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Dennis “Big D” Schaibly Spreads his Love of the Blues

Catfish Carol posted on July 27, 2011 09:03

Many of you already know Dennis “Big D” Schaibly from his radio show “Sitting at the Crossroads with Big D,” on WWOZ FM 90.7 Wednesday afternoons from 2-4 p.m. This year, Big D became a two-year director of the Voodoo Blues Krewe/New Orleans Blues Society, and is a tremendous asset for the society with his long involvement with the Blues.

“D’,” as he is affectionately known, first became interested in the Blues back in the ’60s as an avid fan of rock ’n’ roll. As he read interviews with his favorite band, he realized they were all influenced by Delta and Chicago Blues musicians. “I wanted to find out where that came from and that led me to a passion for the Blues that predated rock ’n’ roll,” he says. “If you look at most of the rock ’n’ rollers of the ’60s, before they became famous they were doing Blues and listening to Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Hurt and Guitar Slim and I asked myself, ‘If this is what they’re listening to why am I not listening to it?’”

D’ and his wife moved to the New Orleans area from Tampa Bay in 1992 for his job at a large machinery repair shop. “We came here expecting to stay a couple or three years with that job, but I guess we drank the water and then it was all over so we never left.”

From the first month he moved to town Big D’ became an avid WWOZ listener and volunteered for the fund drive when he could fit it into his schedule. In 1999, he found himself between two jobs and spent a whole week helping with the drive and started working with Freddy Blue, a disc jockey who had the 10 p.m. to midnight show on Saturdays. “The original invitation was to come help set the studio and watch the bands, and after four or five shows it grew into the two of us co-hosting the show, and we did that show until Katrina.”

D’ took the formal training offered by WWOZ and started filling in for DJs who were out of town. In 2003, he took over the Wednesday afternoon Blues show when the original host left to go to school for the summer, and has had his own show ever since. In the beginning he would arrive at the studio with a hand cart and five boxes of CDs for every show. Now, he walks in with a 0.5-terabyte hard drive in his shirt pocket. “It makes life a whole lot easier,” he says.

Long before there was a VBK/NOBS, Big D’ was active with the Baton Rouge Blues Society and has also been involved with the Blues Foundation for 15 years. And, of course, all along he’s been making sure the Blues stay alive. “New Orleans is a town that, in all reality, should be considered the home of the Blues in that they were being played and enjoyed here long before the highly talented musicians of the Delta were allowed to go out and play in public. But once the slave and plantation system began to dissolve and there was freedom to travel and play more, and Blues musicians took full advantage of it. A that time, jazz came to the forefront in New Orleans and Blues got set on the shelf,” he says.

“The most fascinating thing to me is how, in its infinite simplicity, the Blues become totally universal to the thoughts and feelings of the world; and then, from that basic, simple root system, you grow all the limbs of what is the Blues—Chicago, Texas, Piedmont, North Mississippi, Lower Delta—all similar in form and feeling, but very different in their ultimate styles. Blues is a mansion with many rooms. If you want to look at how WWOZ approaches the Blues, the 2-4 p.m. time slot every day is Blues and R&B, and you’ve got 6 people and they all take a different approach to what part of the Blues they are presenting. To classify mine, I am very much into new release Blues, what’s happening in the Blues today, and then if there’s a way I will link it back to where it came from,” he says.

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Comments

# wardell williams

Wednesday, August 03, 2011 6:30 PM

The Blues for me are the words and the story told by each individual . The Street prose that they used and the hidden inuendo's that fell from their lips came unbrideled because white people did not know what they meant. It has taken me years (50) to understand and to still do the so called standards that have stood the test of time. The Blues for me is more than a passion its like a Mistress that has called me and beckoned me throught the years. It still get my juices flowing, It make me what I am !!!!