| Everybody else, Part one... |
| There was certainly an eclectic mix of artists representing the broad spectrum of blues and beyond. The privileged few who earned a perfect 10 from me were Ben Harper, whose show was ten times better than his live album; Harry Manx, an Indian-influenced tabla/slide guitar player who was surprisingly good; Richard Johnston, a real Mississippi hill country rocker a la Junior Kimbrough and R. L. Burnside, complete with boots and britches; and Jeff Lang, an astonishing Australian artist I'd never heard of whose guitar styles bent every genre in the book over backwards. I can't wait for next year! |
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| Colin Linden, on the sacred stage. The photo is grainy because the light in the church was terrible. |
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| Daniel Lanois put on two terrific shows, one at Bluesfest (shown here) and another, absolutely amazing concert on Canada Day in a park. He's a real class act, too - after his Bluesfest show ended at 11, we fans were chanting for an encore and he rushed back out and very apologetically said he couldn't play past 11. "I'm so sorry, I don't make the rules, I just work here. Thank you so much." |
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| Blues legend Lonnie Brooks (left) and his son (right) had the crowd going for an hour and a half. From the first note, it was clear that old Mr Brooks was well deserving of his status as one of the greats of the blues. I love that shiny purple thing that Junior's wearing, but you'd probably have to be black to make it look so good... |
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| Martina Sorbara - I've liked her for a while, but her songs sound a lot better solo live with an acoustic guitar (versus with a backing band on the record). I think she's Canadian, too. |
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| Poppa Chubby, rather worthy of his moniker, was one of the most entertaining performers. He's from New York and has a great slide style all his own. The colour on the photo was a little washed out from poor lighting, so I messed around with the settings on my scanner and this is what I got...I thought it looked better than the original snapshot! |
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| Renowned Louisiana bottleneck slide wizard Sonny Landreth played one of the fastest and most energetic sets of the Bluesfest. I knew of him from his work with Mark Knopfler, but his own music is great and his blistering, lightning-pace guitarwork is second to none! |
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| Ottawa's own Steve Marriner is one of the best young harmonicists out there. This is about the fourth time I've seen him, and he always impresses - even before you remember he's only 18. He's already been around the business with some of the biggest names in blues, and he just keeps getting better. |
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| An unexpected part of the Festival's - ahem - entertainment came on midway through a wet and windy Saturday. Teresa Andersson comes to us from the presumably much more garb-appropriate New Orleans. Though her songs are often middling, her soaring voice and frantic fiddling made for a great show. Of course, at a blues festival, that outfit caused more than a few eyebrows to rise, among other things. |
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| All photographs copyright 2003 Neil C. Raynor |