|
|
MIDWEST BLUES BEAT |
|
|
CHICAGO BLUES FESTIVAL PREVIEW |
||
|
by Eric Steiner The world’s largest
free blues festival is turning 20 this year.
The “20th Annual Chicago Blues Festival” will be held May
29th through June 1st in Grant Park. Billed as “20th
Anniversary of a Hundred Year Tradition” will honor Delmark
Records Golden Jubilee and the 100th birthdays of Big
Joe Williams and St. Louis
Jimmy Oden.
This year’s festival
features 70 performers on six stages and the party will begin at 12:30
PM each day. I get
goosebumps just looking at the line up, which is online at: www.ci.chi.il.us/SpecialEvents/Festivals/Blues2003/ There’s something for
every blues taste at this year’s festival.
It features so many high-quality blues experiences that it truly
will be impossible to take it all in.
The Delmark Records’
celebration kicks off at the Petrillo Music Shell on Thursday night with
Big Time Sarah & The BTS
Express at 6:00 PM. Other
Delmark festivities include Willie
Kent & The Gents with Bonnie
Lee on Friday evening, and Ken
Saydak and Zora Young
with James Wheeler on Sunday.
I’m amazed at the
talent showering the lakefront this year. Otis
Taylor will play Thursday night, while Friday features Charlie Musselwhite, followed by Otis Rush. Saturday night brings Bonnie Raitt to the main stage, and the festival ends with Buckwheat
Zydeco on Sunday night. If
you miss Taylor on Thursday, he’ll be at the Juke Joint Stage (On
Columbus North of Jackson), on Friday afternoon. That same day, David
“Honey Boy” Edwards and Charlie Musselwhite share the Juke Joint
Stage.
This year’s festival
offers some truly historical opportunities to experience live blues. On
Thursday afternoon, check out The
Living Fathers: Henry Townsend, Homesick James & Honey Boy Edwards,
three of the blues’ elder statesmen, at Front Porch Stage at the
(Southwest Corner of Jackson & Columbus).
There will be reunions,
and blues magic, a plenty. Corky
Siegel and Sam Lay will play together again, and Friday afternoon also features
the Barry Goldberg Reunion
with Barry Goldberg, Harvey
Mandel, Nick Gravenites, Tracy Nelson,
Charlie Musselwhite, Corky
Siegel, Sam Lay and Bob Stroger.
Sunday will showcase
some great local blues talent, including
Steve Arvey & Kraig Kenning, Liz Mandville Greeson, and Wailin'
Walter & The Blues Screamers.
One of
America’s finest incubators of blues talent, “Blues
in the Schools,” will be well-represented.
Katherine Davis and the children of Agassiz and Gladstone Schools
will showcase some “After School Blues,” and the Stone Academy Jug
Stompers will rock with Eric
Noden, Katherine Davis and Erwin
Helfer. Eric returns with the Spencer
Academy Guitar Stars and Mary
Hurt Wright.
In addition to the fine
music onstage, there will be workshops for blues performers, festival
producers and promoters, and songwriters.
One panel discussion on Friday afternoon that caught my eye was “All
About Bob and Big Joe”; held in celebration of Delmark Records
founder Bob Koester and the
memory of Big Joe Williams.
Listen to Paul Garon,
Alligator Records’ President Bruce
Iglauer, Charlie Musselwhite
as they spin tales of these blues legends. The session will be moderated
by Bob Porter at the Route 66 Roadhouse Stage (on Columbus South of
Jackson).
These are just a few
highlights of this year’s Blues Fest schedule. Check it out and plan
to experience the best in the past, present and future of the blues in
Grant Park this year.
Next month, I’ll
preview a few other summer blues festivals from throughout the Midwest,
which promise some of the hottest line ups around.
You won’t be dreaming when you read that Carey Bell, Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin,
and Tommy Castro will be on
the same bill.
We’ll also review
this year’s winners from the
“24th WC Handy Awards Blues Weekend,” which will be held in
Memphis, May 21-24. I hope
that Otis Taylor will earn the “Acoustic
Artist of the Year” award, as well as take home the blues hardware
for his mighty fine “Respect the Dead” (Northern Blues), which is up for a “Contemporary
Blues Album of the Year” award.
Watch for Otis
Taylor’s debut on Telarc records, “Truth
Is Not Fiction,” which is scheduled for release next month. HOT
TICKETS IN MAY...
While my stock in the
musical trade is the blues, I’m also a big fan of folk music.
The Four Bitchin’ Babes,
starring Megon McDonough, Camille
West, Debi Smith, and Sally Fingerett, return to the stage on May 10th and 11th at the Old
Town School. Megon was one
of Chicago’s rising stars in Chicago’s folk scene in the 70’s.
Lonnie Brooks will play Tommy’s
Place in Blue Island on the 16th, and
Mem Shannon & The Membership are in residence at Kingston Mines
that same weekend. One of
my favorite blues players around, Tab
Benoit, will play Buddy Guy’s legends on the 16th.
Last month, I caught Tab live with fellow guitar monster Jimmy
Thackery. If you like
your blues with a Louisiana twang, don’t miss Benoit live.
On May 17th, Nick
Moss & The Flip Tops will host their CD release party, for their
latest disc – “Count Your Blessings.”
Nick Moss & The Flip Tops are up for a WC Handy
Award in the “Best New Artist
Debut” category for their
“Got A New Plan” CD (Blue Bella).
Blues piano man, and former Seattleite, Barrelhouse
Chuck is now a Flip Top. This
will be quite a show! Kenny Wayne Shepard, Ted Nugent, and ZZ Top
rock the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park on May 24th What and show that will be for guitar music
fans…don’t miss it! And
say hello to ol’ Uncle Ted for me!
Until next month... let’s play the blues!
|
||
|
Web
Design By: All Rights Reserved © 6 String Design2003 |
||
