Roger Stolle is every bit the promoter.
The Dayton, Ohio, native and longtime blues fan left a corporate marketing job to open Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art Inc. in Clarkesdale, Miss. Stolle's mission is "Promote from within," a strategy he uses to market his store, blues music and Mississippi. He said he doubts his venture would have been successful were it not for his 13 years of marketing experience.
Stolle's experience didn't go to waste. His Journalism Week presentation was informative and entertaining, but afterward I started wondering if he had been trying to sell us something. He played video clips from the documentary on blues musician Big George Brock and the new blues-pilgrimage movie "M for Mississippi," which was filmed in the Mississippi Delta this spring. Yes, they were perfect examples of the culture that Cat Head is trying to preserve, but was there another motive behind showing those clips?
I just wonder what Stolle thought when an audience member asked where he could buy "M for Mississippi."
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Hi Janna, Thanks for attending my presentation this week. You bring up an excellent point that I didn't cover as well as I could have, it seems. Many blues documentarians of history (from Alan Lomax to present), created non-commercial projects (films/recordings) to be initially studied and archived . In most cases, the collectors did not do this for free, of course. They were funded by the entities they represented. Later these projects often became commercial products that were sold -- at times without awareness by the artists or after the artists had passed on. More challenging still, many of these "field recording" projects never got seen by the general population. My objective, as always, is to "promote from within." The more people who see these artists and value them, the better. Coming from a retail and marketing background, I believe that the best way to support these artists is to pay them up front for their professional services, and then promote them to both "blues audiences" AND, more importantly, the mainstream, international populace. I want potential new blues fans as well as existing consumers to view an L.C. Ulmer or Big George Brock in the same way they view the latest indie rock act -- just as important and entertaining (maybe more so). I don't want them to see Ulmer/Brock's creations merely "field recorded" footnotes to history. The audience for that is simply too small to help these musicians in an immediate way. In 1941-42, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Muddy Waters in Clarksdale, Ms, but it wasn't until Waters started recording commercially half a decade later for the Chess Records' brothers in Chicago that he became a household name. Don't get me wrong, I love the work of past and present folklorists. It's just not the method I've personally chosen to document and promote these musicians. As for the film clips I screened for the group, I had hoped that they would help me make my points and keep the attention of the students. If I happen to sell a DVD as a result (which hasn't happened yet!), that would be great. It would pay for some of the gas I used to get to Oxford as well as the store help I paid to cover for me while I was out. Thanks again for attending and thinking about my talk -- and motivations. It's important to question these things and form our own opinions. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Best regards, Roger at Cat Head
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