Keeping a blues band alive can give you the blues

     You think you've got troubles?  Try leading a blues band that does original music in these times when the blues seems to be persona non grata in an area once stewing in the blues.

     "It seems like it's a lot harder to find work in a blues band.  It's a lot of work to keep the band as busy as we are," says Aaron Charles Walker, the saxophone-playing leader of the Charles Walker Blues Band, a quintet that sets up shop at Cranky Pat's Thursday, Dec. 14.

     "It seems the general feeling among club owners is that people want to go out and hear a live jukebox," Walker said.  "A lot of clubs want to know how much cover stuff you do.  They want you to pretty much do stuff people know, which locks you into being a cover band, which we're not."

     Walker says his adopted hometown of Milwaukee is a particularly good example of a bad music scene.

     "There's not a great blues scene at all," he said.  "Milwaukee is one of the worst scenes for music, as far as I'm concerned.  If you a cover band, no matter how bad you are, you can get all the work you want to in Milwaukee."

     But Walker says if he and the band can just get a foot in the door and play a place, "there's never been an issue once you get there."

     That is, he says, because he and the band can deliver the read deal.

     "The impression I get is everyone feels they know how to play the blues," he said.  "You just play three chords and you're playing the blues.  There's a lot more than goes into it.  A lot of listening, a lot of studying, a lot of emotion, otherwise you're just playing the same stuff over and over again.  In that case I could see why someone wouldn't want to come back and see you, if you're not changing it up and not being fresh and original.

     People want to see a high energy show," he said.  "They've had a long day at work.  They want to see someone who gives them their energy back.  They want to have a good time.  That's what our job is, to provide that energy and good time."

     The band is about to undergo another transition with the departure this month of singer Queen Nadine Neal, who was featured on last January's smoking 10-tune release "Hotel Room Blues."

     Walker said he already has a replacement vocalist, and the band's third studio CD, "The World and Things" will be released in February.

     While this will be the band's first time at Cranky Pat's, they've appeared at the late, lamented Heroes in Green Bay, and have been at both the Cold Shot and Copper Rock in Appleton.

     "We're heard a lot of good things about Cranky Pat's," Walker said.