The audience only outnumbered the performers by slightly more than two to one, but Andrew Calhoun wasn’t whining. As president of Waterbug Records, he’s been staging weekly concerts to showcase the artists on his Evanston-based folk label. “A lot of people think folk music is John Denver,” he says. “I’m flattered if anyone shows up.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
At the time Calhoun was depressed: his marriage had broken up, and he’d stopped touring. He’d made several albums but hadn’t sold many. Popular music sounded about as good to him as a nail in the ear. Where had all the songwriters gone–gone to computer programming, every one? Was it the business or was he the problem? Calhoun thought he might find an answer at the Kerrville Folk Festival. “I’d always heard about the ‘Kerrville magic,’” he recalls, “listening to these horrible, corny songs. So I went down there to hear if anything was happening.”
Calhoun returned to Kerrville the following year, and the year after that. While he didn’t fall in love again, he loved much of what he heard. But he was one of the privi-leged few. “I heard these people I thought were brilliant, and none of them had any interest from labels or two nickels to rub together. So I started taking it less personally that things hadn’t gone so well for me and started to look at what could be done as a group.”
Artists on Waterbug Records perform every Sunday between 3 and 6 PM at Martyr’s, 3855 N. Lincoln; admission is $5. The Waterbug Anthology, a sampler of 20 songs, also costs $5 and is available at the label’s weekly showcase. For more information, call 773-404-9494. –Jeffrey Felshman
