Bowersox found fame by leaving Toledo
Written by Keith Bergman | | news@toledofreepress.comI don’t know Crystal Bowersox. We have some mutual friends, but my only real connection to her is the same as everyone else’s here in Toledo — thrilled to see a local talent plucked out of obscurity and given an international stage. As a musician myself, it’s gratifying to see someone with such obvious gifts get the attention she deserves. Win or lose, she’s been handed the keys to the kingdom. While some in the national media have criticized the waning ratings and overall dip in quality on American Idol this season, there’s no arguing that a TV audience of twenty million and change is better for one’s career than a half-packed house at the Village Idiot on Monday night.
But because I’m a musician — a pretty half-assed one, but I’ve done my time — my perspective on the whole thing is bittersweet. Crystal on television, the one galvanizing our whole city into an outpouring of positivity and support, is the same Crystal she was when she played those half-empty bars. How many of the people rooting for her now wouldn’t have been caught dead going out to see “some unknown chick with dreads” at a local pub? How many of them would have gone to the bar and balked at paying a modest cover to see a live act, or left for somewhere quieter to have their drinks?
The sad fact is that Toledo didn’t know what it had in its own back yard, and by and large couldn’t be bothered to look. Only after someone outside Toledo validated Crystal did a bunch of us wake up and say “hey, that kid’s got something!” Could this be due to our legendary self-esteem issue as a city? Our feeling that nothing coming from our ‘burg could be worth checking out? Or is it just a symptom of an age where Facebooking, late-night TV, and video gaming have replaced a night on the town socializing and soaking up some tunes for so many people?
Plenty of other reasons could be offered up. Smokers will point to the smoking ban as the reason they’re not out. Many of us are either unemployed and too broke, or overworked and dog-paddling like mad to stay afloat, and too tired to stay out late for a show. Toledo’s clubs could soak up some blame, as well. Most are notorious for their scattershot booking policies, where cultivating the best talent and forming a signature sound for a room are lost arts, and patrons have no idea what to expect in terms of genre or quality when they walk in the door. It doesn’t take a lot of lame shows to wear out even the best-intentioned fan and make them start staying home.
But a lot of it seems to be the old standby — you’re nobody in your home town until you make it somewhere else. I don’t know if there’s a solution to this, or if it’s actually a good thing in some perverse way, making artists work harder and suffer in obscurity — maybe it builds character. But wouldn’t it be awesome if, the next time some bright new star broke out of our city limits, if her neighbors were already hip to her greatness? If, when our out-of-town friends said “have you seen that singer from your town on TV?” we could reply with “oh yeah, that’s our girl. We’ve been behind her for years. She’s the hottest thing since pockets around here.”
It might put us, collectively, one small step closer to having “Toledo Pride” not just on an overpass, but in our hearts, too.
Tags: American Idol, Crystal Bowersox
If Miss Crystal, makes it big time and leaves Toledo, forever (like every successful person / business has)…will Butch Kapturd, call her greedy ?
This comment was posted on May 4th, 2010 at 10:42 amYou can bet your life on it !
Good article Keith. I’m a musician too and did my time playing gigs all around CT – every coffee house and bar. But – in the end, it’s just human nature. The upside is that there are great people too who get it – and even though most of us will never see the opportunity Crystal has deservedly won, I can still say it was worth every gig. It did build character – you are right. And, as far as Crystal goes – I find a sense of relief and gratefulness that she broke through… :)
This comment was posted on May 4th, 2010 at 12:23 pmkeith, you hit the nail on the head with this line: “Or is it just a symptom of an age where Facebooking, late-night TV, and video gaming have replaced a night on the town socializing and soaking up some tunes for so many people?”
This comment was posted on May 4th, 2010 at 12:57 pmDid you guys ever think that maybe Crystal just was a better musician than you? You probably sucked really bad and thats why you didn’t make it! Believe it or not but Crystal had and has a lot of support here in Toledo. If any of you do make it and decide to leave that would be on you, but maybe you could take ty coon with you. I can tell you our city would absolutely love you if you took this idiot moron with you!!!!
This comment was posted on May 4th, 2010 at 4:55 pmMaybe Crystal’s success will wake up some people as to the talent in our own backyard and catapult those to national exposure too.
This comment was posted on May 4th, 2010 at 6:28 pmI hope Ty Coon moves soon – he brings down the room. What a waste of meat. (who doesn’t understand that Toledo is not Hollywood? DUH!)
Go Crystal!!!!
This comment was posted on May 4th, 2010 at 10:21 pmDear Ryan, You vote the straight Demonrat ticket don’t you ?
This comment was posted on May 5th, 2010 at 10:00 amIgnoramus’s, fools, Marxists,America haters ,and weirdo’s always do.Their sad reality is to whine as you do, all the while people and businesses FLEE ! And, dissolute dimwits like you assign blame to folks wholly without cause ?!
QUESTION: How many Fortune 500 companies called Toledo, home in 1982 when Kapturd was voted in and, how many are there now ?
A monogrammed cry baby towel just for you if you can come within 12, of the correct number who SPLIT !
Now, post to swampscum or glasscityjackasses, if you desire communication with someone with your bent!
Dear Duhh,Dumb, or what ever you are, Graduated from a “perpetual in-crisis”, TPS, didn’t you ? I can spot one of you inflamed boils a thousand miles away.
This comment was posted on May 5th, 2010 at 10:06 amP.S. How’s that hopian and change jive doing YOU lately ?
Now, post to someone who cares in your welfare crowd of loafers, losers, and lazy trough feeders.
Yes, good article. I was going to post my initial reaction, but then Beth Styles took the (printed) words right out of my mouth. It IS human nature.
I live 3,000 miles away from Toledo, but the reality is that no small or mid-size community truly embraces their own until their own succeed on the national stage.
I don’t know Crystal Bowersox but my impression is of a pure, genuine talent with a unique voice who is true to herself.
I also suspect she won’t win American Idol. (Please don’t be disheartened if she doesn’t: It’s nothing to do with her, but rather the nitwits who rock the Idol vote.)
Some good has come of this, even if she gets voted out tonight.
I would never have heard of Bowersox, or her songs, were it not for Idol. Thanks to iTunes, I have a couple of her tunes on my iPod — though, at 2 minutes, 20 seconds, I sometimes wonder what the point is. This is an artist who should be heard in 5, 10 minute stretches at a time.
The thing is, Lilith Fair started in my back yard, and that’s where I see her going, long after her Idol “journey” is just another road memory.
Beth Styles is right. But what’s cool is being there in the beginning, seeing Bowersox in a two-thirds-empty bar and being one of the very few who spots something unique in that voice.
This is what Idol was supposed to do, after all: Find somebody the record companies (ha!) overlooked and thrust them into the national spotlight, even if it’s only TV. Rock on, babe.
This comment was posted on May 5th, 2010 at 7:09 pmDear Ty Coon. I am willing to help pay for medication or something for you. You are in a very bad place. No way to go through life sir.
I am not in the book but I am easy to find and I am quite serious about trying to help you.
This comment was posted on May 5th, 2010 at 11:56 pmDear Mr. Russ, Marcy Kapturd, Carleton S. Finkbiner, Robert McCluskey,or who ever you are, your elementary post is one often used by the ineffectual halfwits.
This comment was posted on May 6th, 2010 at 10:45 am[ie.You should not go bear hunting with a pea shooter !]
I have always believed that liberal lunatics such as yourself,are as unoriginal as 2 year olds. And, have never had an original thought in their entire miserable lives. Your post is indicative of my prescience.
I do have some advise for you though …put Saul Alynski’s ,book on “Rules For Radical’s” , down !
Personal attacks on me just doesn’t feed the bear.
Now, post to some twink, a twist,or someone worthy of your menstrual moanings .
REALITY CHECK : 8 of the 19 ,9/11/2001 hijackers ,who brought down the Towers in NYC,were registered voters.
Which political party did all 8 belong to ?
A)the Demonrat party,
B)the Demonrat Party of AmeriKa,
C)the Demonrat Party of U.S.A.,
D) the Demonrat Party of ObaMao.
A pill to correct the mental disease that is liberalism ,to the first correct psychotic leftist to answer.
This comment was posted on May 6th, 2010 at 11:22 amLet’s TRY to keep the focus on Crystal and Keith’s article.
This comment was posted on May 6th, 2010 at 12:42 pmThis article asks a great question and one worthy of sincere discussion. In my experience, leaving Toledo provided me with an excellent career in entertainment. When I returned…nothing. It seems Toledo finds no value in my experience and/or education. I hear this from many Toledoans who strive to do something beyond the 9 to 5 norm. I could speculate but I really don’t know. So thank you to Mr. Bergman and the posters here who are giving some thought to what I see as a very serious problem. If Toledo really wants to see an end to brain drain and create a city that is inviting to people skilled in a variety of artistic fields, including the musically inclined, some positive discussion needs to take place on just how to make that happen. This missing part of Toledo’s population hurts the city.
As for you “Ty Coon,” you are what I call a blog-coward. You come on here and vent your idiotic hate on every single story I read. Your juvenile gibberish comments make no sense. You regularly attack anyone and everyone that actually tries to have an intelligent back-n-forth about serious issues. I call you a coward because you attack people using your anonymous (and equally idiotic) cyber-name. At times it is funny reading what you write because the logic, grammar use and tone are an exact match to a three-year-old child who has been told they can’t have ice cream for breakfast. But your attacking of people only serves to reduce the likelihood of people interested in serious discussion from posting. It blackens the eye of a serious forum put up by the great people of the Toledo Free Press. That is, in my opinion, cowardice at its worst.
So attack me if you want Ty Coon, but at least be a man. My name, my real name, is Robert William Russ and I stand by my words.
This comment was posted on May 6th, 2010 at 4:57 pmDear Mr. Russ, Gerken, Kapturd,McCluskey, or who ever you are.
This comment was posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:19 pmDIDN’T READ ONE BLASTED WORD !
I did see my name which automatically, blinds me to leftist idiocy…a self preservation technique I picked up as a Wildcat and, as a Quaker.
The length of your menstrual whining diatribe does seems as though I struck a liberal lunatics ‘Marxist nerve though.
My ridicule of you America haters and, your kind is completely deserving and will be unrelenting !
So, carry on with your bleating on swampscum or glasscityjackasses. There, you can frolic with economic imbeciles, pedophile history indoctrinators, out of work Yellow Blade liars and, a variety of like minded mental homunculus like you.
Now, post to someone who gives a spit…whiners, moaners ,and twinks like you are a dime a trillion.
Oh, and I will be at Chrystals’ homecoming…to be sure !!
This comment was posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:21 pmToledo has many things musical. One would be the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. I am proud and thankful to be part of archiving their performances. I am so very proud of Crystal and would love to work with her as well. Toledo has much to be proud for and thankful of. Let’s start there.
This comment was posted on May 13th, 2010 at 1:54 pm