The Chicago Roots Collective
In these tough economic times, it’s hard to find a silver lining. Local arts especially have taken a hit, and that includes venues and performers alike. The reality is that bands everywhere are struggling to find ways to convince their fans that it is well worth it to spend a few bucks on an evening of live music.
Enter The Chicago Roots Collective.
The Chicago roots Collective (CRC) is a group of ten highly motivated, independent, local bands who have defied the urge to step on the other guy to get ahead. Though their genres range from reggae to pop to Americana, the CRC has banded together to form a community of musicians. The premise is simple: by working together, each individual band and more importantly their fans, benefit.
The history of the CRC traces back to last year’s Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival, where members of the collective preformed at the Congress Theater along with The David Grisman Quintet and The Avett Brothers. Mike Raspatello, one of the founders of the festival, and current friend of the collective, explains how it all started: “It was a really exciting night for local music. We had independently thrown this festival, and it allowed area bands who had been carving out separate niches in the Chicago music scene to connect with each other and realize there was a shared experience among them.”
Donnie Biggins of The Shams Band, initially proposed the idea of playing Pre-Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival shows throughout the summer to promote the 2009 festival in December. When proposing the idea to Tate Troelstrup of How Far To Austin and Danny Surico of The Future Laureates, the three brainstormed and realized that they could take the idea even further.
Once setting initial goals and extending the offer to 7 other Chicago bands, the reaction was more than receptive. Everyone that heard the idea wanted to get involved.
Peter Manhart of Molehill explains: “We share the struggle of independent musicians, but we also share the dream. And in that sense, there is a genuine respect and appreciation among the bands for each other’s music, and desire to help each other along the journey to success.”
The CRC recently put on their first show, an ambitious affair that included performances from all 10 CRC member bands at the well known Cubby Bear across the street from the historic Wrigley Field. Charging a wallet friendly $10 for the evening, the CRC put on an affordable night of music for their individual fans. With each act preforming a short set throughout the evening, and going so far as to share drum set and guitar amps, the showcase allowed for fans of all ten bands to see performances from bands they may not otherwise have seen. With over 200 tickets sold in pre-sale, and a total of over 500 excited live music supporters in attendance, the collective exceeded their expectations. Bands worked one anothers merch table, and supported each other throughout the evening – hanging out in the audience rather than hiding out backstage. Chicago Acoustic Underground founder and CRC supporter Michael Teach summed it up best – “The experience overall was so positive and encouraging, the bands all had a great time preforming, and the audience saw that and it built their excitement – there was a feeling of community and that was what we wanted people to walk away with”.
Written By:
Harmonica Dunn
Blueberry Hill
Sounds like an interesting concept. In these times I would be surprised if artists weren’t finding new, collective ways to supports others and get their work out there. Very cool!
Yea 10 bands! Different back grounds and genre’s with the mutual respect and appreciation for music. It’s such a creative idea and such a tremendous way for each of the bands to reach broader audiences. In a city already flooded with musicians it’s impressive to hear the turn out The Chicago Roots Collective is drawing.
What a cool concept! It is pretty amazing to see a bunch of bands actually working together, you would think in a tough economy like this most groups would stick with a “taking care of #1″ sort of selfish ethos, but I guess that’s not how they role in Chicago!
From a music fans perspective, it would be cool to go to a local show and know that all of the acts on the bill actually know each other, and have approached the show with some sense of teamwork, I go to a lot of shows where I live on the West Coast, usually seems like the bands don’t know each other, and probably that don’t care to.
In addition to digging this concept, I also took some time to go and listen to a few of the acts in this collective (late night working on the laptop, sadly) and couldn’t find a weak link anywhere – 10 great bands, all working together, very cool! It’s a bit of a hike for me to get cross country to support these guys at a show, but I’m going to share this article with a few friends of mine who reside in the Midwest and suggest they get out and support your scene!
cool website, cool article, cool bands! Can’t wait for the next CRC show!
As a fan of local music, it is exciting to hear about such teamwork between bands. When so many great artists come together, the resulting shows are sure to be among the finest in the city. Needless to say, I will be there to see it all go down. Can’t wait for the next one!
The CRC is a great opportunity for local bands to share info, cross promote and reach new listeners amongst the local scene. Some musicians can get a bad rap for being selfish and only doing things to better themselves, but working with an awesome team of musicians will benefit everyone in the long run. Not to mention the guarantee of a sweet night of tunes whenever a few CRC bands gather for a show!
Very interesting concept. While listening to the groups website, I noticed that every band is different. It is nice to see a group of musicians in different genre’s still working together. It allows for things to stay interesting create a different vibe for their audiences!
I am interested to see what will come of this group and see if it catches on elsewhere in the country
In terms of links to the artists music here are a few links to all the bands involved:
The Shams Band – http://www.myspace.com/theshamsband
http://www.youtube.com/theshamsband
Molehill – http://www.myspace.com/enterthemolehill
http://www.youtube.com/enterthemolehill
How Far to Austin – http://www.myspace.com/howfartoaustin
http://www.youtube.com/howfartoaustin
Mike Mangione & His Band – http://www.myspace.com/mikemangione
http://www.youtube.com/mikemangione
Band Called Catch – http://www.myspace.com/bandcalledcatch
http://www.youtube.com/bandcalledcatch
The Future Laureates – http://www.myspace.com/thefuturelaureates
http://www.youtube.com/thefuturelaureates
Goodbye Home – http://www.myspace.com/jacksoncombsmusic
http://www.youtube.com/jacksoncombs
Cobalt & The Hired Guns – http://www.myspace.com/cobaltandthehiredguns
http://www.youtube.com/cobaltandtheHGs
Jackpot Donnie – http://www.myspace.com/jackpotdonnie
http://www.youtube.com/jackpotdonnie
Todd Kessler & The New Folk – http://www.myspace.com/toddkessler ,
http://www.youtube.com/toddkessler82
Right on Chicago Roots Collective! Sounds like they’ve got the right idea – work together, share, and help one another out – I hope you guys do a video piece on a few of these bands sometime soon, I listened to a few of the bands mentioned in the article and WOW! Headed to I-Tunes now to do a little downloading,
What a cool thing they’ve got going on here! Have you all thought about a Chicago Roots Collective tour????
@Danny – we have talked about it a little bit. right now a few of the bands will be performing at the 2nd Annual Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival at the Congress Theater on December 12th, and it looks like we’re planning a set of nights for the spring to do another showcase like the one we did at Cubby Bear in September.
The other great thing is- they’re all really nice friendly folks. Easy to talk to and easy to get along with. Which makes doing this CRC thing together very smooth sailing.
~t
Hey Tom –
How did you all meet each other? I live in Chicago, and would love to learn even more about the CRC.
[...] 10 bands playing and over 500 people attending. The Collective has also gotten some nice press on OurVinyl.com and is generating a buzz around the [...]
@Scott
We met through playing shows, really. And from just going out and being relaly active in the Chicago music scene.
For instance:
I met Jeff Brown (of Goodbyehome) at the first open mic I went to after I moved back to Chicago after college. He and I have been friends ever since. I met Greg (also of GBH) at the same open mic the first night HE moved to Chicago, and he and I went to another open mic that night, but not till after we’d stopped by my folks house and they’d served us a steak dinner. True Story.
We played the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest last year with the Shams Band. And we played a date at the Abbey Pub with Molehill. But that was before the CRC was put together.
I met Todd Kessler @ open mics at Gunther Murphy’s (may it rest in peace) years ago, and Matt (also in Cobalt & the Hired Guns) met him at a Musicians at Work Forum (which I highly recommend).
Everyone knew someone, and so by those overlapping connections the CRC was born. Definitely check us out online, but come to our shows if you want to meet us and get to know us. That’s the best way.
If you come to the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest this year, make sure you introduce yourself. A bunch of the CRC bands will be there basically all day. If you can’t get there early, come see us later that night at Metro.
We’ll pick up this conversation there.
Thanks for asking.
~t
This is a great concept. About a year prior to this the Chicago Noise Machine did the same thing with much success and then went on to create the I AM Fest. This isn’t new but it is still exciting!