LOCAL MUSIC NEWSPAPER CELEBRATED
Before the whole world turned upside down, March of 2020 was looking especially good for San Diego Troubadour. Advertising for the free monthly newspaper was up, thanks to the upcoming Adams Avenue Unplugged festival and Gator by the Bay. The events calendar was full of shows, and co-founder and co-publisher Liz Abbott’s schedule was in its usual state of overload.
Then California shut down due to the coronavirus, and Abbott and her husband (and co-founder), Kent Johnson, were faced with the unfathomable prospect of covering a music scene that had suddenly gone silent.
But while the clubs were closed and the concerts were canceled, San Diego Troubadour — which focuses on local musicians in genres ranging from Americana and alt-country to jazz, gospel and bluegrass — still had what it has always had: People, passion and persistence.
Once again, that was more than enough.
“I was lucky to get two small COVID relief grants so I could pay my writers. But before that, people were not doing anything, so they were willing to write for free,” Abbott said of the publication, which went 100 percent online during the pandemic.
“The Troubadour is sort of like a family. We have never had a lot of money to work with. We never really had a team. There was just a lot of asking favors of people, and they were happy to contribute. We have a very loyal readership.”
Twenty-one months later, the lights are back on. Literally and metaphorically. Adams Avenue Unplugged is scheduled for April 30. The four-day Gator by the Bay rolls in on May 5. Venues are open again, and the San Diego Troubadour
events calendar is full of live shows.
One of those shows is Sunday’s San Diego Troubadour 20th Anniversary Party and Fundraiser at Tango Del Rey in Pacific Beach, where musicians will be playing their hearts out in honor of a publication that never gave in.
“To me, it has always felt like there are real people behind San Diego Troubadour,” said singer, songwriter and guitarist Chuck Schiele, who has been a consultant and designer for the publication and is performing with his Quatro band at Sunday’s event.
“It’s such a slick world out there, but here is this magazine talking
about people who play real instruments. You get blisters from playing this music. You get hoarse from hollering. And that is the essence of what Liz and Kent do.”
San Diego Troubadour was co-founded in 2001 by Abbott and Johnson and fellow music-loving couple Ellen and Lyle Duplessie. What started with animated conversations about the Byrds and the Beatles and who was playing next at Java Joe’s became the spark of an idea about giving San Diego’s non-rock musicians the attention they deserved.
That spark grew to become San Diego Troubadour, a free monthly newspaper that was distributed at coffee shops, clubs and public libraries all over the county. In addition to cover stories about such homegrown luminaries as guitarist Fred Benedetti and “dirty blues” band Little Hurricane, the paper runs extensive music listings and deep-diving columns by such longtime local-music aficionados as Bart Mendoza, Sven-Erik Seaholm and the late archivist and historian Lou Curtiss.
“(San Diego Troubadour) gave us a community identity. It have us all a sense of being in it together,” said boogie-woogie pianist Sue Palmer,who will be performing at Sunday’s fundraising concert with her Motel Swing Orchestra.
“You got to find out where other people’s shows were, and you could hear people from other genres who you might want to record with. I don’t know anything else that has been quite as comprehensive for so long.”
Long before the pandemic derailed the liveconcert world and everyone who depended on it, Abbott and Johnson had to keep San Diego Troubadour going in the face of tragedy. In early 2004, Ellen Duplessie died of breast cancer. Barely four months later, Lyle died of a heart attack.
After the loss of Ellen and Lyle and their abiding love for all of this music, Abbott wondered if she and Johnson could keep publishing. Then she realized they didn’t have a choice.
“I really did it as a promise to them to keep the legacy going,” Abbott said from the couple’s home in University Heights. “I think there is something charming about the fact that we are still this mom-and-pop project. Nothing has changed.”
At the San Diego Music Awards in August, the San Diego Troubadour legacy was honored when Abbott and Johnson were recognized with the 2021 San Diego Music Industry Award. Among their many achievements was their ability to make the San Diego music community feel like one big family.
After 20 years and hundreds of issues, that’s not changing either.
“It’s a warm, loving vibe that we try to put out, and the people we associate with are warm, loving people,” Abbott said. “It is all about the music. How can you argue about that?”
The San Diego Troubadour’s 20th Anniversary Celebration Holiday Party and Fundraiser is Sunday from 5 p.m. to midnight at Tango Del Rey in Pacific Beach. Attendees must show proof of vaccination to enter the building, where masks will be optional. The outdoor food trucks and fire-pit jam sessions are open to all. The event is free, but donations are encouraged. Go to