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There are a lot of shades of the color blue in the world, and almost that many shades of blues music.
It turns out that Marietta has a music society that embraces them all, and shares the love with everybody who wants to listen: country blues, urban blues, jug bands, acoustic, rockin' electric.
But there's even more. This group is probably different from all the rest, Blues, Jazz and Folk Music Board President Jay Phillips says.
"There are other blues music societies around, but ours embraces jazz and folk music, as well. That makes it pretty unique," he said. "Our vision is for people to have the chance to experience music they wouldn't normally hear."
For local folks, he hopes that translates to, "I'll try that, see if I like it."
One of the BJFM Society founders, "Cobbler John" Bolen, was really influential in driving that to reality, Phillips said.
"He and Peggy (Bolen) came here from New Jersey, where they were used to having that kind of experience of all kinds of music. When they came here, they were willing to share their time and energy to make it happen here, too. So even before the festivals, it wasn't just about the blues."
Some folks, for example, may remember the Swamp Stomp and Zydeco experience in Marietta.
Coffee houses were one of Bolen's visions, and it's something the society has actually been doing since last fall, Phillips said. It's obviously on a smaller scale than the well-known annual blues festival, but it brings in musical artists of all types, bluegrass, old time country, Americana and more. There's one scheduled for April 21 at the Lafayette Hotel's Gun Room, a roots music group from Cleveland group, the Bent String Trio. Phillips agrees with local musician Mike "Moon" Mullen that the Gun Room is a nice, intimate setting for that type of thing.
As far as challenges the BJFM Society faces, it's not surprising to hear Phillips say, "money. Money is the hardest thing." Money mostly comes from donations and raffles, Phillips said.
A part of the money the BJFM Society makes goes to paying for Blues in the Schools, a national program of professional musicians and educators that takes different forms in different areas, Phillips said.
"The primary purpose of this is to look at the history of the blues and see how it fits into American history."
Oct. 4-6, the Rev. Robert Jones of Detroit, who visited the area once before, will be helping Marietta High School's seventh,, eighth and ninth graders connect music with history.
The Ohio COVID shutdown in 2020 interrupted the blues festival, and that hurt, but he thinks they're making a good comeback. Crowds are building back up. Plus, the Marietta Convention and Visitors Bureau gave them a grant recently that was a great boost.
"The festival's good for the community's economy," he said of the event that just marked its 30th anniversary. "There are 300-plus people who will use area restaurants, shops and hotels."
The group is lucky to have a great relationship with the Lafayette Hotel, he said, and they're forming more relationships with motels giving discounts for ticket holders on that weekend. They do have regulars who go ahead and make their room reservations for next year's festival while they're checking out from this year's festival, he said. Some regulars have been attending for 20 years or more. Online ticketing was a new feature added this year, through the Eventbrite app, and Phillips said it seems to have gone smoothly.
The society has already set its dates for its 31st blues festival, March 15 and 16, 2024.
"We trust it will be a good time," Phillips said. Other upcoming events can be tracked at the society's website, www.bjfm.org, or on Facebook.