PrintHitting the High Note
Wafting out of the distant mists of legend and lore, beckoning with allure from the doorways of juke joints and smoky bars, ringing with unbridled intensity from festival stages, more and more people the world over are discovering the blues. No stranger to adversity, the blues is the tough survivor of slavery, oppression, segregation, financial hardship and the latest musical fad. Music of empathy, music of sympathy, music to dispel our troubles, the blues is a soothing balm for the mind and a restorative elixir for the soul. Welcome in good times, it is indispensable in bad.
As the very crucible in which all of the music that America claims as her own was fired into life, the blues has forever altered our musical sensibilities. A chronicle of the social and economic rifts in our society, the blues is essential listening. Its epic journey from the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta and the tenements of Chicago into mainstream consciousness is one of the great cultural odysseys of our time.
Occasionally, it has been rescued from slipping into a forgotten backwater or being relegated to marketing the “hipness” of Levis jeans or Bud Lite beer to the masses. Fortunately, renowned artists like Louis Armstrong, B. B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan have always been there to impress the enduring relevance of the blues on public awareness.
Based on a five-note scale and a simple structure that encourages masterful musicianship around infinitely subtle musical and lyrical shadings, the blues is the most ingenious of genres. Refusing to swaddle life in downy comforts or filter it through rose-coloured glasses, the blues has made an art form out of the hard luck story. Perhaps its greatest triumph is its ability to inspire music of optimism and light from what would otherwise be the soundtrack of misery.
Nowhere will all of the wonderful attributes of blues music be more prominently displayed than at the 2009 Thunder Bay Blues Festival. In just eight short years this world-class event has established itself as a key link in a blues festival network that literally encircles the globe. This fact was made conspicuous in an article which appeared in the 2008 edition of Blues Festival Guide Magazine. Written by Jay Sieleman, the Executive Director of the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization established 30 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee to preserve blues history, celebrate blues excellence and promote blues education, it expounded on the universal reach of blues music and the 550 blues festivals now staged annually around the world. Thunder Bay was one of only eight festivals specifically named by Mr. Sieleman.
The 2009 edition of the Thunder Bay Blues Festival will hit the high note perfectly with the youngest line up in its illustrious history. Flush with the best and brightest stars of the new generation of blues artists the future of the genre will hit the Marina Park stage like a musical cyclone leaving you feeling both vigorously energized and blissfully exhausted.
Prime example are not-to-be-missed Saturday night headliners Los Lonely Boys who will set the blues aflame with sizzling Tex-Mex party rock and send it soaring with blood-brother vocal harmonies. The brilliant spark of Friday night closer Ronnie Baker Brooks will have the air crackling with super-charged blues guitar riffing and hip-shaking urban funk. Like a modern-day blues Phoenix rising from the Isle of Man, Back Door Slam will inject a molten mix of Delta and Celtic influences into the mould of the classic guitar-hero British power trio. From Ottawa/Gatineau comes six-string wonder kid Ricky Paquette who possesses the fearless exuberance of his eighteen years and the chops and discipline of someone twice his age. Fans of head-snapping guitar slinger histrionics will be advised to take a deep breath before Philip Sayce (Melissa Etheridge right-hand-man) plugs in his Strat and Elmer Ferrer, the “Cuban guitar sniper,” will have you in a sweat when he cuts loose with his chilli-and-salsa-laced blues rock. A hedonist’s musical dream, the Shane Dwight Band is so hot right now that they can’t get two days off between gigs.
Retro remains timeless in music thanks to a fresh crop of blues-based artists who renew it with contemporary zeal. One of the most gifted artists on today’s blues scene, John Németh will reinvigorate the classic sound of vintage American R&B for you with golden-voiced crooning and bracing harmonica while the beguiling vocals, jazz cabaret piano and New Orleans horns of Davina & the Vagabonds will make you want to dance for joy.
Nothing grows without roots and the Thunder Bay Blues Festival has gone to great lengths to strike a balance, tempering the animated exuberance of youth with the steadying hand of veteran performers who continue to set the standard and show the newcomers exactly how it’s done. Top of the list is Sunday’s multiple-Grammy-winning marquee act Robert Cray who rescued the blues from the doldrums in the 1980s and has kept it simmering on the front burner for more than three decades. Kenny Neal, the master of swamp blues, torrid guitar, lively harmonica and grit ‘n’ gravel vocals will be totally engaging. Close by will be slide guitar force-of-nature Roy Rogers and supreme master of the harmonica reeds Carlos del Junco, two performers determined to liberate artistic expression and human emotion from the meagre confines of the musical scale. At 79, Big Walter Smith and his ever stalwart, brass-driven Groove Merchants could put a copy right on the phrase “crowd pleaser.” The Carson Downey Band will be serving up an adrenaline rush of Maritime blues rock swagger. Rita Chiarelli and her wonderfully expressive three-octave voice will be belting out blues with rock, jazz and country undertones that can only be described as blissful gratification while Becky Barksdale will stoke the proceedings with a little Texas steam, smouldering guitar and sultry, hypnotic vocals.
Fans arriving early will not only claim the choice spots in Marina Park but also be heartily entertained by the treasure trove of outstanding local blues talent that will lay down a bedrock foundation for the festival each day. This year, two bands fronted by lovely ladies, The Chain and Nashina & the Hackers, will envelop you in a little sass, big voices and heartfelt emotion that will take your breath away. Painted with a more traditional tint, the ripping slide guitar and rollicking keyboards of Southern Comfort will have you on your feet.
Eternally cool, a sonic tonic for what ails you, instant relief and a lasting cure, the blues is one stimulus package that’s guaranteed to make you feel better. Share the experience with old friends and new along with the laid-back atmosphere, warm July sun and refreshing Lake Superior breezes of Northwestern Ontario’s premier summer event, the Thunder Bay Blues Festival. Don’t miss it!
Ken Wright
