Life is crazy with ironies, but none greater than Bernie Pearl’s history with the Long Beach Blues Festival. (LBBF). After all, along with Dan Jacobson of Southland Blues, Bernie created the damn thing. It began and peaked during the KLON 1980s with such great acts as Willie Dixon, George Harmonica Smith, Pee Wee Crayton, Joe Turner, Little Esther, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Etta James, B.B. King, Albert King, Dr. John, James Cotton and literally scores of other blues greats and near greats.

In the 1990s and 2000s, during the depressing era of the Jankowski-run KLON, the festival advertised blues, but added rock and roll and soul artists like Ben E. King, the Black Crowes, Bill Preston and Joe Cocker. After all, the Allman Brothers broke all attendance records and nearly broke the fence. The crowds were wide and deep.

Also in the 1990s came the Big Time Blues Festival in the POA Park between the Towne Center and the Police Academy, except it was the Naval Hospital back then. Guess who was the main mover of the Big Time Blues Festival, which brought Keb Mo, Canned Heat, Mick Fleetwood and the last known appearance of the great Charles Brown? Give up? Bernie Pearl.

When Big Time approached KLON about possible partnering, Jankowski and company nearly laughed them out of the station. Speaking of being laughed out, Jankowski left KLON in the mid 2000s and the station, newly named KKJZ, was turned over to private owners, who outsourced the LBBF. This year the lineup is actual blues, and as of the past 24 hours, one of the prime players will be… Bernie Pearl.

I emailed him about this and here’s his response.

“Yes, I’m playing the LBBF this year. I don’t know why I was called, but the young man (sounds young, anyway) works for Rattle & Hum, I take it, which is a sub-booker, I take it, for Bill Silva Prods, the main stage booker, I take it. So, I took it -badda-bing!”

Good for you, Bernie. Maybe someone with clout at the festival caught your superb performance at Rancho Los Cerritos this Thursday past and decided what was needed at the LBBF was…could it be? Blues. The packed house on the lawn seemed to love it, except for the idiot right in front who was yakking on his cell phone during your great acoustic set, until you told him to shut up. He did.

If you missed this great presentation, you can view a clip of one song here:

“I’ll be playing with Mike (Berry) on bass. A half-hour, or so, set of acoustic blues on what, I guess, is called the “Second Stage”, on Sunday, Sept. 6, at 2:15 (or so).”

You should know that Bernie also plays two hours of blues on Internet radio, wpmd.org on Saturday between 3 and 5 p.m. It’s called “My Kind Of Blues.” By all rights, since he named the “Nothin’ But the Blues” show, he should use that title, but he chose a new name instead.

Remember, this is an opinion piece, not a news story, so I don’t feel obliged to get all angles. About a year ago, I spoke with Cadillac Zack who runs the So. Cal. Blues Society. Zack told me he’s heard and even studied just about every currently available blues CD and doesn’t need to hear them over and over again, thus he doesn’t listen to the KKJZ, because they program the parade of currently available CDs, little or nothing else. No depth, no rare out of print LPs, 45s, 78s or discontinued CDs, even.

Ironic, as a source at the station confirmed to me that KKJZ had approached Bernie in early 2008 to possibly return to his weekend blues slot as a DJ, but the then-current blues DJ, an old associate of Bernie’s, nixed the deal and the station went along with their guy. So no show. I asked Bernie about this, but he continues loathe to criticize the station, so he kept mum, but I’m only half a loathe. Mum’s not the word for me. If KKJZ would like to respond to this opining about the state of their blues presentation, write/email me and I’ll print it… but I will also ask some questions.