The First Vermont Blues Festival August 2009- photos by Diana Shonk
Guy Davis started out the day with stories and jokes and country Blues.
Mavis Staples continued the Sunday Gospel feeling.
Shemekia was lovely and soulful as she talked about her Dad. What a great band with Arthur Neilson on guitar. They have been togehter for years. Paul Benjamin told me that Shemkia is getting married soon, I noticed that she has slimmed down, maybe that is why.
Magic Slim and The Teardrops were about a Chicago Blues as you can get anywhere. He may be from Mississippi, but he has that Chicago Blues down and dirty really funky Blues, it is just part of him!
I am a big fan and couldn't resist gettting a word with him as he drank his Jack Daniels.
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New Boston Blues Festival
2009 New Boston, NH- photos by Diana Shonk
The Girls opened the show!
The Hayes Brothers were a pleasant surprise!
Brother Hayes on guitar
Luther "Gtr. Jr." Johnson did an acoustic set with Big Jack Ward and Otis Doncaster
He held court in my tent all day, it was such a pleasure to see all the LOVE!
Thrilling as always, Chris Fitz made the crowd yell for MORE!!!
He had Ken Clark on Hammond B-3 and he was a dynamic addition.
That crazy organ, 1962 I believe, has all its tubes on display! It was inspiring watching him move that thing! It must weigh a thousadn pounds, but I am so glad he made it, super cool!
Jackie Lee did one of my favorite songs, "Louise."
Arthur James and Northbound did a great version of "Crosscut Saw"
Chris Noyes- notice the BEAUTIFUL guitar!!!
Local celebrity guitar player, Skip Philbrick was there for the show.
The Boston Horns were ever so FUNKY!
Luther closed out the show with the help of The Boston Horns.
2009 New Boston, NH
What a SHOW in little New Boston, NH.
WHO KNEW??
I should be beaten for never having been there before, well, that is remedied now!
AND the brand new GRANITE STATE BLUES SOCIETY was born!!!
Past
Blues Festival reviews
2006 North Atlantic Blues Festival featured
Otis Rush
BLUES FESTIVAL WOUND-UP
2006!
It was a sterling summer
of Blues at a number of our fine New England venues. The
weather, for the most part, cooperated. Weather is such
a huge determinate of the size of the crowd for any of these
venues, people wait to see what kind of day it is before
they head out, so the weather helped bring in the crowds.
If I had ten pages, I could not include all the details
about the festivals, they are so multi-faceted and present
band after fabulous band there isn’t enough room here
to talk about it all. So I am going to have to tell you
about my favorite moments. I hope you got a chance to go
to one of these remarkable events and if not here is a tempting
taste of why you should make plans to go to one (or two)
next summer.
The North Atlantic
Blues Festival- Rockland, ME
This festival always presents someone I have never had the
pleasure of seeing before. Paul and Jamie search the country
to find interesting and dynamic performers for their festival.
This year I was delighted to discover a young man named
Richard Johnston who played between sets over by my tent,
(very lucky for me). His music is very rhythmic country
blues and or delta blues, and very danceable. He is quoted
as saying “I play sexy music and it makes men and
women feel sexy...” I would also call his music funky,
but country funky, maybe earthy would be a better word.
The people surrounding him as he played were nodding and
bopping to his music and exclaiming to each other about
how cool his show was. He has a very charismatic personality
and as he was playing a really cool tune he had to stop
and say “I need some women dancing up here”
well all the girls moved out and were already dancing, then
he gave a young man, with an MTV t-shirt on, the center
place and unfortunately that boy was too inhibited to dance
and Richard stopped and said “son, nah, nah, you got
to go,” and waved him off. But the girls kept dancing.
It was hard NOT to dance to his fantastic one-man band.
He makes instruments out of snares and bobbins and bottle
caps that have great raw sound. He plays slide on a cool
electric Dobro with a cutaway and at the same time, snare
and bass drums and cymbal. He plays and sings with his boots
off, sitting in front of his drums. Look for this talented
young bluesman at festivals next summer. Thanks to NABF
for bringing him to us!
The other stars, not of the Festival big stage, are the
bands that play at night on the street and in the clubs
of Rockland for the “Club Crawl” which is extremely
well attended by blues lovers (and alot of town folks).
Knowing that you don’t have to get up until 11am for
the second day of international blues acts, gives everyone
some staying power (especially if you are staying right
in Rockland like I was). They add so much to the festival!
Bands like the Practical Cats, Mark Miller Band, Blue Steele
Express and the ever fabulous Pam Baker (Kenny Neal came
by and sat in with them), all local Maine blues bands. They
are the unsung heroes of the evening gigs. This festival
gives you a look at not only high powered international
talents like Johnny Winter, nationally known acts like Marcia
Ball, Kenny Neal and new discoveries like Nora Jean Brusco,
and John Lee Hooker, Jr. but a nice salty taste of real
homegrown Maine blues... WHAT A SHOW!
The Sakonnet
Blues Festival- Little Compton, RI 2006
John Abramsen- trumpet, Carl Querfurth- trombone and Barry
Fleischer- barritone-
The Loaded
Dice horn section, at the Sakonnet Blues Festival.- photo
by Diana Shonk
Rob Nelson lead guitar and vocals.- photo by Diana Shonk
The Sakonett Blues Festival is held at
a vineyard in Little Compton, RI in July. I found out about
it at the last minute and decided to make the trek to check
it out. A very nice venue for a blues festival on a beautiful
HOT day. I got a chance to see Loaded Dice with their dynamic
new singer, Richard Ceresi on traveling vocals. They have
a great horn section (Carl Querfurth, trombone, Barry Fleischer,
baritone and John Ambramson on trumpet), marvelous guitar
player (Rob Nelson) a piano player, bass (Kenny Grace) and
excellent drummer, Joey Sullivan, who did a drum solo that
included playing on mic stands, amplifiers and other sundry
items! He was having a heck of a time and it flooded into
the crowd. There were vendors and you could go to a wine
tasting at the Vineyard as well!
Chris Fitz is always a great show at a festival, this time
was no different. He really got the crowd going on this
very hot day at the WMBBF- photo by Diana Shonk
The White Mountain
Boogie and Blues Festival- Thornton, NH
Making a move to three days of blues and music was a big
step for the WMBBF. It has grown because of the great feeling
and easy going presentation this festival offers. It is
very down home, in a big field in the middle of a farm in
central NH. There are lots of vendors and a climbing wall,
which directly benefits Blues In The Schools Programs. Their
approach is unique in that they have the bands do 90 minutes
instead of the usual 60 minute set. “We know, from
having a our own band, that is takes a little bit to get
warmed up and comfortable.” Brad Benton, organizer,
told me. “We want it to be about the great music.”
You get a really full picture of the artists he brings to
the mountains. They can really stretch out. And stretch
out they did! Award winning bands from Chris
Fitz (opener),<click on the link to see a short video
of his performance, four time performer at the festival
you'll see why in the video clip. Blues Superstar, Anna
Popovich, Czechoslovakian closed the show, they got to dig
deep into the blues. They bring up the wonderful bands like
Mission of Blues and The Love Dogs, Albert Cummings, Nicole
Nelson and Mighty Sam McClain served up on a platter for
the hungry blues lovers. Good thing there is plenty of great
food, or they might have eaten these tasty acts. One more
thing, this year Rick and I got to see the fireworks display
on Saturday night and it was SPECTACULAR!
