Artist Spotlight

~ They’re classic rock with a new story and every time they take the stage they bring back rock and roll history while making some
of their own ~

Bruce Zimmerman, Cape Legend
By Heather Jenkins

One of the best things about living in or around Cape Girardeau is the amount and quality of music that we have.  Here in Cape, we have a very unique placement that allows for many different types and genres of music.  We are very similar to a musical crossroads-right in between St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville, and Branson. 

The result is evident every weekend night when music pours from clubs downtown.  Rock, blues, country, bluegrass, and metal can all be heard on any given weekend at a variety of different venues.  What is a little bit more unusual is to have a man that has been labeled, at one time or another, three of the five genres.  Bruce Zimmerman is sometimes a country crooner, sometimes a blues man, and sometimes a rocker.  When I told my friend JJ that I would be interviewing him for a story, he said simply, “That man is awesome.  He’s a Cape legend.”  I tend to agree with JJ.

Bruce is truly a local musician.  He was born and raised in Bernie, Missouri in a house where his parents still live.  He has been playing the guitar ever since he was five or six-just a little guy! He explained to me how he has always had an ear for music.  His aunt’s boyfriend gave him an old beat up acoustic guitar to play on.  His daddy taught him to play an A chord on the guitar but that wasn’t enough for Bruce.  He remembers that his dad’s band would practice at their house and he would often sit in and play his own guitar along with them.  He very quickly learned to distinguish the difference between the chord his daddy had taught him and the other chords in the music.  So, after the band practices, he had his dad teach him the other chords as well.  By the age of nine, he was in a band of his own.  The Four Z’s was made up of other family members and he played with them for several years.  Throughout junior high school, he played with The Blazers. 

After high school, he went on the road and played music all over the country.  His guitar enabled him to earn a different type of education that he may not have gotten otherwise.  Ever the kind man, he said that it was a great experience to be able to see and be around people of different cultures.  He explained to me that it enabled him to appreciate different types of people.  He shared a story with me about playing a small club in Southern Louisiana called the Golden Gator.  He said that it was way back in the woods and after meeting the club owner, he told Bruce which door to exit out of if shots rang out. Needless to say, Bruce was a little shocked to hear that! Then about an hour before the show was to begin, people began piling in on horses, tractors, you name it! He said it turned out to be a great time and an awesome show. 

As I mentioned earlier, Bruce can wear several different labels.  When he was learning to play guitar, country music was really popular and he quickly got labeled a country musician.  Later when The Beatles were big and Bruce started playing a more rock style of music, he had a rocker label slapped on him.  Then, he started a blues band and was deemed a blues player.  He has had to overcome each label to be able to play a different type of music.  I have to admit that before this interview, I primarily thought of him as a blues musician. 

Years ago, he and a friend, Doyle Hendricks, began to play at Broussard’s as a blues band.  They played under the name Whitey and Slick. When they began, it was just the two of them but it soon turned into a five piece band.  The popularity of Whitey and Slick help to expand Broussard’s to the size that it is today.  Then they began to play at Port Cape on Sunday nights twenty years ago and that is where you can find Bruce now.  He loves the intimacy of Port Cape with the band being almost in the audience.  He also has a suggestion for dinner-the blackened salmon.  Be sure to try it the next time you’re there! 

When I asked him why he  came back to a smaller town like Cape after he had been traveling and playing music, he said that he came back because of the size, his friends, the area, the venues, and he just likes being home.  There is not the same amount of cutthroat competition that is present in bigger cities like Nashville or Memphis. In fact, the opposite is true in Cape.  Bruce told me that some of his traveling musician friends have often commented on the music scene here.  They comment on both the quality of the music scene and the friendship that is evident among the musicians. Everyone seems to look out for each other and help each other along.  That being said, I asked Bruce what advice he had for young musicians just starting out.  He said that they need to be warned that at one time or another, all bands break up so don’t let it discourage them to not play music anymore.  He said to keep playing and try different musicians and different styles of music. 

I told Bruce what my friend JJ had said about him and he chuckled and said he was flattered. He jokingly asked if he was a legend because he had been around forever or was it because of his guitar playing?  He feels privileged to be able to do what he loves to do for a living in a place that he loves. That privilege, enabled by his fan base, is something Bruce is truly thankful for.

He wanted to show people that hard work gets you to where you want to be.  After my interview with Bruce, I felt as if he could wear a few more labels: humble, gracious, talented, family man, funny.  However, I think JJ encompassed every label quite neatly into two little words: Cape legend.  

The purity of blues music captured Ivas’ attention the first time he encountered it through his father’s and brother’s record collections. “The first time I heard the blues, it was a discovery for me,” recalls Ivas. “What I discovered was the power of simplicity. It motivated me to start playing. I wasn’t a musician who branched off into playing the blues, I heard blues music and developed into a musician, because that’s what I knew I wanted to play.”

The Chicago-born Ivas John moved away from home to Carbondale, Il, where the then eighteen year old guitarist quickly won his spurs backing Martin “Big Larry” Albritton (an original Alligator records Mellow Fellow) and harmonica legend Snooky Pryor’s son, Rip Lee Pryor. After six years of backing those and other local luminaries with his in demand guitar work, John decided the time was right to from his own group and pursue a career as a frontman.

Now, after playing extensively throughout the Midwest and sizzling in over 200 live performances a year, and sharing stages with such top shelf acts as Leon Russell, Guitar Shorty, Nick Moss, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, and the Chicago Rhythm and Blues Kings to name a few, the Ivas John Band is quickly building a reputation as one of the regions most original and entertaining blues acts. The success of the band and their debut album “Street Music” recently earned them a spot on PBS as part of the nationally televised American Roots program.

Ivas, who plays a hollow-body guitar with very few effects, strives hard to eschew banal blues stereotypes. With a super clean, soulful voice and a highly stylized library of guitar chops, this music can please equally the casual bar patron or the scrutinizing critic who thought they had seen it all. Though he is an artist who understands the debt that is owed to his predecessors, and how important it is to honorably carry traditional music on, Ivas John is no copycat. “Avoiding the clichés is a conscious decision,” says Ivas. “I want the music to come across in that way, not just instrumentally, but lyrically as well. That’s the common thread that runs through all the songs-inspired words, inspired music.”

As such, fans will have a hard time pinpointing exactly in what blues style Ivas is playing. His voracious appetite for variety continues to be what sets him and the band apart in the current blues state of mediocrity. In a typical club set, the band will play songs ranging stylistically from Chicago to jump to honky-tonk to primal Delta blues, and are just as comfortable handling an intimate ballad when lights are low. But Listeners will not question that Ivas is playing blues-it’s just his blues.    

Chris Wissman ~ Editor in Chief ~ Nightlife Magazine