A lot can happen in 50 years. Milwaukee Rock and Roll, 1950-2000: A Reflective History attempts to wrap its arms around pop culture’s unruly child. The book looks at Milwaukee’s music history with written, vocal and visual reflections.
Edited by David Luhrssen (Shepherd Express Managing Editor), Bruce Cole (Cujé Music Collection Librarian at Marquette University) and Phillip Naylor (Marquette University history professor), the trio took time to chime in about the book.
“The book needed to be written given the music and musicians that emerged during the years 1950-2000,” Naylor says. “After arriving in Milwaukee to attend graduate school at Marquette, I became increasingly aware of the significance of Milwaukee musicians through discussions with friends and acquaintances, some of whom contributed to this book. The more I learned and heard, the more appreciative I became of local musicians.”
Luhrssen says the project “reminded me of the wealth of musical talent that thrived in Milwaukee.” Milwaukee’s roots and the city’s size might also be part of the reason various music scenes thrived over the years.
“At least throughout the last century, there was a Midwest work ethic for bands that played out regularly. It was a work ethic that paid off,” Luhrssen explains. “Musicians used to be able to pull in decent money because there were so many places to play. Another factor was that Milwaukee had just enough media and just enough music fans to encourage a viable creative scene.”
As founder of X-Press, one of the city’s earliest fanzines (and a forerunner of the Shepherd Express), Luhrssen had a front-row seat to the punk revolution. “Milwaukee was never going to be New York or London,” he says, “but the funny thing is: aside from blues and jazz, we had just as good a scene here as Chicago and, in many cases, I’d say our rock bands were better than theirs!”
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Naylor brings up proximity, both geographical and personal, as ingredients in the recipe. “Milwaukee stands apart because of its accessibility. In intimate clubs, patrons were offered direct access to performers, who generously shared their time between sets,” he says.
Milwaukee’s location between nearby Madison and Chicago was also an advantage. The book features a poster from the Cujé Collection advertising Muddy Waters’ coming week-long performance at Zak’s North Avenue in 1976.
“For those steeped in blues, it was an astonishing event. I was there the first [Monday] night. There was a small audience for the first two sets. By the time the third set came along, Muddy announced he was heading back to Chicago, but he told his band to give us [a handful of patrons] a third set,” Naylor recalls. “It was subsequently a command performance that was representative of Milwaukee’s accessibility.”
According to Luhrssen, the three editors wanted to bring a spectrum of voices into the book, both generationally as well experientially. Other contributors include Sonia Khatchadourian, Shepherd Express music writer Jamie Lee Rake, the late Martin Jack Rosenblum, Gary Huckleberry, Paul Cebar, Sigmund Snopek III and Evan Rytlewski.
David Luhrssen, Bruce Cole and Phillip Naylor will discuss Milwaukee Rock and Roll, 1950-2000: A Reflective History at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 19, at Boswell Book Co., 2559 N. Downer Ave. The Boswell event will include a special performance by Lil Rev, Jim Eannelli and Friends.
