Local band to showcase talent in International Youth Blues Challenge

Sometimes, singing the blues can have a happy ending.

College students John Bivens, Christian Brendel, Kevin Marker and their band The Deals are proof.

The trio took first place in the International Youth Blues Challenge in August and is now traveling to Memphis for the national level of the contest.

Marker, an OU  junior studying classical guitar, is the band’s guitarist and vocalist. Bivens, a general studies major at OCC, plays drums and OCC student Brendel leads as the main vocalist and bass player.

The trio took first place in the Detroit Blues Society’s best blues band contest in October and is now traveling to Memphis, Tenn. for a national competition.

Blues beginnings

The band’s three members attended Oxford High School, where they met and decided to form a blues band. They have have been making music together since 2009.

Marker said  Brendel’s love for famous blues artist B. B. King prompted his search for members to start a blues band.

As for “the deal behind The Deals,” Marker said the group’s name came about in an odd way.

The trio arranged a list of about one hundred names and settled on The Deals because of the significance of “getting a good deal” in pop culture.

“If you turn on the radio, all you hear about are the deals at Meijer or ‘great deals at Dixieland Flea Market,’” he said. “It’s a lot of free advertising for our name!”

Next stop: Memphis

The International Blues Challenge hosted a youth competition for bands in the greater Detroit are in August, and Marker and Becker said The Deals couldn’t pass up the opportunity to enter.

Competing bands were required to perform a 25-minute set, including at least one traditional blues song.

“It was a competition between us and four other bands to represent Detroit in the International Blues Challenge,” he said.

The Deals won the competition and was granted a spot in the Youth Blues Showcase in Memphis, Tenn. in Feb.

Marker said the Memphis level of the competition is not a contest and “there isn’t a national winner.” Instead, each of the selected bands will play at different blues venues throughout the city. The Deals are set to perform on Feb. 1.

“The idea is to showcase us to all of the big promoters and talent scouts,” Bivens said.

Now for the real challenge: financing their trip to the south. 

Bowling for blues

To pay for the 11 hour drive to Tenn., a fundraiser will be held at Classic Lanes Bowling Alley in Rochester Hills Jan. 20.

For $10, participants can bowl for three hours, enjoy blues music and rent shoes for 50 cents. The cost to attend without bowling is $5. The Deals will perform alongside Macomb blues band Trace of Lime and another band yet to be announced.

Chris Murray, community relations director at Classic Lanes, became connected with the band when she attended the blues challenge and offered to help host a fundraiser to cover some of their travel expenses.

“I’m always out wherever there will be a bunch of bands,” she said.”I figure I can meet some new ones to play at the bowling alley.”

According to Murray, 30 percent of each $10 cover will go back to the band.

Making it big

Bivens said the ultimate goal of the trip to Memphis is to gain recognition as a band and eventually become career musicians.

“We want to be up on the lighted stage rocking,” he said. “I think that’s every musician’s goal.”