The band resisted a commercial formula and found success.

by Mike Kravinsky

Think rock music. Think youth. Busloads (or planes if you're famous) of people traveling from gig to gig. Damaged hotel rooms, booze, drugs, amazingly silly contract riders. Groupies. And it's not just guys. Women rock too. Quite often, they have escapades that rival guy bands.

You know what you don't think of? Girl (woman?) bands in their forties and fifties. Pam Delgado, Jeri Jones, Renee Harcourt and Monica Pasqual are members of Blame Sally, a folk rock band that's truly good. They really rock. They are the quintessential late bloomers. The band has been around for ten years now; and in 2008, they got a five-year, three-album contract worth half-a-million dollars. That's rare in this day and age.

When Blame Sally was formed, they didn't look for riches. They sought out fun and music instead. Because the pressure was off, they played what was right for them as opposed to what a record company thought they should play. As a result, success found them.

I found talking with one of them was like talking with all of them. They're all on the same page. It's not an act - they're truly in sync with each other with regards to how they want their music to sound and their band to progress.
 
Monica and Renee met around twenty years ago as new composers at a songwriters' contest in Napa Valley, California. Renee won the contest; but afterwards, she approached Monica to tell her that she really enjoyed her music. The two struck up a friendship based on their mutual respect of each others' work. They did shows together, but as solo performers.

Even though they liked each others' work, they both had their own bands. Monica's was Planet Ranch, which included future Blame Sally members Jeri and Pam. Renee's band was Ruby's Tattoo. In 2000, Monica put out a solo CD. Having worked with the others, Monica asked if they would join her in doing some live performances to promote her new album. That's where it clicked. Pam recalled, "Almost immediately, we started hearing interesting harmonies and really good blends that were happening vocally... we all just started getting excited about it."  They had so much fun doing the rehearsals and vocal arrangements, they felt "this cannot be the last thing we do. We've all got songs, so let's just do a democratic thing where we all sing and write and have fun," noted Monica.  So they started Blame Sally.

The music business can twist people around. Music executives want to make money, and artists want to make music. When a musician or band wants to make a real living, they shoot for getting signed to a contract. As a result, they'll often write and perform what the label wants, which is usually some version of the latest hit. Renee remembers, "I had business people telling me what to do in the '90's. Basically what they were telling me was whatever was a big hit, that's what we want you to do.  It really led me on a wild goose chase."

Blame Sally started not with the idea of following that rule, but rather with making the music they wanted to hear. It wasn't serious. "We'd all started and gotten close to success as solo artists. But when we started the band, we're like you know, we're too old and we don't want people telling us that... we just don't want to care. We don't want to think something huge is gonna happen." So they played music and had fun. Actually, that was the rule in Blame Sally. Guitarist Jeri said, "The deal was, (with Blame Sally) we'd already been in all these commercial projects, and this particular one was going to be just for fun." 

This philosophy worked. Blame Sally was a hobby and a passion. Pam says, "We would play spontaneously at parties... and people would respond in really powerful ways." From there, things just fell into place. Monica's boyfriend, a photographer, took some promotional photos. Renee, who is a designer as well as musician, designed the covers for their CD's.  Success wasn't the point of Blame Sally but it came anyway. "Almost immediately we started getting gigs and a great following," said Monica. "I think anybody in the industry would have said, 'Oh you gotta be kidding, you're way too old' etc. etc.  But the reality is that people loved it. We were women in our 40's who were rockin' with original stuff."

I would describe the band as using the foundation of the sixties to create a sound that's fresh - not doing covers of sixties hits; but rather using the ingredients of the sixties to create something new. Monica describes the band's music as eclectic and rich with individual tradition, because all the members come from pretty diverse backgrounds. It's a seamless melding of those traditions. All of the members bring something different to Blame Sally.

Signing the contract was a great break for the band because Wayne Skeen, CEO of their label Ninth Street Opus, was a fan. "They are all great songwriters and singers and players and performers," he said,  "Four different skills. It's very rare to find all of these traits in one rock band.  For me, there was no top down plan; just faith that with a little push from Opus, they could play before more and bigger audiences.  So far, so good on all fronts."

Pam says there was one hitch: "Wayne was putting it on the table that he really wanted us to not do anything else but music... no day jobs!" They all eventually agreed even though some of the members had houses and kids. Initially, it was a little scary for the band; but Jeri, who turned fifty just a month before their contract, said, "It wasn't my first record contract, but it was the first one I signed because it was so good."

Renee realizes it's tough to make a living in music. Given that success came when they got the right people in the band and played what experience taught them was the right music; her advice is, "Don't listen to the business people in the music business. Be true to your creativity and your heart, and don't abandon that in trying to be successful." Jeri notes that Blame Sally members remind each other on almost a daily basis that after years of struggling,  "We're the lucky band."