The jam spread was a blues newsletter that I started up in 1999; it lived and died in Singapore, and I pulled the plug when I finally fled the country in March 2000. The idea first kicked in after almost a year of producing the Blues in the Basement shows at The Substation; but it wasn't strictly a spin-off concept -- local music/gig magazines like BigO and Juice weren't doing much to promote the blues scene (despite the fact that there was plenty of stuff going on), and the bands deserved better. Someone had to do it, so we invented the jam spread to get the news out on blues.

The content was hardly "blues scholar" material, but that wasn't the point. The idea was to have a jam, with musicians writing about the music they love. The first three issues were edited (and written, more or less) on The Substation's crash-prone PowerMac. (I later progressed to an even shittier PowerMac at work.) I roped in musicians Gerry Nelson and Kelvin Ng as writers, and that was it. We wrote reviews, ranting editorials, advice columns ("Ask Smokey," "Blind Man's Boogie"), and anything that seemed essential, practical, funny, or even trivial about the blues. I blew about a hundred bucks on photocopying for each issue, and then we passed out all the copies at Tower Records, HMV, Roxy, The Substation, and our gigs.

We earned an anonymous cult readership. I never actually saw anyone crawl out from underneath his rock and pick up an issue of jam spread, but the copies always vanished fast. We eventually got a trickle of fan mail, although I could never get them to come to our gigs. Anyway, we couldn't let a good blues rag die, so we we put the memorial online. Enjoy it if you can.

If you'd like a hard copy of any back issues of the jam spread, e-mail jamspread@yahoo.com. It's free! I'm still working at posting the back issues on the Web, so thanks for your patience.

• Issue no. 1
  January 1999. Features: The Return of Robert Johnson (Rob Johnson @ No. 5 Emerald Hill); Hong Kong Blues by Dick Eu; Le Bleus Man (J. J. Milteau @ The Substation); Perpetual Blues Machine (Keb' Mo' in San Francisco). CD Reviews: Keb' Mo' (Slow Down), B. B. King (Blues on the Bayou), Roy Gaines (T-Bone Walker Blues).
• Issue no. 2
  April 1999. Features: The Disgraceful Art of Headcutting by Smokey Ng; Gross Anatomy of a Gig (editorial). CD reviews: Jimmy Rogers All-Stars (Blues Blues Blues), Robert Jr. Lockwood (Got to Find Me a Woman).
• Issue no. 3
  August 1999. Features: Weekend at Bernie's (Dave Hole gig); The Basement Deepens (Blues in the Basement 6); Get Yer Blues in Gear by Blind Man Nelson. CD reviews: Corey Harris (Greens from the Garden), Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (Gate Swings), The Best of Austin City Limits.
• Issue no. 4
  November 1999. Features: Blues on One Chord (editorial); Blues on MP3 by Joe Norwood. CD reviews: B. B. King (Let the Good Times Roll), Albert King compilations.
• Issue no. 5
  February 2000. Features: Johnny Goes To Town (Johnnie Johnson gig); Burdon Rocks the Quay (Eric Burdon gig); It's a Roots Thang (review of The Winston Blues Revival at Irving Plaza, NYC); House of Corey (review of Corey Harris at the House of Blues); Why U Blue Like Dat? (Siva Choy @ Crazy Elephant). CD reviews: John Lee Hooker (Sittin' Here Thinkin'), Robert Nighthawk (Bricks in My Pillow).