BLUES FESTIVAL WOUND-UP!

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 Practical Cats played on the street during the "Club Crawl" at the North Atlantic Blues Festival- photo by Diana Shonk

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!

Wachusett Mountain Blues Festival- Princeton, MA
“Wah-A-Wah- chusett” Ski area is a really lovely spot to see live music. They are prepared for hundreds of people, because they are attracting big crowds all year long. A beautiful setting with unlimited seating, lots of food and drinks, there were beer vendors giving samples and everybody had special beer glasses they were taking home. The day could not have been more beautiful, cool and breezy. So according to the Tom and Bryan, the event organizers, they had over 2,200. All those people were rewarded with great music from opener John Short. He was featured on stage as the opening act but I think his one man band performance in the parking lot after the last act was his real pleasure. He had the girls wiggling and people clapping long after the parking lot cleared out.
Shemekia Copeland was her wonderfully charismatic self, she really got to the women in the crowd. Elvin Bishop was the star! I had never seen Elvin and his new record has been one of the cd in my cd player for months. So my expectations were high and he met them. After getting through a medley containing “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” his big hit (which did not seem to interest the crowd) he took us down to the Crescent City with “Got To Be New Orleans” and “Party ‘Till The Cows Come Home.” Then he walked the crowd and brought down the house! It felt like he was at home fooling around with his friends. The sound was great and his band was very cool with a trombone player, who sang and a keyboard player who played accordion too! What a great show! Everybody loved him.
Marshfield Music Festival at the Marshfield Fair I am sorry to report got rained on, but they had a good crowd. New Orleans area musicians brought the delta north. Marcia Ball and Tab Benoit were complemented by local favorite Toni Lynn Washington and returning to the festival this year was long time New England harp player and singer, J Place with his band and from RI, Basic Black.
And last but not least, my Anniversary Party was blessed with a beautiful day and although the Post Office delayed the invitations, we had lots of nice subscribers show up to party. Great Groove Theory, James Montgomery, Blues Express, Chris Fitz, Ed Vadas and Professor Harp and Big Jack Ward played and my friend called them “world class entertainment.” No question it was a really fun time. I could not have done it without the help of my friends who helped cook the food Margaret and David, Susan handled the silent auction and Rick and Sarah for helping with the parking and the gate.
Make plans to go to a Blues Festival next summer, you’ll be glad you did.

—Diana Shonk