I returned to the U.S. back in 2009, after living in Peru for the previous 3-1/2 years. I got back just in time to be in the middle of the worst depression in the history of this country. I’d lost everything, I’d been lied to, manipulated, but that’s not my story for today. Today, I want to talk about tourism in America.
If you have read some of my previous pieces here, you know that I devoted my life to my music dream. That being the case, I’ve been in many tourist cities and towns, including Hawaii (Waikiki), Las Vegas, Nashville, San Francisco, Austin (Texas), San Diego, Reno, Tombstone (Arizona), Virginia City (Nevada), and a few others. In 1980, if you would venture down to Waikiki, you would have found crowds of people, you would find restaurants and bars, shops, art galleries, a movie theater, beaches, hotels, hula shows, and real Hawaiians doing real Hawaiian stuff - and every inch of Kalakaua, Kuhio, and all the streets in between would be packed with people. If you didn’t make reservations at least a year out, you were not going to get a hotel room. Every bar and restaurant would be full of people, many featuring live music of every kind, dancing, and lots of hula shows with authentic, traditional Hawaiian music. The name artists all had a nice showroom to do their shows - and they were always sold out. Youngsters would cruise Waikiki. Downtown Honolulu was also thriving, it was the seedy part of town, but thriving. The Hawaiian culture was alive and well. Fast forward to 1985, Waikiki had become deserted, with a few druggies, a few prostitutes, and other such derelicts walking the streets at night. Waikik Beach would have a few people, but not the crowds like before. You could go there on a Friday or Saturday night, 10 at night, and find a few stragglers, empty restaurants and bars, and empty shops and galleries. They had brought in a bunch of junk wagons, owned by Koreans, where they sold nothing but junk - cheap jewelry, cheap t shirts, and other such cheap souvenirs. They did away with most of the live music, and none of the name Hawaiian artists had showrooms. The streets were deserted, kids had found other things to do than cruise Waikiki. They built a monstrosity on the makai (ocean) side of Kalakaua - a four story, two block long shopping mall full of high end outlet stores - Gucci, Chanel, etc, it was horrible - and empty. The Ilikai Hotel, one of the major hotels in Waikiki, had many of their rooms remodeled, with kitchens, so they could rent them out as apartments, because as a hotel, the occupancy was way down. I spent most of the 90s working in Waikiki, and somewhat regularly being there on some evenings, same - deserted. I left Hawaii in 99, with Waikiki being a ghost town.
After returning from Peru in 2009, I fumbled around, Austin, San Francisco, Tucson, then Portland, Oregon. From there I moved to Reno, this was in 2010. I found Reno to also be a ghost town. I looked for places to play music, was locked out to beat hell, but in the process of looking, I found Reno to be empty. The area of North Virginia Street, where most of the casinos are (El Dorado, Circus Circus, Silver Legacy, and others) are - dead, same as Waikiki, the streets only having the druggies out and about - and not even very many of them. The casinos were empty, live music was rare. The Atlantis (a few miles from the downtown area) seemed to be doing fairly well, at least on the weekends, same at Peppermill, which was a few miles down on South Virginia Street. The only time I saw people in Reno was when there was en event - Hot Augusts Nights, Street Vibrations, stuff like that.
Three years ago, I was in Las Vegas for about three months - during the summer. Same story there - nothing like it was from the 90s on back. There were people there, but overall, the casinos were mostly empty. Most of the big showrooms had gone dark, with just a small handful of major stars doing shows. There were very few live music venues where local bands, duos, or solos played. I can’t say the place was deserted, but it was nothing like it was pre 2000.
Same story in Nashville, five years ago. They had given the place a facelift, and had extended the bar/live music scene down to the river - which was maybe two extra blocks from where it was before. Most of the live music was horrid, by the way. Friday and Saturday nights, 10 till midnight, there would be a few crowds of youngsters hanging out in a few of the places on Fifth and Broadway - I figure most of them were locals, but other than that, pretty much nothing. Some of what used to be stores and shops were boarded up - empty, out of business. Printer’s Alley was dark, Gabe’s Lounge was gone, as were all the outlying music venues that were around town in the early 80s. I’d also been there in 2004, same - dead compare to how it was in the early 80s.
San Francisco in 2009 - dead, Tombstone Arizona in 2010 - deserted, Austin, Texas - dead, except when there was an event such as SXSW. Very few music venues - mostly tiny coffee shops - maybe three or four in the whole town. Virginia city, Nevada - dead, except when there was an event. Same goes for San Diego, Portland, Oregon, Sedona, Arizona, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona - all devoid of tourists.
I’ve now lived in South Lake Tahoe for the past five years, playing mostly at the restaurant called “Gunbarrel Tavern and Eatery”. I did well there for the first three years - where Tahoe would be crawling with people during the summer months, and during ski season. It would slow down during the “Shoulder Seasons”, but for the most part, Tahoe was doing very well. The past two years, though, I noticed a drastic drop in numbers - during both summer and ski seasons. The owner of Gunbarrel told me last winter, that they were down thousands of dollars A DAY from what they were the previous years, and that New Year’s Eve, 2019 was a full $10,000 down from the previous New Year’s Eves. The shops and restaurant/bars out on Lake Tahoe Blvd, where the casinos are, up until two years ago, would be packed with people, and the traffic was crazy. There have been plans, for no less than ten years, to build a second complex in town, complete with casinos, hotels, restaurants and bars, and shops. There has also been plans, for no less than ten years, to built a “Loop Road”, to supposedly alleviate the traffic problem. I happen to know that any big money outfit is going to send out surveyors, to assess the situation, look at the numbers, survey the environment, the location, pretty much everything involved, to see to it that there would be money to be made. My prediction is that both projects will be abandoned, because no large outfit is going to put out millions of dollars if the profits will not be there. I guess we’ll see soon enough.
With the numbers in Tahoe being so far down like they are, Gunbarrel has only had music on the weekends for four months now, which made it impossible for me to make any kind of living - after the previous four years of doing pretty well. There are a few other venues around town, part owned by an egotistical jerk, Ted Kennedy (not the dead senator, but a guy who apparently failed at being a real estate agent in Las Vegas, and came up here to see what he could get away with). Ted is a 50 something year old guy who has learned to plunk around on a guitar, sing a few songs, and thinks that if he hires a bunch of drugged out, talentless plunkers, that when he walked onto the stage, it would make him look good. Well, it doesn’t work that way, but the guy’s ego tells him it does. I’ve heard the comments from his workers and managers, and I’ve seen him in action - so, no, Ted, it doesn’t work that way. The guy has locked out any musician who was worth his salt - including me. At California Burger, one of the places he has bought into, the other owner, Jeff, came to me after I’d played there a few times, and said, “We’re not paying you what we normally pay, I’m doubling your pay, because you earned it”. Well, shortly after that, Ted pulls rank, takes over the booking, and locks me out. Lucky for me, Dan at Gunbarrel appreciated me and kept me working. He left the restaurant in the summer of 2019, at which time a new manager was hired, and doesn’t seem to care about the music, or the restaurant at all, for that matter. After seeing the writing on the wall - after the damage had been done, mind you, I got a job as a bellhop at Marriott’s Grand Residence. The money is decent, and I have projects to pay for. I have my idea for the clothing and jewelry line that I’d been working on for the past three years - having wasted $5000+ having a crooked manufacturer in India make my shirts. They were unsellable, so I donated them. The plan is to get a legitimate American company to make my shirts, I found one that sounds like it would be a good fit for me, but it’s not cheap, and neither is the advertising. I also have plans to write enough songs to complete an old school, traditional Country Music album, and an old school, traditional Bluegrass album - with me playing all the instruments and singing all the songs. I plan to get my clothing and jewelry line up and running, so I can have the time and money to write and record the songs. Here’s the crazy part - not to me, but to most people, I would love nothing more than to expose Nashvville’s corruption. It will not be easy, nor will it be quick, but that’s my plan. I digress, sorry. My point here, tourism is being successfully dismantled by the Powers That Be. Many people are in denial, but as I always say, you cannot deny reality.
So, I carry luggage to and from hotel rooms, get paid an ok wage, and keep my plans at the front of my mind. In the meantime, I can’t really do much music related work, because there is a person in my life who hates it that I have my music. Another whole ‘nother.
See ya next time.
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