Jerry's swan song

Cape Girardeau's live music scene thrives on hot blues licks and solid rock beats -- the kind of stuff that's likely to either make it seem like you're hearing everything through a tin horn for a few hours after the show or to make you dance so hard your legs feel like jelly afterward.

You know the bands: the highly danceable blues of Bruce Zimmerman and company, the full-band acoustic groove of Mike Renick, the alt-rock sonic attack of groups like Moodminder and the metal madness of the now-defunct Rock Solid.

Cape Girardeau is a full band town, for sure.

But under that decibel-pushing surface, there are others -- those who like things on the lighter side. Instead of amplifiers and kick drums they prefer a set-up as simple as a microphone and an acoustic six-string, typically performing some blend of folk and whatever other genre.

They are the acoustic musicians.

For the past few years one acoustic musician has strived to create a place for this music in a town where the sound of a man or woman alone with an acoustic guitar could easily be drowned out in the cacophony of plugged-in rock and blues.

His name is Jerry Swan.

A few years back Jerry started a little thing he called the "Traveling Acoustic Open Mic." The name says it all: Jerry would travel around to whatever venue he could book, providing a showcase for acoustic musicians to present their art to a live audience instead of just playing in their basement for their dogs, cats, friends and family.

Jerry also teamed up with other like-minded acousti-philes to form the SEMO Acoustic Musicians Guild, where local acoustic musicians could come together and discuss things like songwriting in an effort to improve their craft.

Devotees of acoustic music might have noticed a marked absence in the last several months -- no Acoustic Open Mic, no Musician's Guild meeting (the last one was in May). And, most likely, they've noticed those e-mails from Jerry Swan have stopped coming.

The reasons are numerous and varied for Jerry Swan's exit from the scene -- a change in career that has taken him back to school being chief among them. But there's another reason, one that prompted Swan to start the traveling open mic in the first place -- there's no good venue for acoustic music, at least for the traveling open mic, anymore.

The open mics started at Buckner Brewing Co. Soon the Sidewalk Sandwich Co. became the main base of operations, but it closed last year. After that things moved to the Cup 'N' Cork cafe, but Swan said that didn't work out either. The traveling open mic then traveled again to Broadway Books and Roasting, but space was an issue in the old converted house that serves as the coffee and book shop's Broadway location.

Swan shut the traveling acoustic open mic down months ago, citing his personal lack of time and the lack of ideal spots.

So what's an acoustic musician to do? Where is the sanctuary in the land of screaming guitars and pounding drums?

For starters, acoustic open mics still take place at the Cup 'N' Cork cafe on Main Street on a regular basis the last I checked, but they're organized by cafe owner Barry Robinson, not Swan's traveling open mic. Robinson also books performances by acoustic musicians.

Local music mainstay Bob Camp also regularly hosts an open mic -- every Tuesday at the California Juice Club. And don't forget, acoustic musicians are a staple at local wineries and some other establishments, like on the Rose Bed Inn's Summer Sunday Series.

Places still remain for acoustic musicians to play for the public. The question now is how much did the efforts of Swan and the other acoustic musicians allied with him make this possible?

I can't really say. Being someone who's not really plugged in (forgive the pun) to the acoustic music scene -- I like it loud and distorted -- I don't really have firsthand knowledge of the role Swan played in propping up acoustic music in Cape Girardeau. I do know one thing: Jerry was, for a while, a tireless promoter of local acoustic music. It became routine for me to see an announcement about another traveling open mic or musician's guild meeting in my inbox just about every week.

Not anymore.

I haven't seen one of those e-mails in a long time. In fact, the last one was from Swan, telling everyone on his list he's out of the game. There are others out there who might carry on Swan's efforts to keep acoustic musicians united, to keep giving them opportunities to play in public.

For the sake of Cape Girar-deau's musical diversity, let's hope they do. I'd bet more people are not like me than are: They would rather hear some relaxing folk than wailing guitars and thunderous drums.

And what's bad about more choices? Nothing, if you ask me. Not that anyone ever does.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182