Keeping the scene alive at whatever cost one band at a time.
Eddie
Local, regional, national, and international talent buyer continues writing about live music and celebrates his 25th year.
Eddie Jorgensen is rooted deep in the local live entertainment scene. Spanning a career booking shows at venues throughout Northern California since 1988, a drummer in various bands, a music distribution rep at BMG and Sony BMG and former freelance writer for all types of live events including (but not limited to) the Sacramento, San Francisco and Reno-Lake Tahoe regions, Jorgensen knows the pulse of the region’s music climate and is excited to now be in a new chapter.
Born into a family of hard workers, Jorgensen’s father, Kurt Jorgensen Sr., started his career climbing poles installing and maintaining cable but quickly moved his way up through the ranks and became the Senior Vice President of Viacom International at the time of his retirement. His father helped bring the first cable infrastructures to San Francisco and Nashville, Tenn. He learned from his father early that, “If you work hard and shoot straight, you will get where you need to,” said Jorgensen.
In a strange twist of fate, Jorgensen also has ties to Nirvana’s late frontman, Kurt Cobain. His grandfather, John “Jack” Ehrhart, delivered Kurt Cobain at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, Wash. See the opening scenes of the ‘Montage Of Heck’ documentary released in 2015, the exact time when he found out about his grandfather’s role as a doctor to one of his favorite songwriters ever. And while his younger sister jokes there may be a deeper family connection, just knowing one of his musical idols came into this world via his late grandfather is more than enough.
Jorgensen grew up a drummer — starting on a practice pad at age nine — and then worked closely with manager Tom Gaffey at the young age of 18 to help book sporadic punk/funk/metal all-ages shows at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, Calif. He soon moved on to attend University of California, Davis, much at the prodding of his father, where he dug into a communications degree and became the promotion director at KDVS 90.3 FM. It was there that he launched his own Blackfish radio show where he constantly changed show styles, much to the chagrin of indie elitists and the station’s director. From world music to reggae, punk to alternative, indie to spoken word, death metal to an all Pink Floyd radio show, there was no genre of music that was off-limits and Jorgensen spent countless hours listening and taping (via cassette tapes) the station’s records and compact discs any chance he could get. He also booked campus shows for the UCD Entertainment Council and worked at the now-defunct Wherehouse Records in Davis. Additionally, he worked as a backstage security monitor after his record store shifts at the Cattle Club where he saw many great shows, including a Smashing Pumpkins/Hole double bill where he saw Kurt Cobain in the bar with his best friend but opted to leave him alone instead of gushing.
Following graduation, Jorgensen moved to San Francisco and worked at a Wherehouse Records in the Sunset district. It was there me met a cable installer and poised the question, “Do you by chance know my father?” After explaining it was, indeed, Kurt Jorgensen Sr., the man who pretty much built San Francisco’s first cable system and helped bring on tons of new subscribers, the cable installer replied with a resounding “Yes, your father is a hero to all of us out here,” he was overcome with emotion and shook Jorgensen’s hand before leaving.
He later moved to Sacramento and took a job with K&K Music selling drums and accessories while staying rooted in the music scene. Jorgensen then moved on to music distribution at the sadly defunct Valley Media, a one-stop distribution hub and later was hired directly by BMG Distribution to sell and market their records to Tower, Borders, Best Buy, Sam Goody, independent stores with a territory spanning into Nevada and a large portion of California. It allowed him to work at Valley Media in-house, (the only major distributor to do so). It was at Valley Media where he finally used his communications major speaking and presenting new releases in the morning sales meetings and lunchtime presentations with BMG’s distributed labels for Valley Media national and indie sales reps.
BMG soon merged with Sony and Jorgensen worked at Sony BMG until the major tectonic shift to digital music which ultimately spelled the fate of brick and mortar music stores and, ultimately his job. He quickly landed a job at yet another one-stop called Super D based in Woodland (just like Valley Media and featuring some alumni) but the job was short-lived as Jorgensen did not enjoy the environment and had health issues that had him on leave for nearly three months.
All the while, Jorgensen concurrently freelanced for over twelve publications previewing and reviewing live shows and reviewing record releases for local publications such as Sacramento News & Review (since 2001), North Bay Bohemian, Pacific Sun, Metro Silicon Valley, The Sacramento Bee, SF Weekly, Reno/Tahoe Best Bets, Alive & Kicking (local publication), Supreme (Valley Media s in-house urban publication) and many more.
He enjoyed the writing opportunity but to make ends meet he had to carry several part-time jobs including sales, marketing and even demos for store staff and customers at area natural food stores. As if that weren’t enough, he worked as a stagehand for the Local 50 working many in-town and out-of-town concerts as well as trade shows, including the inaugural concert at the Golden 1 Center by Paul McCartney in 2016 where he wrote a preview of the show before working the show’s load-out.
By 2018, Jorgensen was offered a chance to become a talent buyer once again via SBL Entertainment owner and CEO, Scott Brill-Lehn. As the talent buyer for SBL, he booked shows in four states (CA, WA, OR, and ID) as well as programming virtually all the live music at The Sofia (inside the B Street Theatre). He also booked music and comedy and podcasts at the historic Crest Theatre (where he initially saw Kurt Cobain play with Nirvana) as their demographic was considerably older.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early March 2020, beginning with his first postponement of folk legend, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame), Jorgensen rescheduled nearly 350+ shows over the calendar year. Some shows moved a record five times on their own at venues in four states. He spent nights, days and weekends working with agents to move shows based on evolving regulations.
However, he parted ways amicably with now-defunct SBL Entertainment and has now resurrected his own company, Blackfish Productions (started in 1988), to book occasional shows when the need arises. “Artists want to be on the road, on the stage, and with their fans. If Ican’t book an act, at least I can give needy artists some press when possible. It’s not easy out there, so we all gotta do our part in the vaat media world to help the scene in our communities grow.”