It's
a balmy Saturday night in downtown San Diego, and musician Chuck
Perrin, a 1969 Notre Dame graduate, is, literally, in his comfort
zone. In the Southern California coastal community that the Midwest
native has called home for more than a quarter of a century, Perrin
has claimed his niche in the fast-growing fringe of San Diego's
hip Gaslamp District (think Chicago's Rush or Memphis' Beale streets).
Perrin opened a music-only club, Dizzy's San Diego, in 2000
to the delight of aspiring and seasoned musicians alike. Dizzy's
trademarked slogan "Where the music matters most" has
become its marketing mantra, attracting jazz aficionados weary
of high-priced concert venues and two-drink minimums. With no
alcohol served on site, Dizzy's is accessible to music lovers
of all ages.
Tonight the front door to 344 Seventh Avenue is open so the
fragrant summer air can waft in even as the sounds of contemporary
jazz arrest diners on their way to a swanky new restaurant next
door. Taking up his post at the door, Perrin collects a crumpled
$10 bill, that night's cover charge, stuffs it into a baggy pants
pocket and motions the newcomer to one of the 70-or-so folding
chairs facing the stage. His nightly accounting system is simple
and based on a good deal of mutual trust. He tallies the receipts:
70 percent to the band, 15 percent to building owner Fritz Ahern
and 15 percent to himself.
This is obviously a labor motivated by love, not commerce. Ahern
concurs, "Chuck loves what he does. They've got a great piano
at Dizzy's and a great sound system that people just donated.
One time I went in and there were only five people there. Chuck
just shrugged and said 'If I wasn't here, I'd be listening to
music at home.'"
A practicing anachronist, the web-savvy Perrin worships at the
shrine of the Beat Poets, embraces the latest computer technology
with gusto yet eschews cell phones. Sounding neither self-effacing
nor aggrandizing, he extols his craft with a delight that seems
to scream "I can't believe I get to do something so cool!"
Perrin began writing music in 1963 and in 1966 started his record
company, Webster's Last Word, with his sister, Mary. Folk music
and covers of popular songs dominated much of his early career
as a vocalist and acoustic guitarist. He performed with Mary and
with the five-member ND garage band The Shaggs, as well as with
a number of other groups throughout the 1960s. The brother-sister
duo played the coffee house circuit then worked in Hawaii for
six months, Chicago and at Opryland in Nashville before moving
to San Diego in 1976.
In 1978, he made a career move "to set myself up so that I could
do what I wanted in the future." He took a position as the entertainment
scheduler for a national restaurant chain, a post he held until
1990. "I still schedule entertainment for them but as an independent
contractor," he explains. Perrin credits the job with helping
him understand the corporate mindset and function as a fluent
interpreter between the commercial and creative minds in his business.
Perrin is an outspoken opponent of recent music industry crackdowns
on Internet websites that encourage sharing of copyrighted recordings.
"Soon, music will be legally available free or at a very low cost
to everyone to download or access by whatever technological means
is available," he says. "This is an amazing time to be a creative
person. You have control over your own stuff if you want it. Technology
has put the tools at your disposal."
Perrin spends most of his free time writing, arranging and recording
his own work. Two previous CDs, Beat.itude and Swallow
Life, have earned cult followings. A third CD, Love Matters,
is scheduled for release in February.
Love Matters is a musical Valentine to Nona, Perrin's
second wife. "We understand what each other values in a relationship
and enter into that commitment willingly," he says, adding, "I
dream about her at night and get to live my days with her too."
The CD package (all of Perrin's packaging is as demonstrably
creative as the content) he says, "is shaping up to be a book
of poems with a music CD enclosed. . . . I hope it expresses the
real, un-clichéd feelings about love and especially that
elusive lightning we all want to capture and hold on to -- passion.
With love, the challenge is not the flame, which flickers seemingly
at will. It is learning how to fan the fires of passion and keep
them burning fiercely."
For more information on Perrin's recordings or Dizzy's San Diego,
visit www.dizzyssandiego.com
or http://chuckperrin.com or leave a message at (858) 270-7467.
* * *
Former South Bend resident Liz (Woyton) Warren is a freelance
writer based in Southern California.
(Autumn 2003)
