedto see,and it wasmore graduate students. In their search for the rugged authenticity which they authentic. associate with images of urban poverty, these patrons derive satisfaction from the grittiness of the Checkerboard's cheaply fashioned interior-its And so, even as tourists like Lisa, Maria, and Hiroshi enthusiastically ripped orange booths, tables lined with contact paper, walls covered with praise B.L.UE.S.for its intimate atmosphere, musicians and former regulars tinsel strips and posters of gowned black women, and bathroom floors tiled frequently denounce such clubs for their lackof authenticity. with flattened cardboard boxes. In comparing the Checkerboard to a local jazz club known for its elegant interior, Rajiv, a conventioneer, explains, '''The Green Mill was very polished; I like this place a lot more-especially Selling the Urban Ghetto as a Tourist J'ttraction the decor:' In the 1950s, Chicago's black residents and southern migrants patronized Liketravelers in search of authenticity in other cultural contexts, many countless blues clubs spread throughout the South and West Sides of the visiting patrons find the Checkerboard attractive because they imagine it city. But as the number of tourist-oriented clubs like B.L.UE.S. and Blue to be an authentic space untainted by voyeuristic audiences such as them­ Chicago proliferated in North Side areas of Chicago during the 1970s and selves. They reveal this bias in their offhand remarks at the club. On a win­ 1980s, the city's black neighborhoods witnessed a steep decline in their try Saturday night, I escorted a white professionalcouple from the suburbs ability to maintain operational and successful blues bars. During the past to the Checkerboard. As our waitress wrote down our drink order on a nap­ thirty years, several black community areas where blues clubs had once kin,the gentleman turned to me to ask: "So,would you call this club more thrived, including Grand Boulevard, Englewood, and Washington Park, authentic? Is the music more authentic?" Meanwhile, his partner peered have suffered drastic increases in concentrated unemployment, poverty, . across the bar with an unsatisfied expression on her face, disappointed by depopulation, and community instability (Wilson 1987, 1996; Wacquant the number of whites at the club; they included a spirited pack of middle­ and Wilson 1989; Massey and Denton 1993; also see Chicago Fact Book aged men from New York and a gaggle of college-age drunks bounding Consortium 1995). !"-S these neighborhoods fellinto decline, and North Side across the length of dance floor. and downtown clubs began competing for the attention of local talent and As a result of its emergent popularity among affluent audiences, the affluent audiences, it became increasingly difficult for their blues taverns Checkerboard does its best to pander to its mostly white customers by pro­ to remain in operation; today, many of these clubs face severe difficulties viding racially and sexually charged entertainment within its dete,riorating attracting enough customers to support even the occasional booking of a alls, Local black acts playfully tease their female audience members with band. For instance, while the Cuddle Inn remains open to serve whisky and . nuendo rife with hypermasculine bravado, explicit allusions to oral sex, cheap beer to a dwindling group of local residents, its deteriorating walls, d X-rated versions ofotherwise innocuous songs such as "Hold On, I'm lack oflive entertainment, and large supply of empty barstools on weekend omin' " and "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes:' nights testify to the decline of a once prosperous blues culture. eanwhile, before his recent death, a popular local character dubbed the However, in a strange twist of fate, this decline has increased the value lack Lone Ranger" strolled around the club selling home-recorded tapes that audiences place on the urban authenticity suggested by the few remain- . t featured his renditions of blues standards such as ''I'm a Man;' and in- ing blues clubs in the city's black ghetto neighborhoods, since such clubs ted customers to pay to have their Polaroid photograph taken with him are thought to represent a more genuine alternative for consumers who his contemporary minstrel regalia, complete with white ten-gallon hat d black mask. 44 Local Scenes Authenticity in Chicago Blues Scene 45

At the same time, since the 1960s, local journalists and other cultural tavern than just the quality of the music. For one, the natural ambiance of critics in Chicago have drawn on the popularity of these South Side blues the crowds adds a dimension to the blues experience that's missing in more taverns by evoking traditional racial stereotypes to depict these clubs as formal settings" (1975, 31). decidedly more authentic than their downtown counterparts. Illustrating a Meanwhile, many local critics and promoters draw on the anxious fears long-standing stereotype, in Chicago: An Extraordinary Guide, author lory and fantasies of white audiences by exoticizing the city's black regions as Graham celebrates the history of the black migration to Chicago's ghettos, romantically dangerous places, thereby heightening the "thrill" of entering where the blues articulate "hard, driving sounds of inner-city pressures;' by racially segregated neighborhoods and their "natural ambiance:' For ex­ arguing that this tradition continues in surviving clubs on the contempo­ ample, one guidebook wholeheartedly promotes evening trips to the South rary South Side, where "soul-the raw emotion, the pain of being black-is Side on the basis of its urban authenticity and perceived risks: "The neigh­ not withheld:' Graham continues by relying on an essentialist portrait of borhood bars tend to be more modest, of course, and often more rough and blackness to promote her vision of authenticity: "Since 'souris the one in­ tumble" (Banes 1974, 69). The book adds that "getting there, and staying alienable possession of the Negro, the one thing whites may comprehend. in one piece once you've gotten there, is often halfthe fun;' animating the but never possess, it's perfectly natural that the places to hear the blues fantasies and fears held by middle- and upper-class whites and blacks alike nightly are in the Negro ghettos of the city" (1967,85). regarding the "risk" of entering the city's racially segregated neighborhoods. Like Graham, LivingBlues magazine editor and local critic Jim O'Neal Rather than encouraging potential consumers to put such misgivings aside, relies on folk-based characterizations of race to promote the relative au­ these narratives feed on their anxieties about race and crime to depict an thenticity of the city's black neighborhoods in his Chicago Readerreview evening in a South Side blues bar as an authentic experience exactly because of the city's blues clubs: such an outing might seem intimidating to newcomers. In this manner, Chicago'sblack ghetto itself has emerged as an authenticated tourist attrac­ Really, nothing can comparewith a night of bluesin a realbluesclub. tion by offering the promise of urban danger as well as "bluesier" cultural Theatmosphere,the crowd,the waythe band sounds, everythingis experiences to responsive audiences. just-bluesier. At most South and WestSideblueslounges, the door charge(ifthere is one) is $1.00; I.D:s are checkedirregularly. Beeris usually7S¢ a bottle. BigDuke's two clubs, Pepper's and othersserve Discussion ribs, chicken,and other soul food from their own kitchensas well. The As in other popular music scenes, participants in the world of the Chicago accommodations aren'tdeluxe, and the washroomsmaybe smelly, but blues consume culture as a kind of focused activity in which shared mean­ it doesn'tmatter.... Thedancing,drinking, talkingand laughingof the ings are collectively imagined and diffused within a specific spatial context. crowdsmaybe loud in comparisonto the polite attention and applause the artists receive on the North Side, but the.. musicis loud too. And But perhaps more important, they demonstrate how popular-music scenes funky. (1973,29) attract participants of differing tastes and dispositions. While authenticity may represent a common goal among consumers in search of its cultural O'Neal privileges the experience of visiting a "real" South Side or West power, in reality different kinds of audiences approach the issue of au­ Side blues club for its "soul food;' cheap beer, "funky" music, and "bluesier" thenticity with varying degrees of intensity and focus, and they sometimes authenticity. Indeed, although he claims otherwise, that at such clubs the rely on contradictory sets of criteria when evaluating a particular place or "accommodations aren't deluxe, and the washrooms may be smelly" does performance. The search for authenticity is an exercise in symbolic pro­ matter to North Siders who regard such things as true markers of authen­ duction in which participants frequently disagree on what specific kinds of ticity. O'Neal's consequent reviews for the Readerrely on similar racially symbols connote or suggest authenticity, and even those who agree on the charged rhetoric, which describes the authenticity of black audiences as symbols themselves may share different views on how they might manifest well as musicians: "There are more reasons for hearing blues in a black themselves in the world. The case of the Chicago blues also suggests how global and local cul- 46 Local Scenes Authenticity in Chicago Blues Scene 47 tures might interact with one another in the urban milieu. From records References to film, the international dissemination of authentic images of the "lo­ Banes, Sally.1974.SweetHome Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. cal"-the elderly black songster, the smoke-filled neighborhood blues bar, Chicago Fact Book Consortium. 1995.LocalCommunity FactBook: Chicago Met­ the sounds of the city's black ghetto-help frame the expectations which ropolitan Area 1990. Chicago: Academy Chicago. "global" tourists and travelers maintain concerning the look and feel of Cohen, Erik. 1988. "Authenticity and Commoditization in Tourism:' Annals of the Chicago blues scene. But at the same time, club owners, musicians, Tourism Research 15:371-86. and other cultural producers rely on those expectations as a guide for Graham, Jory. 1967. Chicago: An ExtraordinaryGuide. Chicago: Rand McNally. Grazian, David. 2003. Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues manufacturing authenticity within local clubs. Insofar as Chicago blues Clubs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. clubs represent a local response to a globally diffused set of criteria for the Hannigan, John. 1998.Fantasy City: Pleasure and Profitin thePostmodern Metropo­ evaluation of authenticity, it is ironic that consumers identify the presence lis. London: Routledge. of those signifiers as evidence of local authenticity. Ofcourse, this process Hobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, eds.1983. TheInvention of Tradition. Cam­ of cultural transmission and exchange is not really unusual at all, given that bridge: Cambridge University Press. the authenticity of tourist attractions, national monuments, and regional Kleinfeld, N. R. 2001."Guarding the Borders of the Hip-Hop Nation:' In HowRace entertainmentsis often contrived, or "staged" (MacCannell1976), to meet Is Livedin America:PullingTogether, PullingApart. New York: Times Books. the expectations of outsiders. MacCannell, Dean. 1976.TheTourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: In fact, it is telling that the interaction between local subcultures and Schocken Books. Massey,Douglas S., and Nancy A. Denton. 1993.AmericanApartheid:Segregation the commodification of global culture in this context produces a sym­ and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. bolic economy of authenticity, because this process seems indicative of a McLeod, Kembrew.1999. "Authentidtywithin Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threat- larger set of dynamics that operates in many other types of entertainment ened with Assimilation:' Journal of Communication 49: 134-50. landscapes and urban art worlds. For instance, the desire to experience O'Neal, Jim. 1973."Reader's Guide to Blues:' Chicago Reader, 28 September, 29. authenticity in a postmodern world increases the popularity not only of ___. 1975."Reader's Guide to Blues:' Chicago Reader, 26 September, 31, 33. the blues, but also of other forms of black music. As is true for the blues, Peterson, Richard A. 1997. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. Chi- the popularity of hip-hop music, fashion, and style encourages musicians cago: University of Chicago Press. Reckless, Walter C. 1933.Vicein Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. and other cultural producers to cater to the expectations of an increasingly Smith, Neil. 1996. TheNew Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the RevanchistCity. internationalized audience in local scenes, as well as in more virtual arenas London: Routledge. of mass culture, such as MTY.Perhaps ironically,this heightened popularity Sorkin, Michael, ed. 1992.Variations on a ThemePark: TheNew American City and drives consumers to search even more vigilantly for signs of authenticity the End of PublicSpace. New York: Hill and Wang. untainted by the blemishes of commercialism. Indeed, the desire to "keep it Wacquant, Loic J. D., and William Julius Wilson. 1989. "Poverty, Joblessness, and real" in hip-hop (Kleinfield 2001; McLeod 1999)hardly seems very different the Social Transformation of the Inner City:' In Phoebe H. Cottingham and from the hunt for authenticity in the Chicago blues scene; in both cases, it David T. Ellwood, eds., Welfare Policyfor the 1990s. Cambridge: Harvard appears unlikely that such a quest could ever come to a satisfying resolu­ University Press. Wilson, William Julius. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of tion, insofar as the search for authenticity in the world of popular culture Chicago Press. may always seem just over the next horizon but is never truly within reach. ___. 1996. When Work Disappears. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. And so, in the end, it may make more sense to think about this search for authenticity in the Chicago blues as best represented not merely as a sliding scale, but as an onion whose paper-thin layers can be forever peeled away, always masking the hollow and empty core that resides at its center.