By Cortney Harding
NEW YORK (Billboard) - A nonprofit record label? Sounds like the punch line to a joke.
But the Blue Shoe Project, a Dallas-based nonprofit aimed at educating school kids about the blues, isn't kidding around.
Co-founder Jeff Dyson describes himself as "not really a musician or a music business person, but just a huge fan of the blues." The telecom executive says he started the Blue Shoe Project with his son Michael when he realized that blues legends were dying off, taking with them stories that would be lost if young people didn't learn about them.
In 2004, the Dysons produced a concert in Dallas featuring acclaimed Mississippi Delta bluesmen Pinetop Perkins, Henry James Townsend, David "Honeyboy" Edwards and Robert Lockwood Jr.
The event, the first that father and son had ever produced, came with a catch: The audience was limited to local college students, who were required to write an essay on the history of the blues in order to gain admission. In addition to performing their songs, the musicians took questions from the audience and told the stories behind their songs.
The Dysons arranged for the concert to be filmed and recorded, thinking it would make a valuable historical document. After incorporating the Blue Shoe Project as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the Dysons made CDs of the concert and sold them online to raise money. One of the album's producers passed along copies of "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas" to some friends who were members of the Recording Academy. The album went on to win a 2007 Grammy Award for best traditional blues album.
Thus far, the Grammy win has yet to translate into sales -- the album has sold fewer than 1,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But the Dysons say the album reached stores only recently, through Burnside Distribution.
"Having a record label hasn't been our priority," Jeff Dyson says. But if they can find funding, they'd like to prepare more releases.
DVD IN THE WORKS
"We're getting to the point where we have enough material for a small catalog," Michael says, noting that he and his father are working on a DVD of the Grammy-winning concert, which they hope to release by September. "We also staged and recorded another concert in 2006, and we would like to release that as a CD and a film."
Since the first concert, the Dysons have started two educational programs that travel around schools in Texas, aiming to teach kids about the history and relevance of the blues.
"We go in and use references that are meaningful to their lives," Jeff says. "We ask kids if they know who Lil Jon is, and of course they all cheer, and then we compare him to a session player who was a really in-demand guest musician on a lot of blues records. Or we talk about Henry Townsend, who makes up all his lyrics as he performs, and how he's the grandfather of freestyling."
The Dysons also use the programs to teach kids another valuable and timely lesson -- that they should pay for their music. "We're a nonprofit, but we still pay all the artists their full fees," Jeff says. "Young people have to know that artists should be compensated for their work and that music is not free."
Of all the Blue Shoe Project's endeavors, releasing "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen" has provided the greatest satisfaction, Michael Dyson says.
"It captured the essence of the concert in such a great way," he says. "When I look at all the albums I have in my collection, you kind of take for granted that you'll always be able to hear more records by those artists, but they're getting older. We need to make sure as many people as possible hear them before it's too late."
Reuters/Billboard
