Stool Pigeon: Blues Tavern -- 10 years of the real deal

Stool Pigeon: Blues Tavern -- 10 years of the real deal
May 13, 2010
By Lawrence F. Specker
Al.com

Over the years, The Stool Pigeon has noticed a funny thing about certain self-professed blues lovers.

When they talk, they’re all about authenticity: Nothing could be finer, they seem to think, than venturing out to some nondescript hole-in-the-wall-club, savoring red-hot blues music while nestled in the smoky darkness of a room cluttered with layer upon layer of musical artifacts. They love that scene, when it’s in the movies.

The Blues Tavern
2818 Government Blvd., Mobile, Ala.
251-479-7621
www.bluestavern.com

What it’ll run you:
Domestic beers: $2 without music/$2.75 with
Import/premium beers: $3/$3.5
Well drinks: $3/$3.75

Fancy high-gravity beers: “Don’t even fool with ¤’em,” owner Randy Stidham said with a snort. “We’re trying to keep the children out.”

House specialties: None as such, but Stidham said patrons have a conspicuous taste for drinks made with Southern Comfort.

Music: Usually starts at 6 p.m. Sundays, 7:30 p.m Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
But when they walk the walk, all too often, their feet tend to toddle right past that kind of cinematic locale, carrying them to something a little more mainstream, a little more familiar, a little more brightly lit.

In the case of Mobile’s Blues Tavern, that’s their loss. Perched out on Government Boulevard in that fuzzy zone between Midtown and the beltline, it has been very easy to overlook for most of its life (though recent improvements to the façade have helped).

If the Pigeon has told one doubter this, he’s told a hundred. “Yeah, it doesn’t look like much. And it might be the smokiest room in town. But it’s also one of the friendliest clubs you’re ever going to find. They’ll welcome you like family and the music is out of this world.”

Few have taken the Pigeon at his word. But the good news is that the Blues Tavern has done just fine without them. This Saturday, the enterprise celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Yes, believe it or not, it was a full decade ago that friends persuaded owner Randy Stidham to double down on the blues. It was a bold move, an almost defiantly noncommercial one. Stevie Ray Vaughan had been dead for a while, and most people didn’t even know Mississippi had hill country, let alone that those hills were alive with the sound of music.

“We just tried to start the blues,” Stidham said, looking back. “We thought it would work.”

And it did. At first it was Monday Night Blues with Hank Becker and Ricky Chancey. Now the music plays five nights a week, Wednesday through Sunday.

The faithful came out, joined by more new fans every year.

View full size(Press-Register/Kate Mercer)
The Doobious Band performs on Sunday on May 9, 2010, at The Blues Tavern.
“It’s all walks of life,” Stidham said. “Doctors, lawyers, motorcycle riders.”

Remember when the economy went south, how every entry in your budget started creeping up, except for the one labeled “income?” Stidham took one look at the situation and instituted a no-cover-charge policy that holds to this day.

The drink prices go up, by a very modest amount, when a band is playing. But you don’t pay to get in, even when the featured act has come all the way from someplace like Chicago or Detroit. And if that doesn’t seem like a good enough deal, Stidham offers free food three nights a week. These days it’s crawfish Sundays and Wednesdays, pork chops on Thursdays.

The blues are more popular these days. You can hear the music in other places. Bigger places. Prettier places. Places that are, dare we say it, more mainstream. And those places are fine. But there’s still only one Blues Tavern.

And so Saturday will be a day of grand celebration. The John Hall Trio will play from 3 to 6 p.m. Stidham anticipates serving about 250 pounds of crawfish, plus barbecue. (There’s plenty of room on the back patio for messy dining.)

At 9 p.m., the stage will be occupied by Victor Wainwright and the Wild Roots. Wainwright is a Memphis-based pianist with “a double major in Boogie, a Ph.D. in Swing and a master’s in Rhythm.”

“He’s unbelievable,” said Stidham. “Nobody should miss this.”

Stidham takes pride in the Tavern’s longevity, as well he should. There’s something special about a place where the pool table is back behind the bandstand, so you can watch the music from almost any angle. It’s cozy. It’s real.

But Saturday isn’t for Stidham: It’s for all the others who walked the walk.

“I just want to thank all the customers who’ve supported us over the years,” Stidham said.
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