Dallas businessman brings the blues to classrooms

By Cortney Harding

NEW YORK (Billboard) - A nonprofit record label? Sounds like the punch line to a joke.

But the Blue Shoe Project, a Dallas-based nonprofit aimed at educating school kids about the blues, isn't kidding around.

Co-founder Jeff Dyson describes himself as "not really a musician or a music business person, but just a huge fan of the blues." The telecom executive says he started the Blue Shoe Project with his son Michael when he realized that blues legends were dying off, taking with them stories that would be lost if young people didn't learn about them.

In 2004, the Dysons produced a concert in Dallas featuring acclaimed Mississippi Delta bluesmen Pinetop Perkins, Henry James Townsend, David "Honeyboy" Edwards and Robert Lockwood Jr.

The event, the first that father and son had ever produced, came with a catch: The audience was limited to local college students, who were required to write an essay on the history of the blues in order to gain admission. In addition to performing their songs, the musicians took questions from the audience and told the stories behind their songs.

The Dysons arranged for the concert to be filmed and recorded, thinking it would make a valuable historical document. After incorporating the Blue Shoe Project as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the Dysons made CDs of the concert and sold them online to raise money. One of the album's producers passed along copies of "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas" to some friends who were members of the Recording Academy. The album went on to win a 2007 Grammy Award for best traditional blues album.

Thus far, the Grammy win has yet to translate into sales -- the album has sold fewer than 1,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But the Dysons say the album reached stores only recently, through Burnside Distribution.

"Having a record label hasn't been our priority," Jeff Dyson says. But if they can find funding, they'd like to prepare more releases.