Live & Local: Annual Greeley Blues Jam

Conversation with Chris Haug:

ABI: This is the…21st year, is it?

CHRIS: 21st year. There's some question — it may be the 22nd, but I'm going with the 21st.

ABI: Alright. So, you're obviously very passionate about it. When did you start becoming involved in the Greeley blues jam scene?

CHRIS: Well, I have always been a music guy. I've ran record stores for 20 years, and I've been a DJ for 45 years. And the four people that started it were friends of mine, and I just —casually, they mentioned, “Oh, we're having a blues committee.” And I was like, “I got to be on it just because I live here, and I'm going to make sure I'm part of that stuff.” So, I wasn't there for the first year, but I've been there for every year since then.

STEVE: You said you were just on the phone with the talent buyer. When you send out folks — send out those feelers and those invitations — I'm thinking they're like, “Greeley, Colorado, huh? Blues, huh?” Are they quite sure you're calling from the right place?

CHRIS: I know, and it is funny. Greeley — yeah, we're a little north Denver and not everybody — but you know, these guys, they tour all around the country. And there is a blues fest in Idaho. Who knows where that town is. Some little town in Texas has a blues fest. They don’t know what those towns are. And nowadays, it's easy to look it up. They're like, “Oh, Greeley's north of Denver.” They don't know anything about it. And one thing we always have done in 20 years, because we are in Greeley — this is a great town, but we have a little reputation outside of our town, so we treat 'em like kings. They come in, we wine and dine them. We want every artist to leave here going, “Oh, my God, you have to go play at Greeley. They treat you really well.”

STEVE: Yeah, you get some repeat customers, too. We'll get to the headliners. I want to talk about Friday just a bit because I've been to Beale Street, man, and you have opened up the whole town. It's pretty much storefront after storefront. Music, music, music all the way down the street.

CHRIS: I do all of that myself. I love doing that. I've done that for 20 years. Our little downtown is kind of unique because have one block. You don't have to cross the major street anywhere. There's the hotels one block away. We got all the local restaurants and clubs and bars to join in, and we're like, “This one night: Friday fest. Blues band in every bar.” And everybody's like, “Yes, do it. Do it.”

ABI: So, you're the one that plans who goes where. It must be like pairing — like a food and wine pairing — kind of a situation: “What's the vibe of the band? Okay, what spot's going to really capture that?”

CHRIS: It's exactly like that. I don't know every band in the state, but I know a lot of them, and I tell every one of 'em, “We love having you, but we don't have you every year because there's 20 more bands waiting to come up here.” I rotate 'em. Everybody. I want 'em to get 'em a chance to come up to Greeley to play for everybody. You have a little solo duo here and a band there, and a little more a jazzy thing down here in the coffee shop. And it's fun. There's just every kind of blues.

ABI: So, you've been running it for like 20 years. I would love to hear some of the things you've heard from concert goers who maybe don't expect the music discovery angle, like the adventure that they get put on. “Oh, I got to catch this band. Oh, I got to catch this band.” What is some of the feedback that you've gotten around a festival like this?

CHRIS: They're all shocked at how fun. And I was like, I worked my butt off. All our committee — we have a big committee that does a lot, and people just aren't used to this kind of stuff. And I know other — Louisville, Boulder, Denver's trying to start a blues thing again. They're just not used to it being easy. Hey, you just show up. It's a fun sunny day, great music. Nobody's hammering you with anything or you just relax and have fun. The guy that originated that, that's his slogan: Ain't nothing but a part.

STEVE: Chris Haug with us from the Greeley Blues Jam Music Festival. It really is a festival — on Saturday, June 7^th, you've got an amazing lineup. I could stop on each one of these and ask a question. I mean, you've got the brass band, you got the zydeco. 60 Minutes did a thing on zydeco this past weekend.

CHRIS: Yeah, my wife and I watched that. They had Chubby Carrier on there, who we tried to get, but he was on tour. So, we got Dwight Carrier and Blackcat Zydeco,

STEVE: Jackie Venson: She's one of those artists — like, if you know, you know.

ABI: Oh my gosh, I love her.

CHRIS: That's really the secret of a blues festival. You got to have a headliner. Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite — legends in the blues world. Everybody that those blues world knows those names, but then you go down a little bit and you're like, Jackie Venson. Not everybody knows her, but when they see her, they're like, “Holy moly, that's amazing.” Eddie Nine Volt, Ben Chapman, Meg McRee coming up from Nashville. A little more Americana, kinda breaking up the day in the middle there. Yeah, and zydeco is the best way to start a festival. It's just happy, up-tempo, you know, great outside festival music.

STEVE: Well, your note says, bring your armchairs. There's a lot of butt dancing, shuffling around, people having a good time dancing with each other there at the location. Talk a little bit about the venue for the Greeley Blues Jam.

CHRIS: Well, we hold — the Friday festival is in downtown Greeley on June 6th. The main festival is on June 7th at Island Grove Regional Park, which is just north side of Greeley. We fence off a huge grass area of huge natural, shady trees, so we're not out in the sun baking all day. We have a big pavilion for our VIP sponsors. So, if you love being in the sun, standing right in front of the stage, great. If you need a break, let's sit in the shade under the trees. Like every festival: great vendors, great food, just a low-key, fun vibe as we can create. Just in case there's some weather, we have a huge event center right there. We just move it all inside.

ABI: This is part of a larger mission that you have when it comes to blues and blues traditions, keeping that alive in education and strengthening the community through that. I would love to hear a little bit more about keeping the blues alive, which is part of the Greeley Blues Jam.

CHRIS: Keeping the blues alive, it is really a thing, because, as you guys know — you're in radio — the world and the music world is very fractured. There are so many places to go and hear everything, and the blues kind of gets a little lost even though the blues kind of started all of this stuff. And I run a weekly blues jam up here in Greeley, so all our players get to play. We try and bring as many younger people in. Pretty much our base age is 40 to 70 age people. We brought in The Motet this year, more of a jam band out of Boulder, bringing in a younger crowd, changing it up a little bit. But the blues, once you hear it, you'll love it because it's just fun and it covers all kinds of things. There's a little country blues, there's Chicago blues, there's east coast, west coast blues, there's zydeco. It's just fun because there's all kinds of stuff for everybody.

STEVE: Chris, you nailed it. That's the story of the blues: something for everybody. It feels good, y'all, to just all get on out there and do it.

CHRIS: It ain't nothing but a party.