The Blues To Do Staff was greatly saddened to
hear of the passing of Paul deLay.
For the obituary from the Oregonian please click here.
CELEBRATING THE 15th
BIRTHDAY OF BLUES TO DO!
Publisher Marlee Walker featured
in
the Seattle Times!!
Marlee Walker is a
blues media diva with a microphone, newspaper, Web site and
a cable-TV show. Her Blues To Do enterprises are celebrating
a 15th anniversary as indispensable sources of blues information
around the Pacific Northwest.
Walker's skills and
experience revealed themselves last Friday night at the studios
of Seattle Community Access Network TV, a couple of blocks
off North Aurora. She was not feeling well, the studio was
cold as a cheating heart, and the evening's one-hour live show
was built around two guests. Who were late. Her volunteer production
crew was busy turning empty space into a friendly set, preparing
digital magic and making anxious calls.
Walker is a pro, a
veteran of Seattle commercial and public radio, and it showed
on a night with two ominously empty chairs. Seconds before
the 7 p.m. broadcast she slipped a coat off her shoulders,
pulled on an outfit-matching beret, looked into the camera
and started to talk about the blues. Betraying none of her
own.
Fifteen minutes in,
a call. The guests were not coming. A big scheduling oops.
Cellphoned apologies from the artists. And the rest of a show
to improvise.
Viewers enjoyed another
fine program because her weekly 60 minutes of blues TV is grounded
in Walker's deep knowledge of the music and performers. Stretch
a music video here, graciously tout those performers missing
in action, delve into the calendar of blues events, and nibble
more samples of music and digital art. The hour sailed by.
Walker's entrepreneurial
cornerstone is a detailed calendar, a compendium of shows and
featured appearances at clubs, bars, taverns and festivals.
Her Blues To Do Monthly newspaper is the place to find out
who is coming to town, where the CD-release parties are, who
is playing benefit performances and who needs to hire a bass
player, or is offering lessons. The tabloid has reviews and
other blues-focused news and commentary (see the online version
at www.bluestodo.com). The TV show is at 7 p.m. Fridays on
SCAN channel 29/77 in King County; and on channel 76 in Pierce
County at3 p.m. on Mondays and 4 p.m. Thursdays.
Walker won the prestigious
Keeping the Blues Alive award for commercial radio in 2000
from the Blues Foundation of Memphis, Tenn. KBA recognition
has returned to the Pacific Northwest. Jef Jaisun of Seattle
will be honored next month for more than 30 years of blues
photography. His work has been in magazines, on CD covers,
collected by libraries and included in award-winning books.
An iconic, prayerful shot of singer Taj Mahal was the cover
for the 30th anniversary of Living Blues magazine. His photograph
of Charmaine Neville is on the front of the current Blues To
Do Monthly.
Jaisun joins Walker
and Peter Dammann, talent coordinator of Portland's Waterfront
Blues Festival, as honorees from the rainy corner of America.
Dammann was celebrated in 2001 as blues promoter of the year.
Mention Walker's blues
periodical to Patrick MacDonald, The Seattle Times' pop-music,
and he expresses amazement at the amount of information packed
into each edition, and admiration for the fine writing in the
reviews, instantly citing a piece by Bill Engelhart of Little
Bill and the Blue Notes. No small praise coming from MacDonald,
a gifted and passionate chronicler of musical tastes for more
than three decades.
If you asked how I
would make 2007 a little bit brighter, one of the answers would
be to put Marlee Walker back behind a radio microphone hosting
a blues show again.
She is always working
to keep the blues alive, but it would be fun to have her talents
back in regular proximity of blues fans for their enjoyment
and continuing education.
Lance Dickie's column
appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail
address is ldickie@seattletimes.com
