For Pires, live music helps drive Dewey free spirit

Alex Pires and his Highway One group bought Dewey Beach’s Bottle & Cork - the resort’s iconic rock ‘n’ roll bar - 30 years ago, in 1989.

“I lived across the street, went in there all the time and enjoyed it - it just made sense to me,” said Pires.

Live music is important to Pires. And important to Dewey Beach. “The artists, the music - they’re all part of the free-spirited 100 days of Dewey’s summer season. Here’s the way I think Dewey shapes up: ocean, bay, sunshine and music. It ‘s a very free society where people can live as they want to live. That's what attracted me at first. I was working for the Justice Department in D.C., and Dewey was the closest beach. I liked it here and eventually decided to leave the Justice Department - where I had to dress a certain way and keep my hair cut a certain way. Dewey felt better, and I haven’t cut my hair since.”

In the years since, Highway One has grown its portfolio of entertainment venues to include the Rusty Rudder, Northbeach, Jimmy’s Grille Dewey, Ivy, Outlet Liquors and occasionally Hudson Fields.

“When Jay Prettyman wanted to sell the Rusty Rudder, I saw an opportunity for more live music - and the same way with Northbeach - more live music. It just grew. Now we have something for everyone and all level of bands. Jimmy’s Grille can handle 100 for live music, Ivy 400, 300 inside the Rudder and another 1,600 when we open up the outside, 1,200 at the Cork, 1,800 at Northbeach and up to 5,000 at Hudson Fields.”

Pires said he’s done well with law, handling class-action suits. “They’re important issues, and it’s nice to get paid for the work. And I’ve enjoyed Community Bank, which is successful and continues to grow. But the entertainment business - a business/kinda - it’s built out of sheer love. For me, the music business is the most rewarding. The artists - they’re generally pretty happy people. They’re not hung up on money, They want to pay their bills, of course, and they want to stay busy, but most of all they want to play.”

Highway One placed an ad recently in the Cape Gazette thanking all the artists that played their venues in 2018. National acts, opening acts, cover bands, acoustic acts and festival bands. There were more than 150 live bands listed. That number represents thousands of people in the music industry associated with the bands, and hundreds of thousands of people who attend concerts and shows in Dewey Beach and beyond.

“I get excited about every show,” said Pires. “Every time Love Seed Mama Jump plays, it’s a show and it’s like the first time. When the bands take the stage, the lights come on, the music starts and the people who have come start to roar; it’s such a rush. It’s not the same high that the musicians get - it’s kind of a semi-high. Vicki Walls - who books most of the acts - and I stand in in the back of the room and smile. It just makes us feel so good knowing that we’re making this happen.”

A deep-rooted tradition

Pires sees Highway One’s venues and the musicians as part of an important cultural tradition that started hundreds of years ago. “This live music is our American opera. It’s the purest form of art there is. So raw, not as rehearsed, an undisciplined art. There's costumes, there’s lights, there’s sound and presentation. The artists try so hard to give it their best in their short performances. Ninety minutes is all they have.”

He said he loves them because they’re blue-collar, part of the working class. “They drag their stuff around, set it up on someone else’s stage and sing for strangers. They’re like the wandering minstrels of 400 or 500 years ago.”

By Pires’ calculations, the musicians hosted by Highway One in 2018 performed about 1,400 live shows. “That includes everything from one-man acoustic shows playing our smallest venues up to the big national acts that have played Hudson Fields. Some - like Jimmy Allen - have played their way through all of them to the top. He started by playing Christmas parties for us. That's another kind of high we get - seeing local musicians making it all the way to the national scene where Jimmy is now with his country music. He sold out two shows in December and made $20,000 for local schools. He’s a star, grew up in Milton and Milford and sings about his hometown. He’ll be back this summer.”

Old Dominion started out playing at the Rudder for a few hundred, then went to the Cork, and then back to the Cork for a sold-out performance and then to Hudson Fields where they drew 4,000. “And I can tell you, there aren’t many acts that can sell 4,000 tickets.”

Bookings are already ahead of last year. “Our goal is to have 1,500 shows this year,” Pires said. “It’s easier now to get national acts. Bands like Dark Star [a popular Grateful Dead tribute band] enjoy everything Dewey Beach has to offer. We set them up in a great green room where artists hang out before shows. We’ve invested in great stages and lighting. We provide them with access to skidoos, paddle boards, golf and restaurants. They want to come to Dewey. We have a reputation. They come to vacation as well as to perform. With a little luck, Dewey can hold on to that. A resort with an ocean and a bay is a rarity.”

With a full range of venues, Highway One can convince agents and managers to bring national acts to town because they help out with what Pires calls the baby bands who are on their way up but haven't quite made it yet.

“‘Sure, we will take them,’ we tell the agents who handle rising as well as established acts. Then we say something like, ‘How about Jake Owen,’ and then they will say something like: ‘Thanks for taking the baby bands - we can probably work that out.’”

Pires clearly enjoys being in the midst of the musicians and the shows. Impresario blood runs through his arteries and veins, and he wants to maintain his voice as part of it all. “It’s what I live for. You know the old cliché: ‘There’s no business like show business?’  It’s all excitement, and it really is true.”