Playin' the blues

At local club, it's a Wednesday night ritual

The guitar pick pauses in the air as Slam Allen looks to his left.

"Let's do it in the key of G," he says to bassist Eric King. "A-one, a-two, y'all know what to do."

The pick flashes in the dim light of the bar as it streaks toward the strings of Allen's custom guitar as he leans close into the microphone.

Everyday, everyday I have the blues.
Everyday, everyday of my life I have the blues.
Nobody loves me, nobody seems to care.

When he plays a long, funky passage, Allen's face contorts into grimaces and sneers, as if he is trying to coax the notes out of the green, custom "Slamocaster."

At one of the tables, a woman nursing a beer sways to the beat while another near the door dances.

The song ends, and a few of the three dozen patrons clap.

"Thank you very kindly," Allen says before looking at the two sheets of paper that is his play list.

The pick again swings across the strings as the drum sticks hammer out the beat of the next song.

It's another Wednesday night at the Roads End Pub and Club, the only place in the Hazleton area to find the blues. The pub, which sits at the intersection of Broad Street and Diamond Avenue, has some of the best blues talent you can find. Many of the acts play in clubs in Philadelphia and New York.

Owner Jim Christman started booking blues bands in the Roads End about four years ago after a Chicago pub owner suggest he give it a try.

"Once you hear the music, you're hooked," Christman said, as Slam Allen played in the background.

Allen is usually soft-spoken. When he talks about his type of music, he is earnest and philosophical. He refers to other blues musicians as "cats".

He believes the music is stereotyped by the music media as "an old black man sitting on an old porch playing an old guitar singing about his trials and tribulations. Some people don't know what the blues is about. The blues is about feeling," Allen said. "If you're feeling up, you play the blues. If you're feeling down, you play the blues. It's what you feel.

" There's no black, there's no white," he added. "There's only the blues."

The 30-year-old from New York has been playing for most of his life.

"I've been in blues for about 20 years. My dad was in it. I'm a second-generation bluesman."

Much of the music is improvised, he said. "I never play the same show twice. If I'm feeling up, I play up. If I feel down, I play a little raunchier."

Allen said blues is becoming popular, especially with the younger crowd.

"They realize the blues is the root of all of today's music," he said.

On a recent Wednesday night, Allen and his band performed for the fifth time in the Roads End. He said performing in Hazleton is a lot different that performing in New York.

"The crowd here's pretty good," Allen said. "If you go to New York City...you'll see a lot of foreign people. Here, it's like a hometown crowd. You can feel the hometown spirit. It's definitely a different crowd."

On this night, the crowd is diverse: teachers and professionals to leather-clad bikers to the unemployed.

There isn't a lot of applause between songs but that doesn't bother Allen.

"I like playing little, cozy clubs," he said. "I play to entertain, not to make money."

"Slam" Allen (his real first name is a closely guarded secret) said he never took a music lesson in his life. He learned how to play from this father and two uncles. Now he's the father of a baby boy. "He has my hands, my fingers," Allen said, explaining he will teach him how to play some day. He shakes his head, "Can't find a guitar small enough."

As the late Wednesday night turns into early Thursday morning, Allen and the band start one last set.

Out on Broad Street, you can barely hear the guitar and drums, but you can still feel the bass.

Rock 'n' Roll may be here to stay, but the blues are forever.

Shawn M. Kelly
Hazleton Standard-Speaker
Hazleton, PA
May 11, 1997