New effort to help struggling Chicago Blues musicians amid coronavirus pandemic

Musicians are left without a note to play as the coronavirus pandemic drags on. But now, Chicago’s Blues community is banding together to help each other out.

Many of us know about restaurant and hospitality workers have been left jobless by the pandemic, but a group hit just as hard are full-time, touring musicians whose livelihoods have been wiped out for the near future.

The Blues, which is just as big of a piece of the cultural fabric of the city as hot dogs and deep dish, has right now been completely silenced.

“The traveling musician. The touring musician. The hard-touring musician that is completely without any work right now,” said guitarist Nick Moss.

Moss, who typically plays between 200 and 250 shows per year, last performed live on March 15th. All his shows have been canceled through August.

“Buddy Guy's was a mainstay for me. House of Blues was a mainstay. But mostly, we were traveling all over the world up until a month-and-a-half ago,” Moss said.

To help other touring musicians also without an income, he co-created a GoFundMe campaign called "Paying the Blues Forward," which is putting $1000 checks into the hands of Blues artists.

“We're asking people to donate what they can. Our goal is to get each musician that signs up $1,000 dollars. So far, we've raised $22,000 and we've paid 22 musicians a thousand dollars each,” Moss said.

The fund has already helped out some notable artists including two-time Grammy nominee John Primer, and another local guitar legend Chris Crain.

“Started seeing friends' posts about losing gigs and tours, complete whole tours and we just decided there's gotta be some way to help out,” Moss said.

If you contribute, you don't just get the satisfaction of helping, you'll also get to download 10 brand new songs written by local Blues artists during the pandemic.

“These are new songs that no one's ever heard before that we wrote just for this,” Moss said.

To find the campaign, just visit GoFundMe and search "Paying the Blues Forward."