The first day of the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival started off in colorful fashion
with the South Philadelphia String Band. A marching unit that is essentially a saxophone army surrounded by a couple accordions, several string basses, and a few banjos. They marched in, played a few numbers which I actually learned in the 3rd grade (most notably "I'm Lookin' Over A Four Leaf Clover") and then the National Anthem, and marched off.
First of the blues performers was Patty Reese.
Patty had performed last year as part of the Chesapeake Rhythm & Blues Women. An all-star group assembled specifically for the festival which featured Deanna Bogart on keys & tenor sax. But this year Patty brought her own band which included a dude who played a mean slide Telecaster with a bottleneck. Patty hails from Silver Spring, MD and plays extensively in the region. It was a very nice set to start things off.
Next up were Moreland & Arbuckle "all the way from Wichita, KS."
They were part of the show Fan described in his post from the Friday night concert. They sounded much better live than on a studio recording from what I heard. I'd agree with his assessment. Not particularly great, just OK. At the end of the set I thought how nice it must be for these young men to play the kind of music they obviously enjoy and get paid to do it as part of a national tour!
with the South Philadelphia String Band. A marching unit that is essentially a saxophone army surrounded by a couple accordions, several string basses, and a few banjos. They marched in, played a few numbers which I actually learned in the 3rd grade (most notably "I'm Lookin' Over A Four Leaf Clover") and then the National Anthem, and marched off.First of the blues performers was Patty Reese.
Patty had performed last year as part of the Chesapeake Rhythm & Blues Women. An all-star group assembled specifically for the festival which featured Deanna Bogart on keys & tenor sax. But this year Patty brought her own band which included a dude who played a mean slide Telecaster with a bottleneck. Patty hails from Silver Spring, MD and plays extensively in the region. It was a very nice set to start things off.Next up were Moreland & Arbuckle "all the way from Wichita, KS."
They were part of the show Fan described in his post from the Friday night concert. They sounded much better live than on a studio recording from what I heard. I'd agree with his assessment. Not particularly great, just OK. At the end of the set I thought how nice it must be for these young men to play the kind of music they obviously enjoy and get paid to do it as part of a national tour!Cedric Burnside & Lightning Malcom followed and played a set I liked more and more as it progressed.
Cedric is the grandson of the late R.L. Burnside who Mrs. Dog and I first saw at this same festival in 1999. They play a style of blues that comes from the North Mississippi hill country as opposed to the more well-known delta blues of Robert Johnson. A lot of heart and intensity goes into the music as opposed to a large instrumentation pallette. It's just a guitar and a drum set.
Cedric is the grandson of the late R.L. Burnside who Mrs. Dog and I first saw at this same festival in 1999. They play a style of blues that comes from the North Mississippi hill country as opposed to the more well-known delta blues of Robert Johnson. A lot of heart and intensity goes into the music as opposed to a large instrumentation pallette. It's just a guitar and a drum set.After that came Tinsley Ellis. This was Tinsley's second appearance at the festival.
Tinsley is well known as more of a blues-rock musician than for straight ahead blues. Nonetheless, he can both rock it and turn it down to a slow blues burn. Either way, his sets are always smokin'! He absolutley blew me away with a terrific version of Mercy, Mercy, Mercy originally popularized by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, written by Joe Zawinul. I liked This set a lot, as I knew I would. Tinsley Ellis rarely disappoints.
Tinsley is well known as more of a blues-rock musician than for straight ahead blues. Nonetheless, he can both rock it and turn it down to a slow blues burn. Either way, his sets are always smokin'! He absolutley blew me away with a terrific version of Mercy, Mercy, Mercy originally popularized by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, written by Joe Zawinul. I liked This set a lot, as I knew I would. Tinsley Ellis rarely disappoints. The next act was The Yardbirds. Yeah, right. I did not have any idea of what to expect. The Yardbirds I knew evolved into what we know as Led Zeppelin back in the late 60s after Jimmy Page ended up holding the rights with none of the other band members willing to stay on with him. Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck had both left the band some time before.
So you see, the band has a rich heritage in lead guitar players. I'm guessing, because I don't know for sure, that one of the original members has ressurrected the Yarbirds name and taken on a pack of young talented musicians to put a new spin on many of the old Yardbirds hits. At least that's what it looked like to me. And these young fellows were indeed talented. Ben King, pictured above, now holds the lead guitar spot and can handle the role very well. It would be ludicrous to imply he could follow in the footsteps of Clapton, Beck & Page but he's talented enough that it could happen.
The act so many had looked forward to came next. The unquestioned Queen of the Chesapeake Blues Festival, making her 6th appearance, Shemekia Copeland!
As always, Shemekia was just great. She is pictured above doing one of her signature numbers, Ghetto Child. During this song she steps away from the microphone and sings to a festival crowd, outdoors, a capella, no amplification, and fills up a state park with sound. You could hear a pin drop people are so in awe. The first time I saw her do it I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I've heard that she did it at the Chicago Blues Festival a couple years back in front of 30,000 people outdoors and it was all the people talked about. There were several thousand at this festival and the Chesapeake Bay not 100 yards away yet her voice resonated above all. She always dedicates the song to her late father, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland the great blues guitarist from Texas.
And finally The Man, Buddy Guy took the stage. Buddy put on a clinic. Started out playing like Albert King, ended up playing like Eric Clapton, with Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a little Bill Withers thrown in the middle. And he told the largely white audience about the British Blues Invasion -which featured blues based music by bands like Cream, John Mayall, Ten Years After, & The Rolling Stones.
He said, "Then came what was known as the British Invasion. All these English bands using blues riffs in their songs. My good friend Eric Clapton did that in his band Cream. But there wasn't really no British Invasion. The blues was here all the time. Y'all just didn't know what the fuck you had!!"
So you see, the band has a rich heritage in lead guitar players. I'm guessing, because I don't know for sure, that one of the original members has ressurrected the Yarbirds name and taken on a pack of young talented musicians to put a new spin on many of the old Yardbirds hits. At least that's what it looked like to me. And these young fellows were indeed talented. Ben King, pictured above, now holds the lead guitar spot and can handle the role very well. It would be ludicrous to imply he could follow in the footsteps of Clapton, Beck & Page but he's talented enough that it could happen.The act so many had looked forward to came next. The unquestioned Queen of the Chesapeake Blues Festival, making her 6th appearance, Shemekia Copeland!
As always, Shemekia was just great. She is pictured above doing one of her signature numbers, Ghetto Child. During this song she steps away from the microphone and sings to a festival crowd, outdoors, a capella, no amplification, and fills up a state park with sound. You could hear a pin drop people are so in awe. The first time I saw her do it I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I've heard that she did it at the Chicago Blues Festival a couple years back in front of 30,000 people outdoors and it was all the people talked about. There were several thousand at this festival and the Chesapeake Bay not 100 yards away yet her voice resonated above all. She always dedicates the song to her late father, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland the great blues guitarist from Texas. And finally The Man, Buddy Guy took the stage. Buddy put on a clinic. Started out playing like Albert King, ended up playing like Eric Clapton, with Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a little Bill Withers thrown in the middle. And he told the largely white audience about the British Blues Invasion -which featured blues based music by bands like Cream, John Mayall, Ten Years After, & The Rolling Stones.
He said, "Then came what was known as the British Invasion. All these English bands using blues riffs in their songs. My good friend Eric Clapton did that in his band Cream. But there wasn't really no British Invasion. The blues was here all the time. Y'all just didn't know what the fuck you had!!" Getting too late to post any more tonight. I'll follow up with day 2 tomorrow. Stay tuned... Bluzdude you got to go to this festival. Schedule the trip to Ohio for another week next year.
2 comments:
Sounds like a real barnburner.
I remember playing Tinsley Ellis in my store in Cleveland and having to work very hard to convince some customers that it wasn't BB King. (more from the vocals than the guitar)
Buddy's The Man... the greatest surviving guitar player, in my book.
What a great party. Makes me feel like a prisoner that I have to work today. Buddy Guy is a Chicago legend. He may be from Louisiana, but he is Chicago Blues.
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