No More Road Dogging

“We’re going to put out teasers on the internet,” Scottie Blinn says, “and hope the show goes viral and possibly lands sponsors.” He is not particular who. “Taco stands, guitar-repair shops, car-parts stores, record stores.” The show is Black Market III: The Garage Sessions. It debuts in May on YouTube. The plan for now is to make weekly videos of Black Market III, “jamming, bullshitting, doing stuff out of left field” in Blinn’s Lakeside garage.

Black Market III is the guitarist/singer joined by his wife Roxanne Coverdale on bass and North County drummer Haley Allen. “We might play a song out of our area [blues, roots, grease punk] but put our own take on it, like, a Black Sabbath tune. Or maybe do a Tom Waits cover, or play one of our originals.” Blinn sees the show as an inside view into a working band. “Maybe it will just be the three of us sitting in a circle and writing a song, which we’ll then actually play.”

But the Garage Sessions ultimately have a larger purpose. “We’re going to tie it in with a tour as a tool to accompany and promote our club dates.” Blinn says they have plans to organize gigs in fan garages across the country. “Like house concerts,” he says, “only greasier.”

The show, filmed in Blinn’s garage with a pair of handheld cameras and miked for sound quality, “is designed to get people watching and adding new fans, so when we come to their town we will already have a name.” He explains that, in the old days, a band road-dogged the same circuit several times over and gained fans slowly. Blinn thinks that with YouTube and cross-marketing, BMIII will have an audience in place when they show up to play.

“And we’re gonna pick bands we really dig and bring them to the garage. Tomcat [Courtney], Nena Anderson, Stephen Rey.” Blinn talks about getting national-level performers into the garage, as well, which is not such a stretch. Last year, he hosted blues-guitar workshops in his living room with blues-guitar legends Coco Montoya and Anson Funderbergh.