An article in the Ewing Observer dated 9/1/07 and written by Diana Pichardo

So what’s so great about the Blues? Ron Ungarini has an answer. Ungarini, a former independent candidate for township council in Ewing, runs the website TrentonBlues.biz. ”I like the virtuosity of the guitar players, harmonica players, keyboarders and the passion that the music has” he said.

Ungarini has been following the blues for 30 years. Though he said by 1972 he was already listening to some blues records, Ungarini said his love for the genre started when he walked into The Fillmore East in 1977 and took one look and listen to the Owen Brothers. The show opened a whole new door for him and he had to find out more, he said. (Note from Ron: the reporter misinterpreted what I said. In 1972, I listened to The Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East. In 1977, I walked into Billy D’s and heard Joe Zook and Blues Deluxe).

There weren’t too many record stores around the area, but Ungarini attended more and more shows. At the same time he was learning about local underexposed artists; a hobby which he would later turn into a personal mission.

In the meantime, Ungarini married his wife, Linda, moved to Ewing and began raising his family of three children. He worked in the technology field as a project manager in the Information Technology department at Dow Jones and has spent the last six years as a consultant from home. The new job enabled new work hours, which allowed Ungarini to leap back into his blues addiction in a new way: a newsletter.

The Trenton Blues newsletter began two years ago and was sent via email to more than 100 interested blues fans in just over one month. The information gathered on the newsletter was basically just local gigs and tidbits of news. Quickly, the newsletter grew to around 400-450 blues fans.

How did it get so popular? Well, Ungarini basically said it was worth of mouth: his mouth. Many times, Ungarini would travel to locations himself and spread the news about his creation.

With more and more people becoming interested, the delivery process was becoming a little difficult. The solution was to create a web site: Trentonblues.biz was born .The website contains information on local musicians, venues, events, merchandise, even radio stations in the area that play blues music. The coverage is generally from Philadelphia to New Hope in Pennsylvania and from the Camden area to Somerset County in New Jersey.

The emphasis is on giving local blues musicians and venues some much-deserved attention in an era where other types of music are overwhelmingly more popular, Ungarini said. “About two years I was at Maxines, and I realized a lot of people didn’t know about different blues bands. They would know when a B.B. King came but not local ones” he said. For Ungarini, local bands like Blueszilla, Blue Money or Joe Zook and Blues Deluxe also deserve to be known.

The regularly updated page has gone through at least three overhauls in format, but it stills remains fairly simple. There’s no music playing or flashing graphics, just the information you need. “I knew I wanted to make it consistent, easy to view, nothing fancy, nothing crazy going on. People I talk to seem to like that”, he said.

In the future, Ungarini would like to add more content including reviews and have individuals actively take part. He’s also looking to organize a Trenton Blues Festival.

For more information, visit Trentonblues.biz or send an email to trentonblues@comcast.net