Blue Monday returns April 12 on usual second Monday night of month
The Blue Monday Concert Series will officially return from its pandemic hiatus, on its normal second-Monday night of the month, April 12, at The Grouse Room, and will be sponsored by Grocery Tavern & Delicatessen.
Blue Monday’s return theme will take it back to its roots, with a tribute to the legends who lent their legendary talents to the mission in its founding: Carol Fran, Paul “Lil’ Buck” Sinegal and Major Handy. There will be a set of performances in tribute to each, with current Blue Monday-affiliated artists taking Love of People’s non-profit fundraising concert series back to its beginning.
“The mission didn't go anywhere, but the concert series has returned,” said John Williams, founder and chief executive of life-care service company Quality of Live Services, which founded and operates Love of People.
“I’m glad to see people coming back together,” Williams said, “because with the emotional distress people were going through due to this pandemic, our culture needed to be revitalized, so it can heal people through the healing power of music.”
Jill Butler Merkl and Erica Fox will perform in tribute and dedication to Fran, who’s currently struggling through poor health. Sir Reginal Dural, Lee Allen Zeno, and other members of Sinegal’s last band, Greg Gordon and Pablo Pellerin, will perform a tribute to Sinegal, who passed away in 2019. For the final tribute, Major Handy will return to the Blue Monday stage to perform his set, as only he can.
Fran, Sinegal and Handy were integral to the growth of the concert series, and in turn the growth of services provided by Love of People. LOP was founded to support creatives with life-care services, specifically elder and tenured creatives. It uses events like Blue Monday to organically support the entire creative economy, from artists, to venues, to service-industry staffers and to sponsors and promoters.
The pandemic spurred on and highlighted the importance of the BMM’s work with creatives – from partnering with sponsors and restaurants to provide thousands of meals to creatives and front-line workers, to creating professional opportunities for creatives when there were few. Now, Love of People’s work is focused on rebuilding that community through Louisiana’s most proud resource – its culture.
“Even though things are opening up, our guard is not down,” Williams said. Blue Monday and Williams’ affiliated organizations work with Industrial Safety Solutions to professionally sanitize venues before and after events.
“I just want to keep awareness that as we come back together,” said Williams, “we need to maintain some of these safer practices that were implemented due to COVID[-19] . . . to ensure that we don’t have to go back.”