A review of the blues scene in the extended San Francisco Bay Area for the first three months of 2001.
Special events happened. Some festival line-ups were announced. More musicians toured the area. A new book about the influential guitarist, Michael Bloomfield, is out. More CDs were released. So let's take a closer view.
Harmonica Festival Sells Out
For the first time in history, all four shows of Mark Hummel's tenth annual Blues Harmonica Blowout sold out. These shows were held in January for four consecutive nights at three different venues. All shows featured excellent harp players: James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite, and Mark Hummel. Even though Cotton can't sing anymore, he blew a fabulous, strong harp. The Blues Survivors, featuring guest guitarist, Steve Freund, backed the performers. Each show featured special guest harp blowers. At the Modesto show, they were joined by Norton Buffalo. At the two Oakland shows, R.J. Misho also played. Gary Smith and Andy Santana participated in the Santa Cruz show. Mark was so pleased with the show that he is considering taking it on the road next year.
Other Audience Pleasing Events
There was a special Blue Rock'It Blues Revue in San Francisco in January. It featured Robben Ford, Chris Cain, Mark Ford, Andy Just, Michael Osborne, and the Ford Blues Band.
This year's eighth annual Evolution of the Blues Concert was held in Santa Rosa in February. The spotlight was on Oakland Blues, with J.J. Malone, Fillmore Slim, and the Bay Area Blues Society Revue performing.
The Sacramento Heritage Festival, Inc. sponsored two benefit events for a grant to be given to a local school music program. Their February show entertained the audience with Fillmore Slim, W.C. Clark, and Joe Louis Walker. The March show featured the W.D. Gospel Singers, Jimmy Johnson, and Walter "Wolfman" Washington and the Roadmasters. Both shows were successful and raised sizeable amounts of money for the schools.
Some Festival Line-ups Announced
If you're headed to California in May or June, or just want to see who is at some of the outdoor festivals, check out the following websites.
Santa Cruz has detailed bios and photos of all their performers and music tracks to hear from many of them.
Their website is:
www.santacruzbluesfestival.com
and their dates are May 26 and 27.
It is unfortunate that both the Monterey Bay Blues Festival and The Russian River Blues Festival are on the same weekend, June 23 and 24. Monterey also has performances on June 22. Monterey only lists the fifteen artists that are on the four main stage shows. Many more artists will be performing on two smaller stages.
Their website is:
www.montereyblues.com
Russian River has a brief blurb and photo of their artists. Their website is: www.russianriverbluesfest.com.
Don't worry if you don't have a computer, you'll be hearing more about these festivals in the next column.
Promoters of Marin Blues Festival Quit
After twenty years of producing great down-home shows at the Marin Blues Festival, Mark Naftalin and his wife, Ellen, have passed the torch to Bob Brown. Brown is the husband of Angela Strehli and the owner of The Rancho Nicasio, a night club juke-joint in Marin County. After June l, check out the website,
www.marinfair.org/
Spotlight on a Few Visiting Artists
Pinetop Perkins,the legendary Chicago boogie woogie piano player, played a few gigs in the area recently. He worked with Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson, B.B.King, and Earl Hooker before joining Muddy Waters' Band in 1969. He was with Muddy for over a decade, and then played in the Legendary Blues Band, which was made up of other Muddy alumni. Youngblood guitarist, Rusty Zinn and his band backed the master. Perkins, at 87, is still going strong and sounded like he was in his sixties. The chemistry between him and Rusty made a very magical evening.
Arthur Adams, one of the top guitarists and vocalists of the Los Angeles area, also played in the area. His talents, sincere intensity, and charisma were most impressive. He put his all into a solid, unique show without much chatter, and delighted the audience by walking off stage often to play for them. It was a treat to see him perform.
The Barry Goldberg Band, also Los Angeles-based, played again in the Bay Area. Barry has played with a variety of musicians like Mike Bloomfield, Bob Dylan, and Steve Miller. Barry is totally at ease with the keyboards, and plays in a sensual style with expression. The set was mainly cool Chicago electric blues standards. As a special bonus, harpist, Charlie Musselwhite and guitarist, Harvey Mandel, joined him for the first set. It was an exciting reunion for them since they had played together in the mid sixties. There was even talk of doing an album.
Musicians Tour Area
We had our usual good share of touring musicians. The list included: Buddy Guy, Phil Guy, Denise LaSalle, Chris Smith of Hammersmith, Tab Benoit, Big Bill Morganfield, John Hammond, Duke Robillard Band, Sue Foley, Corby Yates, Mose Allison, Sherman Robertson, Candye Kane, North Mississippi Allstars, Johnnie Johnson, Earl Thomas and Blues Ambassadors, Smokin' Joe Kubek with B'nois King, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mem Shannon, Curtis Salgado, Deborah Coleman,and Magic Slim and the Teardrops.
Bay Area-based musicians, Rusty Zinn, played gigs in Germany and Elvin Bishop performed in Canada and Norway.
Bloomfield Book Gets In-Depth
Michael Bloomfield was one of the most talented, charismatic, and influential guitarists of the 1960s. He was born in Chicago and ended up in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. This book , "If You Love These Blues," by Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, with a forward by Carlos Santana, discusses the rise and fall of Michael, both personally and professionally, in vivid detail. Michael's short,turbulent life was filled with being lead guitarist in the Paul Butterfield Band, playing gigs with Bob Dylan, a gold record, and a posthumous election to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, among other things. He also was manic-depressive and a drug junkie. Michael tragically and mysteriously died at the age of 37.The book is called an oral history, which is using a broad definition of the term. It is based on over 80 in-depth interviews with friends, family, and colleagues. The book also has insights into the sixties culture. There are photos, a discography, and a CD of rare, unreleased tracks with the book.
New CD Releases
Keyboardist and vocalist, Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s have a new CD called, "Jump For Joy" on the Blind Pig label. It captures the music of the forties in an enjoyable way. Guitarist, Kenny "Blue" Ray has teamed up with vocalist, Jackie Payne to release his twelfth CD in seven years. It is "Soulful Blues" on his own Tone King label. It is interesting to note that Kenny makes his own guitars.
His unusual website:
http://home.earthlink.net/~blueray/
has a lot of information about him, including an extensive discography.
Harpist and vocalist, Red Archibald and the Internationals have "Everything I Got" as their latest release. South Bay-based guitarist and vocalist, Ike Cosse, recently released "Cold Blooded World" on the English JSP label.
I'm out of steam, so more next time. Spring out and catch some blues!
by Maria Bainer © March, 2001
