DOG: Chesapeake Blues Festival - Day 2

Day 2 of the Chesapeake Blues Festival started off with a ROAR. Albert Cummings came out 15 minutes early with his Stratocaster blazing and took the audience by storm at 10:45am!

Albert asked the crowd what they wanted and then gave it to them. After standing in the rain for over an hour to get in, when he took the stage the rain ceased. And the rockin' blues began... in a big way. I had not been very familiar with the music of Albert Cummings prior to the festival so I was very anxious to hear the man play. His set started off slowly but by the third song he was loosening up and it just got better and better with each one he played. He ended his set with a medley that closed out with Led Zeppelin's "Rock N Roll" and he ended that with the tag riff from "Stairway To Heaven." By then everybody was on their feet.

I have been attending this festival since 1999 and have been there all but 2 years. And I can say that Albert Cummings was by far the best opening act the festival has ever booked. If his intention was to gain more fans by playing here, then mission accomplished. He set the bar very high for those who would follow.

Fortunately, the next act was Zac Harmon. And we learned The Blues According to Zachariah.

Harmon brought that authentic Mississippi sound all the way up from Jackson, MS. And this guy is indeed the real deal. I was familiar with some of his tunes prior to seeing him so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and I was not disappointed. I grabbed my lunch while Zac Harmon laid down the blues as background music.

So there I was with potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, smoked chicken, peppered sausage, and pulled pork (with the HOT Hoochie Coochie sauce) and a refreshing Starr Hill India Pale Ale and Zac Harmon blaring out the blues. I can imagine Heaven being very much like that. Anyway, Day 2 caterers for the VIP section (of course I'm a VIP when it comes to the blues) , Red, Hot & Blue did an outstanding job. Much much better than whoever catered day 1.

Next up was Maryland's own Nighthawks featuring Mark Wenner on the blues harp. These guys have been playing everything from wine festivals, roadside barrooms, clubs, field parties, and bar mitzvahs, to large arenas and concert halls (and probably a few weddings and funerals) across America and Europe ever since I started working in Maryland nearly 30 years ago! But they're based in Silver Spring just outside of DC. They also are the bar band in the HBO series 'The Wire' and play the theme song, "Down In The Hole," for the final season. I've seen them play dozens of times over the years and I can honestly say you never know what you're going to get cause they can play damn near anything. But for the festival they had a special surprise for us. Guesting on guitar they had Hubert Sumlin!

For those who don't know, Hubert Sumlin was the guitar player for Howlin' Wolf. Muddy Waters so envied the Wolf's guitar man that he offered him more money to play in Muddy's band and Sumlin accepted. This caused a great rift between Muddy and Wolf that was never ever repaired. Eventually, Sumlin quit Muddy's band and returned to play with Howlin' Wolf until his death. Anyway, Sumlin was treated for cancer back in 2003 and I've seen him play a few times since then but he's never really had much energy. This was not the case on Sunday. Hubert announced to the crowd that he was feeling good and he really was. He danced and played and took more lead solos than I've ever seen. It was good to see one of the few remaining legends of the blues out still having fun. Don't know if it was playing with the Nighthawks, who always seem to have fun, or what. But Hubert Sumlin was on his game.

After that came Lydia Pense & Cold Blood. And here's where I got off the blues train. Nothing special about the music. Nothing special about the band. Lydia looked like a spasmatic with St. Vitas and ants in her pants while trying to sing and move about the stage. To me, this act was just God-Awful. How they got booked, let alone this high on the bill, is amazing to me. Not bad musicians mind you, just not entertaining at all. (But still, I'd listen to 100 hours of Lydia Pense before I'd listen to 5 minutes of American Idol).

The highlight of Day 2 was, as expected, Shemekia Copeland. By now they call her "The Queen of the Chesapeake Blues Festival." She is the only artist to have appeared 6 times at the festival and I have seen every one of those shows. As she was singing I recalled back to the first time I saw her perform, and it was on that same stage. She was only 20 years old back then. She captivated me and Mrs. Dog (who was just "Mrs. Dog wanna be" then) with an a capella version of "Ghetto Child." A song which she always dedicates to her father, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, a damn good bluesman in his own right before he passed away. Of all the artists I saw over the weekend, Shemekia is the one that you absolutely must see. She has the most powerful voice I've ever heard, and yes, that includes Aretha Franklin.

After Shemekia everything else was non-descript. Blood Sweat & Tears came on and I guess the REALLY old folks enjoyed them. They were fine. No big deal.

Jonny Lang finished the festival. And for my sake I wish he'd have stayed home. He still doesn't know what he wants to be. A singer? A guitar-slinger? A rock-n-roller? A Christian artist? He screams instead of singing. He plays distortion instead of blues riffs. He exudes false pain on his face with every note. I can understand those facial expressions though, it was painful for me too.

Anyway, that's what I've been listening to. How about you?