Musicians Who Care Perform for Good Causes

SAN DIEGO —  Looking to its roots in the ‘60s protest movement, rock ‘n’ roll is again becoming socially conscious, and more and more big names are getting involved. Live-Aid, USA for Africa, Jackson Browne’s recent benefit tour for the Christic Institute, and Tom Petty’s current tour with members of Greenpeace are just a few examples.

According to Patricia Grimes, it’s time lesser-known artists also get involved as well. Grimes, 34, is the founder and co-coordinator of Musicians Who Care, an all-volunteer organization with a goal of “bridging together music and social services.”

The 2-year-old group, based in Encinitas, is trying to get San Diego musicians to care, both about themselves and about others.

To achieve the former, there are concerts showcasing local original-music bands in area nightclubs, a bimonthly newsletter to publicize these bands’ latest deeds and accomplishments, a referral service to help them get gigs and a lecture series to help them gain a better understanding of the inner workings of the music business.

And to achieve the latter, there are benefit concerts and fund-raisers for the homeless, the handicapped, local and national crisis-intervention hot lines and various human-rights and environmental groups, like Amnesty International and Clean Ocean.

“What we’re doing is providing San Diego musicians with a multifaceted support network to make sure they do get the recognition they deserve--not only by helping them, but by encouraging them to help themselves and become more active in their own community,” Grimes said.

At the same time, she added, “we’re funneling some of this community activism we’re building among local musicians--this sense of caring we’re instilling in them--outside the San Diego music scene by supporting and raising money for charities, social-service agencies and environmental groups.

“If you’re not in a good place in your own life, you’re not in a position to help anyone else,” she said. “You’ve got your own problems to overcome, and without question, San Diego musicians have plenty of problems: not enough work, low pay, not enough exposure.

“But once you start caring about yourself and find that by working together many of these problems can be overcome, you tend to start caring about others and their problems as well.”

The dual focus of Musicians Who Care--working to improve the lot of San Diego musicians while simultaneously working to better the world around them--is reflected in the background of its founder.

Grimes, a native of Atlanta, spent the first half of her 34 years “immersed in music,” she said. “My mom said that when I was born, I came out dancing. I took piano lessons, studied ballet and played flute and twirled the baton in my high school marching band. I even had my own rock band, playing school dances and parties.”

By the time she graduated from high school, however, Grimes had been brainwashed into believing “that music wasn’t a very respectable career for a young Southern lady,” she said. So in 1974, she moved to Los Angeles and, after earning a degree in community clinical psychology from Long Beach State University, soon found work as director of a social-services agency in nearby Los Alamitos.

For the next decade, Grimes continued to work in the field of social services, winning national plaudits for the suicide-prevention hot line she manned for a short time on Long Beach radio station KNAC-FM.

“I went to the top of my field, going on national speaking tours, lecturing at UCLA, getting tons of publicity and making tons of money, and yet I wasn’t happy,” Grimes recalled. “My first love was still music, and I desperately wanted to find a way to somehow combine the two--get back into music without giving up my social work.”

Grimes eventually found the way in 1987 when she moved south to San Diego and, by chance, fell into a lengthy discussion with the manager of a local rock band about the lack of cohesiveness on the San Diego music scene.

“We ended up concluding that something needed to be done,” Grimes said, “and after getting down all the logistics, we came up with this idea of forming some sort of organization that would enable me to get back into music while keeping me involved with social services; an organization of local musicians interested not only in helping themselves, but in helping others.

“And that’s exactly what Musicians Who Care has become, particularly since (expatriate L.A. musician) Steve Saint signed on as co-coordinator a year ago and brought with him years of experience and know-how, both as a musician and as a social activist/environmentalist.”

Grimes, who is manager of the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, said there are about 35 members in the organization.

“They were super when they helped us,” said Frances Poe of the San Diego Alliance for the Mentally Ill. “They organized a concert at UCSD in May. Our main objective was educational, to try to get across the point that mental illness is a curable illness, and we not only raised a couple of hundred dollars, but we really raised the consciousness of everyone who attended.”

The organization has also been involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Assn., the Joan Kroc Center for the Homeless and Greenpeace.

In August, on a yet-to-be-determined date, the La Paloma Theater will host a benefit concert for Clean Ocean. “We had a literature table at the Encinitas Flower Festival this past spring,” Grimes said, “and across the way from us were the Clean Ocean people. One of our members is a surfer, so he went over and started talking to them, and that’s how we made the connection.” Sharing the bill will be three or four local rock bands.

Those appearances fulfill another goal for the membership organization: providing notoriety for local bands.

“There’s a great deal of talent down here that’s not being recognized because, for one thing, people have the idea that you have to run up to Los Angeles to be discovered,” said Grimes, who is focusing her energy on the organization and is not currently in a band.

“We lose a lot of good musicians because of this perception, and it’s unfortunate, because what generally happens is that they run up to L.A., they don’t make it, and they end up working at some place like Burger King.”

To strengthen the local scene, the organization is currently sponsoring an ongoing “Industry Insider” lecture series. Last Monday evening, nearly 30 local musicians, songwriters, managers and assorted hangers-on gathered on the patio of the D.G. Wills Bookstore in La Jolla to hear promoter Bill Silva give a two-hour rundown on the San Diego concert business.

Silva’s talk, in which he touched upon such points as how acts are chosen, how local upstarts can get a crack at opening shows for national headliners, and what it takes to pull in a good crowd, was followed by another hour of networking. Business cards were exchanged, lunch appointments were set, contacts were made.

On Aug. 21, the third “Industry Insider” lecture will take place at a yet-to-be-determined location. The speaker will be Lisa Fancher, founder and president of independent punk-rock record label Frontier Records. She’ll be collecting demonstration tapes from local would-be’s and discussing “what you should and shouldn’t do when you’re trying to get signed,” Grimes said.

Sometime in September, Musicians Who Care will release “The Care,” a compilation album featuring songs by 10 San Diego original-music bands. The LP will be sent to college radio stations throughout the country, Grimes said, “and with a little luck, there’ll be enough momentum for at least one of these songs to get on commercial radio and maybe even become a national hit.”

And sometime in October, Musicians Who Care will produce “San Diego Music Expo ’89.” The date and location have not yet been set, but the all-day event will consist of various seminars and panel discussions, performances by local bands, a rock ‘n’ roll fashion show, and exhibition booths leased by record companies, radio stations and music stores.

“I’m hoping that Musicians Who Care will be around forever, long after Steve and I are gone,” Grimes said. “Ideally, it will be a self-perpetuating thing. And with enough musicians expending enough time and energy to fuel it, I’m convinced it will be.”