Interview: Phoenix Bluesman Bob Corritore Shares Vision With World - Page 4

Opened in 1991, Corritore’s role in the club grew until April 4, 2001 when he signed the papers making him the club owner. Though it was never planned to coincide, Corritore noted the date as a moment of pleasant serendipity; April 4 is the birthday of Muddy Waters.

And then, the tragic events of September 11, 2001 occurred, forever changing the world in which we all live.

“After Sept. 11th, I was scared, I didn’t know what we were going to do,” said Corritore.

“It felt like the party was paralyzed,” he said. “It was harder for people to go out and feel good about it.”

With some money tucked away in savings, Corritore decided to hang on and hope that the momentum would return.

In Corritore’s view, the events of Sept 11, accelerated a change that was already, slowly occurring.

“The culture of things was shifting, even before 9/11,” he said. “People who used to come to the bar every night were now buying houses and changing their lifestyles.”

Corritore knew that in order to survive as a venue he had to reinvent his business strategy. All the while he began noticing another phenomenon taking place in the Phoenix area.

“I started seeing that all these live music venues were going under,” he said. “Phoenix was eventually left with just about nowhere for bands to play.”

“I decided in order for us to make it, we needed to become the catch-all for these bands who now had no where else to go,” Corritore said.

The format of the venue was changed. Instead of featuring blues acts every night of the week, bands of any genre were welcomed to the venue Monday through Thursday with the weekends left exclusively for the blues.

In addition to expanding the musical format, Corritore added a patio to the building in anticipation of the anti-smoking laws that were soon to be enacted.

“Revamping the format of the Rhythm Room has actually helped bring in more patrons to our see blues acts,” Corritore said noting that many patrons see the black and white photographs that adorn the walls and are curious enough to comeback on a Friday or Saturday night.

“We’ve really gone out of our way to make the venue a great place to see live music,” said Corritore who went on to say that when he bought the building he also installed an entirely new sound system as well as other improvements around the club.

Article Author: Benjamin Cossel

A working journalist, Benjamin currently serves as a combat photojournalist and is the managing editor of a weekly newspaper in southeastern Wyoming. He’s worked as a reporter in Ohio, Arizona and done several deployments in the military crossing the globe. …

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