Published July 25, 2002, in Issue #25 of the Hook

BY CRIPSY DUCK

Remember the early '90s, when rock aficionados grew suddenly preoccupied with the burgeoning Seattle music scene? As Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam were sweeping underground airwaves, the crude moniker "grunge" oozed freely from every rock pundit's liquored lips.

Now fast forward a couple of years. The Dave Matthews Band is making national hot lists as they sell hundreds of thousands of copies of their first record by hand at their concerts, and the band's hometown, Charlottesville, is getting national press for its idyllic family-rearing/retirement mecca ambience. At the time there's talk that Charlottesville's music scene could soon rival that of Seattle.

So much for wild speculation. Charlottesville though "city" by name is really a college town with a cosmopolitan attitude. In this overgrown village of 100,000, we simply don't have the kind of suburban compression necessary to generate world-inspiring musical movements. There's just not enough competition.

Nor are there enough venues. With only four full-time music outposts (that is, clubs dedicated to weekend music the "good" nights, because they're party nights), there simply isn't enough opportunity for bands to build local followings. And the dozen or so other bars that feature bands on slow nights don't really improve the scene much. Nobody respects a group that plays only Coupe DeVille's. On Tuesdays.

With the closing of Trax in 2000, Charlottesville lost its only 1,000-seat venue, so medium-size rock no longer stops in town. Have we lost our touch?

What touch? Charlottesville hasn't had a booming music scene since the '70s and early '80s, when it was both a notorious party town and a hub for all kinds of regional tours. It is said that in those days, nearly every bar in town hosted live music all week long. Good-ol' rock 'n roll was the preferred formula, and bands like Skip Castro and Johnny Sportcoat and the Casuals built healthy regional followings from bars like the Mineshaft and the C&O.

By the late '80s, those bars were in decline, and the scene had withered considerably. So how, then, did Dave Matthews blossom to such stature in such acidic topsoil?

The answer, of course, is Coran Capshaw. Capshaw had already established his credibility as a rock promoter by the time he "found" DMB in the early '90s. Years of Van Riper's Lake music festivals twice yearly multi-band outdoor extravaganzas just outside of town (very popular with UVA types) built his connections and savvy, and his purchase of both Trax and Richmond's Floodzone gave him considerable sway in the local performance cosmos.

When he and Ross Hoffman came together to finance DMB, it was a rare stroke in a small town where few musicians had ever escaped to any national prominence. Hoffman and Capshaw's financial backing and guidance allowed the band instantly to become well-paid full-time musicians. Instead of struggling for a decent night at a local watering hole, DMB was free to focus on its music.

Capshaw put the band in his bars weekly: Tuesdays at Trax, Wednesdays at the Floodzone. In between, DMB toured regionally and rehearsed. It's an uncommon success story with a decidedly happy ending for the band, but Charlottesville... well, Charlottesville remained a small town with a cool but puny overall scene. The question "Who will be the next Dave Matthews?" sounds absurd in a city that never became the next Seattle.

Unlike the grungers, Matthews was an anomaly. Not a function of a local sonic paradigm, he stood alone. The only thing about DMB truly indicative of local flavor is their melting pot make-up: four musicians with wildly different tastes supporting an engaging and individualistic front man. And with the exception of Carter Beauford (house drummer for Black Entertainment Television), the band is made up of people who otherwise might never have gone on to larger success.

Take Boyd Tinsley. Tinsley had long been respected locally, but before Dave Matthews, he spent his nights playing covers at fraternity mixers with partner in rhyme Harold Faulkner. He was great, but he wasn't going anywhere. As with so many worthy talents here, Charlottesville did not offer great bounties to the artist going it alone.

And so it is to this day. Charlottesville retains a relatively lukewarm music environment. There are occasional pockets of excellent excess, but UVA crowds are generally uninterested in the local vibes, and the townies are a fickle bunch, rarely willing to part with a few dollars to see somebody they know by name. The fact that the Hackensaw Boys have blown up is a testament to their tenacity. They built a scene at the Blue Moon Diner and took that success on the road, the only place to be if you truly wish to rise in this industry.

Every now and then I meet somebody who moved here to tap into the Charlottesville "scene," and I can't help but remind them there's no real scene here save the one you create. Charlottesville is mostly just a bunch of disjointed venues, bolstered by a recent willingness among the local alternative press to support live music journalism and a weekly radio show dedicated to local flavors. It's a start, but a scene it's not.

Of course, there is a fair amount of interesting music being made here by worthy musicians. But very few truly engage their audience, let alone compel them to return to shows or buy records.

Charlottesville isn't necessarily a bad place to be if you're really trying to "make it" as long as you're willing to hit the road in search of larger audiences. Look at Terri Allard, Corey Harris, Bella Morte, Danny Schmidt, Paul Curreri, and Devon. They don't stop. But they don't stay in town either, and that's an important key to what success they've found.

If you're really good, I suppose there's a chance that Coran Capshaw might "discover" you. But don't hold your breath. If you want success, you've got to work hard. Definitely play around town, but always strive for new audiences elsewhere. Your real fans are most likely in some bigger city's suburbia. Just ask Dave.

Cripsy Duck has been playing around Charlottesville since 1987 and reporting on the local scene since 1999, but he's still too lazy to branch out in search of larger audiences.

But they don't stay in town either, and that's an important key to what success they've found.

If you're really good, I suppose there's a chance that Coran Capshaw might "discover" you. But don't hold your breath. If you want success, you've got to work hard. Definitely play around town, but always strive for new audiences elsewhere. Your real fans are most likely in some bigger city's suburbia. Just ask Dave.

Cripsy Duck has been playing around Charlottesville since 1987 and reporting on the local scene since 1999, but he's still too lazy to branch out in search of larger audiences.

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