Columbus Monthly / April 2011 / The times, they are a-changin'

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The times, they are a-changin'

Soon semesters and now this: Beloved musician Chris Logsdon (if you haven’t heard of him, then Columbus welcomes you) is throwing in the scarlet and gray towel, ending his nearly 30-year run of weekly gigs at Ohio State-area bars.

No, he’s not retiring, nor is he even taking a vacation, as his hectic upcoming schedule reveals. But his days of entertaining the college cluster with his interactive renditions of classic rock songs and crowd favorites every week have come to an end.

During his 28 years of performing, Logsdon has built a substantial following among campus bar-goers. It’s a following he hopes will venture away from High Street to see him as he begins regular sets elsewhere, such as the Keystone Pub at Polaris, Hamilton’s Pub in New Albany and Adobe Gila’s at Easton.

“I never intended to be on campus that many years,” says Logsdon, who, during his senior year at OSU in 1982, began performing acoustic guitar at what is now the Thirsty Scholar near Neil and Lane avenues and hasn’t stopped since.

As for why he’s altering course, Logsdon points to the rapidly changing musical tastes of younger generations. “What is popular today isn’t popular three weeks later,” he says. “If I don’t like a song, I’m not going to learn it just to play it. It’s got to have meaning. I add new songs very sparingly because I don’t find a lot that touches me.”

Additionally, Logsdon cites economic reasons for his campus departure. “The problem becomes as the clubs are forced to compete with each other on drink prices, the profit margin drops. A deejay costs less than what I charge,” he says. “For them, it’s a business decision.”

Logsdon acknowledges that his fans have grown along with him, a reason he’s optimistic about his new shows (see chrislogsdon.com). “Even though I might play the same general set list three nights in a row, each night is uniquely different because the audience is so different,” he says. “The audience is the X factor.”