Sounds of silence? Fees spur venues to scrap live music — by Andy Marso sctimes.com

When health problems kept Mike Thole from going on the road, the Sunday night workshops at Bo Diddley’s became his musical refuge.

Thole, who recently turned 60, suffered several complications from a childhood bout with polio, including arthritis in his back and leg and pain from a recent hip replacement. By this summer, the pain was so bad he could no longer tour with his band, Ring of Kerry.

But the local guitar player still had “The Acoustic Project,” the weekly get-together at Bo Diddley’s that he’d started years earlier. It was something to look forward to; a place for him to teach some of St. Cloud’s less-experienced musicians and help them forge their talents in the fires of live performance — even if the artists frequently outnumbered their listeners.

“We were doing something with a high degree of artistry,” Thole said. “We weren’t playing ‘Free Bird’ for some drunk in the back of a bar.”

So it cut Thole deeply when “The Acoustic Project” was taken away from him this summer, too. This time it had nothing to do with his health. Thole was told that Bo Diddley’s was indefinitely suspending its live music — a staple at the restaurant since 1982 — because a national music licensing company was demanding several years worth of licensing fees from the eatery’s owners.

Thole was shocked. He realized he might have covered a licensed songwriter’s work at some point during the weekly sessions, but it wasn’t as though he were trying to get rich off someone else’s work. Bo Diddley’s never charged any entrance fees and he wasn’t getting paid, aside from the occasional free sub sandwich.

“This one really sucked, because I couldn’t even play for a fricking sandwich,” Thole said. “I could have done the thing at Bo Diddley’s. That was something that, physically, I could still do and loved doing.”

Nothing new

Bo Diddley’s is not the first local venue to cut live music under pressure from licensing companies.

“Fully 50 percent of the clubs that we were gigging at five years ago have shut down their live music,” said Dan Preston of local band Preston and Paulzine.

Within the past three years, Bravo Burritos and Grizzly’s Wood-Fired Grill (formerly Bear Creek) in Waite Park ended all live performances after receiving letters and phone calls from licensing companies that their ownership said became progressively more aggressive. Brian Lee, co-owner of The White Horse, said his bar is “seriously considering” doing the same.

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posted by Finnegan's Wake Music