On a leafy Sherman Oaks street, past a sturdy fence and well-tended yard, there is a house of blues.
A large, time-lapse photo of Chicago highways hanging above the fireplace of the Mellenthin Ranch home announces this is the home of Delta Groove Music.
Wood-paneled walls sport folk art and framed posters of the independent record label's acts, which range from veterans like Elvin Bishop to newcomers Cedric Burnside and owner Rand Chortkoff's own band, The Mannish Boys.
Memorabilia and stylized busts of blues musicians are tastefully arranged on table tops and book cases, and the converted bedroom that is Chortkoff's office has its own photo-laden wall of fame. From here, the 61-year-old harp blower charts the careers of some 35 artists - and in his spare time, he programmed the Blues Stage for this weekend's Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Festival.
"It's really a labor of love," Chortkoff said by a small pool in the rustically furnished backyard (he lives in another house in Encino). "You just hope that, at some point, somebody will cross over to a mainstream market like a Stevie Ray Vaughan or a Robert Cray, to the extent that they're actually making money for the label and for themselves.
"It's the blues - it's very, very difficult," he added with a true practitioner's
smile. "But even though it's very small for the blues, we're grateful to have that niche market of loyal people."Chortkoff's evident love for the music has earned him true affection from colleagues and fans over the nearly seven years that Delta Groove has been in operation.
"I've been with them about three years now," said Bishop, who's been one of Chortkoff's heroes since his days with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and whose own Raisin' Hell Revue plays the Simi festival Sunday.
"When I met Rand, I was kind of impressed because you don't see many labels that are run by musicians. Usually, it's more of an adversary type of deal - you know, the musicians against the business guys. But Rand definitely knows what it looks like from the musician's point of view. He's a pretty good guy, and a good harmonica player, too."
Singer Tracy Nelson, another hippie-era legend, dropped her first Delta Groove release, "Victim of the Blues," last month.
"Rand was the one guy that just flat got the record," Nelson, speaking from her home in Nashville, said about her self-produced album, which she shopped to several labels. "It's so unusual. He really understood what I was doing with it."
One of Chortkoff's more ingenious promotional gambits is The Delta Groove All-Star Blues Revue. A yearly showcase of the label's talent, it began as part of the Blues Music Awards festivities in Memphis. Due to recessionary pressures and fortuitous circumstances, though, it became the blues component of last year's Simi festival.
Gary Stewart and Steve Smith are co-entertainment chairmen of the all-for-charity event, put on by the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise.
For most of its 22 years strictly a Cajun/zydeco music show, the festival incorporated blues for the first time two years ago. That drew a bigger crowd, and the addition of Chortkoff has made it even more popular.
"I give a lot of credit to that man," Stewart said. "He's put a lot of time and effort and his own money into helping us grow this. He's a local treasure. We don't have a lot of those kind of guys out here on the West Coast anymore."
Chortkoff is indeed the kind of only-in-L.A. character Stewart indicated. Raised in the Fairfax District, his carpetlayer father was a habitue of the storied Central Avenue jazz scene. No less a figure than Louis Armstrong became a family friend, and there's a photo of 6-year-old Randy covering his ears while Satchmo blows his trumpet in his parents' home.
When he got a little older, the boy developed an ear for doo-wop, James Brown and the bluesier elements of the British Invasion. The father of three, Chortkoff made his living as a salesman of industrial products for many years.
In the early 1980s, he formed The Dirt Cheap Blues Band with fellow Santa Fe Freight employees. That introduced him to the marketing and promoting side of the music game, and evolved into producing shows for the likes of Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, and the annual Blues Hall of Fame Festival for 11 years.
By the 21st century, Chortkoff was producing records and making a good living raising financing for independent films. Both fields underwent painful contractions, and Chortkoff made a life-changing decision.
"No one was picking up my albums by then," he recalled. "So I just said the heck with it, if I can't beat 'em I'll join 'em. I had absolutely no clue how to start a record label. But I took the money I made from the film projects and put it toward my real passion, music and the blues.
"I'm not willing to take on a project just because I think it might make money," he said. "It's got to suit me, I've got to feel it. The music is the most important thing."
The Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Festival will be held 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park, 5005 Los Angeles Ave. Tickets are $18 adults, $15 ages 5-12, free 4 and under. For more information, go to www.cajun-blues.com.
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18160374?source=rss
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