06/15/2026
UPDATE TO OUR SUPPORTERS:
Population matters:
Red Deer approximately 115,500
Red Deer County about 22,000
Calgary about 1,709,000 million
Edmonton about 1,130,000 million
Within a 50-kilometer radius of Red Deer, there are over 150 confirmed live venues. The total including unconfirmed places such as community halls, churches, rodeo grounds, ag societies, dance clubs are well over 250.
This is a big number for such a small population.
As a newish non-profit society, we do our best to support local venues while providing a decent (to us) honorarium for each musician we work with. We generally deal with a band leader, and they either split their ticket sales portions or pay their hired back-up. How they do it is up to them.
At present, no matter how it's done it is never anything to write home about. It's basically a nominal amount as a volunteer. We try to ensure each musician receives about $50 at minimum.
We concentrate on solos' duos and trios as our staple performers. We occasionally get larger local bands; however, we can't as yet accommodate larger bands from out of town with travel expenses, meals, etc.
Our mission is to "Bring the Blues Back to Red Deer AND support Local Musicians." Our grant only supports a nominal amount for travel, posters, equipment and advertising. Musicians and Technicians are paid out of ticket sales. We have worked with great venues since we started and are always willing and able to incorporate more.
We keep our distance to fifty kilometers for local shows, and one hundred and fifty kilometers for out-of-town acts.
Our goal is to allow our audiences to see for themselves the musicians we already know (within our board and associate members) that are great musicians and who also put on an entertaining performance.
This is basically supported, both with our volunteers, venues, board members and the The City of Red Deer in order to offer a beginning level of exposure here in Red Deer.
With our small population and multiple live shows happening every day, our followers have numerous choices, and it is very difficult for them to support everything.
We are not scared!!!
We plan on more live shows, both for free and at lower ticket prices. We do this to accommodate, everyone we can.
Our programs support folks from all walks of life, including our youth and seniors, both men and women. We are always happy to see the children that wander into our performers (aka our members) playing at outdoor venues downtown and around Red Deer.
We take pride in being inclusive and respect our friends in the pride community and we wish everyone a Happy Pride Month.
We have several First Nations, Inuit and Metis People that have or continue to contribute to our shows, board and as volunteers.
We visit the sick and perform free shows at local hospitals and seniors' centers' whenever we can. We have the occasional pay what you can, or tips only shows and we give early bird pricing for those with physical and mental health challenges.
Our fans range in age from 2 to literally 92, but I won't tell you who they are!!
Our music community supports other musicians, festivals and venues by pitching in, setting up, monitoring doors and merch for musicians and you'll always see a few of us assisting "the sound guy"! You all know who that is. Carl Stretton
We started this whole shindig, so blues musicians and local musicians could get some support after Covid hit the music and live venue community hard. Venues have had to close; seasoned musicians have worked for a small percentage of their pre-covid payouts. It's nobody's fault, it's just the way it is.
We finally feel like we're getting grounded again, the frequency of our shows is maintaining a regular monthly concert, and we are crazy, happily seeing other societies, individuals and venues bringing in extremely talented Blues Musicians and Bands.
We've seen an unfortunate few cancelled shows, with Juno Award Winning Musicians, and that makes me very sad. I want to let them know that sooner or later, our supporters will get to know them and see how truly gifted they are and simply buy a ticket, to support their shows, regardless of who is hosting.
This however is part of our plan and it's not all doom and gloom.
Solo, paid "Exposure" gigs are our specialty, so if you need help as promoters to get the word out, contact us and we will do whatever we are able to.
Sometimes, venues cancel on us for larger shows, sometimes there has been staff turnover and miscommunication. Sometimes things just haven't worked out.
Sometimes we have three or four blues shows happening on the same day. We're working on a way to address that as well.
We have lofty goals and high ideals, and we are all on board to keep on doing what we can to reestablish a great blues presence in Red Deer.
Be forewarned, we can't always sell enough tickets to fully support the performance. The main reason being, great venues here, lots of live shows, and a very small population base. However, if you still do the show, chances are you'll double the number of attendees and have the opportunity to be seen and heard. Red Deer is very loyal to their musicians, and if fans haven't had a previous opportunity to go to your show, we can't guarantee a large turnout.
We hope no one takes it personally, it's just a super small population with LOTS of live shows going on at the same time.
This coming fall and winter, we will be hosting another series of workshops for youth, led by former RDC Music Professor, Jeremy Doody. This will be a "Garage Band" style of monthly workshops for young musicians and music students to hone their skills. It will not matter what their level of competence is for these upcoming workshops, but it's not for beginners. We will be thrilled to have the participants show off their progress and do a first ever gig as a Blues or Rock Band with their pals in the spring.
I will have more details on that by the end of July. This will not be a totally free venture, so if you'd like to sponsor a student or help us fund raise, our board member in charge of Fundraising, Howard McKay will be in disseminating some promotional material in the next couple of weeks.
As I always tell my grandkids whenever I hand over some cash after a performance: remember: musicians always get paid.
We are not all in the trades, service workers or professionals with post-secondary education, but we still need to get paid as though we are. Becoming a competent Musician is not an easy choice nor is it a guarantee for most of us a career choice. However, we have the same bills, the same rents or mortgages and have to buy the same groceries to buy to feed our kids and families.
If you're not getting paid, you're getting played...
I would remind folks, that our members have not only supported the society by playing for less for us, but that's also our gift to Red Deer. I have personally put in a four times four figure amount to get this venture off the ground, and I'm not worried about getting it back anytime soon. We just chisel it down with every concert.
The greater reward is the music we get to be a part of.
Over the past three years we've had both challenges and great successes with sound systems, storms, venues, personalities, lighting and being cancelled on or having to cancel due to illness.
We're currently working on new streams of funding, so we won't have to do that in the future.
Anyway...
Juke is playing this Saturday at D2.
Be There or Be SQUARE!!!
BUY A FRIKKIN TICKET!
LAST MINUTE RED DEER!!!
Sue!
