Supporting Single Payer Healthcare in Oregon
What do you say about an evening with some of the best blazing blues in Portland? It rocked. Of course it rocked! It rocks every year, and we should know… we’ve been going since Health Care for All Oregon (HCAO) revived the Inner City Blues Festival in 2012.
The festival began as the “Jam for Jesse” fundraiser for Jesse Jackson’s campaign run in 1988, but continued as a fundraiser for other community causes until it closed in 2003. 9 years later, HCAO brought it back to support Single Payer Healthcare in Oregon where it attracted the biggest names in Northwest blues to the Eagles Lodge in St. Johns. Enthusiasts could enjoy Norman Sylvester, Jim Mesi, Lloyd Jones, LaRhonda Steele, Bloco Alegria, Paulette Davis, Linda Hornbuckle, Duffy Bishop, Lilly Wilde, Janice Scroggins, and so many, many more. The Inner City Blues Fest was one of the highlights of the Tom Dwyer calendar until Covid shut things down. Oh well.
2024 saw the revival of this musical extravaganza, with a slightly smaller lineup and in a new location. This year’s show, the “Blues Carnaval” featured the Norman Sylvester Band and Bloco Alegria at the iconic Alladin Theater, right here in our own backyard. Charles, our Outreach Advisor, eagerly jumped at the chance to represent Tom Dwyer and show our support for Single Payer and excellent music. HCAO made sure we had a prime location to meet people… right at the end of the bar, and right at the door where we could hear the music.
And of course the music was fantastic. There’s a couple pictures below, but KBOO was doing a live remote from the show and you can catch it all here. Not the same as being there, but you can get a good taste of things to prepare for next year. If you just can’t wait, then you’ll like this video of Norman singing “Healing the Healthcare Blues” from 2017.
People came for the music but we also hope they came to support HCAO and Single Payer, the point of the whole show. Tom has been a loud, public supporter of Single Payer for years, both on a business and personal level, but HCAO is the group doing the hard, on-the-ground work for the cause here in Oregon. They’re a statewide non-profit organization of health care professionals, faith communities, business owners, labor unions, community groups, and individuals all working together to bring “Better Health Care To More People For Less Money”… a simple, yet astoundingly difficult task. HCAO’s statewide activities include: building local HCAO chapters, tabling at street fairs, conferences and farmers’ markets; speaking at events; film screenings and forums in towns and cities in Oregon; passing local resolutions in support of a universal care system and engaging Oregonians in the fight for universal access to health care. For more information, or to join in the fight, go to hcao.org.
And that’s our report back from the show. We hope to see you at next year’s gig, and hope you think about Single Payer Healthcare in the meantime… and well before YOU need it!
Members of Norman’s band warming up before the show
Tom Dwyer Automotive is a loud and proud supporter of Single Payer healthcare, especially HealthCare for All Oregon, and the Inner City Blues Festival is one of the most enjoyable ways we can think of to work for the health care we all need. Check out some of our past coverage here…
