BF@XR part 2

The Hilton Garden Inn was booked for Saturday Night so we transferred to the Candlewood Suites on the south side of Wabash Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets. The refurbished Tribune building if you remember. I mention this as explanation from missing the National Anthem at noon and the first 20 minutes of Daphne Willis & Co. Daphne is a charming young lady who accepted my apology later.





if the people around us were slow to get started, Daphne was not - the part of her set that I saw was fast paced and much of the rhythm came from her guitar play. She got a lot of sound out of her acoustic guitar.

Packing and moving was painless but took some time away from the blues so, unlike ex-Mayor Burke who was front and center throughout, we missed a little. Here is last night's hotel as seen from the window of today's and a picture of His Honor avec le chapeau d'orange.




Hardline Drive arrived.


and played not blues but bluegrass to the surprise of all but those who had read the program. Everyone seemed to enjoy it - even blues fans might not be completely ready for hard hitting blues first thing after breakfast even, as it might be for us, if breakfast is in the early afternoon. The professionalism and talent of Hardline Drive won out.


Miche Fambro was next. BF@XR caught Miche in transition from single act to group. They have been together 8 days and he's still doing some of his one man band guitar as percussion, keyboard and strings act while they stand around. I was embarrassed when he dismissed the number I liked most as a 3-chord tune. Everyone around me in the front of the crowd seemed to love Miche so I figured he must have been good then I noticed that he was playing electric guitar left handed and had not restrung the guitar and was playing very intricate fast paced runs (not like surfer music icon Dick Dale who was also upside down and backwards on the guitar but got all his speed from quick double picking) but fast licks that would be hard to replicate on a keyboard. This Miche Fambro needs to be seen to be believed. His style is complex to say the least.



Then Duke Tumatoe and the Power Trio took over. Stopped traffic at 7th and Wabash at 5pm. The crowd laughed at Duke's jokes, swayed to the blues sound and the crisp professionalism of The Power Trio and Duke Tumatoe's blues voice and then gaped when he shifted to a powerful rock falsetto.





Not too dirty dancing.

Then a little past 6 another young girl sang with The Right Now. She looked a little like the actress who played Wonder Woman on TV. She wowed us all. Her name is Stefanie Berecz, a name to watch for.



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I had not recovered from Ms Berecz when this guy named Guy Forsyth came out. I have not heard anyone compare Guy to Tom Waits but I don't know why not. Seems apt to me.
Many were standing when he did Summertime which he turned into a blues saw playing anthem. Here's Guy Forsyth -



The Kelly Richey band followed. The base player and drums were rock solid. That's the base player in the foreground of the picture shaking his head of hair around to such extreme that my slow camera shows him with two faces. That's Kelly Richey behind him. Her virtuosity on guitar had the crowd standing and cheering for song after song.



That's when I crashed. alas
I missed the Clayton Miller Blues Band and Ellusion.

Blues Fest at the Crossroads

In Southern California they say the best way to see Disneyland is to check in at one of the hotels in walking distance. The Blues Fest at the Crossroads is the same. Hilton Garden Inn or Candlewood Suites will put you at the center of the action if you like loud music. No careful drive home after "two" beers, no taking a tired family member home when the best band has not yet played, no nothing but music and music lovers all night long.



Jill Shutt (pictured above) opened the BF at the XR and her set was highlighted (for me) by Georgia on My Mind which I always thought was about one of Ray Charle's girlfriends but she made it her own song.

but before that, there was a moment of 911 silence and the THFD color guard adding red and white to the blues
lest we forget



but before that ... I need to point out that the 7th and Wabash (US 41 and 40) is only an historic location with a marker that says what it was before the interstate highway systems were built. From the west side of South 7th Street it looked like this (shaky camera holder and bad light and all)



Mike Milligan was next up and the first of many blues/rock groups. Knowing only what I like and don't gives me no right to judge or rank these many hard working groups and I won't try. I'm probably no better judge of the crowd around me but I made certain observation. After Jill Shutt entertained the crowd, they settled in to hear blues played as night fell and Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel blasted it at the crossroads. ...


In October of 2001 late on the last night of a week-long visit to Terre Haute I drove down Wabash Avenue and noticed that Boone Dunbar was playing at The Verve. I slowed and put the driver side window down and let the guitar and drums sound in. I thought I needed rest for the flight back to California more than to see Boone again.
The next time I saw him was at his funeral. There's a lesson there somewhere.

Governor Davis and the Blues Ambassadors, when they went Ray Charles call and answer with the BF@XR crowd, made me think of Boone at The Spot and all the other joints in the midwest that rocked all night with blues based sound.



Looking west from 7th Street onto Wabash Avenue at midnight.


The nightcap group, W. T. Fester, cranked up the volume to 11 so folks could hear their music all the way home with the windows rolled up. When I approached the stage to take a picture, I could feel the sound blast head to toe.




W.T. Feaster rocked all of the town and this new generation of blues fans.

It would be a short night of sleep for this old one if I was to be ready for more at noon Saturday.