Blues, period: Headliner, Jimmie Vaughan (bottom) spoke
through his Fender Stratocaster to the Syracuse Blues Festival audience
this weekend, while Ricky “King” Russell, guitarist for Toni Lynn
Washington, mixed blues roots with
contemporary sounds.
An anxious split personality characterized the fest, with
a lagged ramp-up of traditional blues music that climaxed in Wilson’s
Saturday performance before a packed Clinton Square. That was followed
by Sunday’s afternoon rains and dwindling crowds, although headliners
Jimmie Vaughan and Lou Ann Barton drew a sizable crowd.
Saturday’s make-the-musicians-work performances kicked off with a set on the Budweiser main stage from Toni Lynn Washington,
a Boston-bred vocalist who placed heaping tablespoons of stank on a
handful of classic blues and soul tunes. “Down the Drain,” a number
that spoke to the grittiest, just-the-facts components of blues
storytelling, reached deep into Washington’s ability to a deliver
no-nonsense messages through moaning, gutsy melodies.
With the help of guitarist Ricky “King” Russell, a
surprisingly contemporary ax-grinder who has clearly weathered decades
of experience, Washington also nailed “Unchain My Heart,” a song first
made famous by classic vocalist Ray Charles. Noting his role in the
connection between Washington and the gathering audience whose ears had
perked up after her performance of Earl King’s “Three Can Play the
Game,” Russell extended three fingers in the air and smiled at
onlookers in well-deserved self-satisfaction of his manipulation of the
pocket during that song’s solo.
{mospagebreak}
School me once: Harmonica player and vocalist Kim Wilson
(left) and guitarist Mike Keller of the Fabulous Thunderbirds preached
to the bluesy young ones during a Blues Fest workshop in Hanover Square.
On the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage, at the other side of Clinton Square’s drained-pond-turned-grandstand, Jeremy Wallace
continued the day’s heavy, heady blues education with tunes and sonic
vibes that shared the smoky, Americana sound of Tom Waits. Wallace’s
“Lickin’ My Lips” brought the creepy vibes of a bayou dirge to town,
while the musician’s group added just the right amount of subtle
character to the artist’s tales of woe to render them intricate works
of dark beauty.
Around 4 p.m., John Nemeth, the 32-year-old
vocalist and harmonica player, lightened the thick gumbo stirred up by
the previous artists with his easily palatable “Blue Broadway.”
Nemeth’s sound banked on the bouncy legacy of Fats Domino’s famed
recording of “Blueberry Hill.” But you’d have had to do a double take
to notice that Nemeth is perhaps the whitest dude from Boise, Idaho,
his hometown, especially after hearing a voice that would be worthy of
the 1950s Memphis scene.
Nemeth continued his set with “Up To No Good,” from his 2002 independent (and cute-pun titled) album, The Jack of Harps. But Bobby Welsh’s
spaz-matic guitar solo during the performance seemed to divulge all of
his best licks, which left much of the remaining performance a little
flat. To the rescue came a handful of slowly built crescendos led by
Nemeth’s distorted harp, which sent bulges of alarm-like sounds through
the city’s corridors like a secret signal to call out die-hard blues
fans.
{mospagebreak}
Herbert McColbert: The sit-in bassist for the Rebirth Brass Band showed the crowd some brassy love during Sunday’s Blues Fest
performances.
Later in the afternoon, local blues musicians Los Blancos ambled onto the Dino stage. Toward the end of the set, Colin Aberdeen,
the group’s frontman, deceptively introduced himself as Russell
Deceits, after leading his group through their
Hootie-and-the-Blowfish-meets-zydeco set, carrying on with some
generally light vibes.
As dusk settled amid the humid urban surroundings, taking the main stage was Sean Carney,
an able replacement for the originally scheduled Nappy Brown. Carney
even played some of Brown’s tunes, including “Bye Bye Baby,” from
Brown’s 1954 Savoy Jazz album, Don’t Be Angry. With the demeanor of his
zoot suit-clad band, Carney’s act proved that there was more to the
pomade than met the ears of the sweat-soaked audience.
Carney called up the festival’s organizer, Bernie Clarke, as well as local guitarist extraordinaire Seth Rochford
to jam for a few tunes. Rochford seemed to be in seventh heaven,
collaborating with the likes of Carney’s talented out-of-towners. And
being a festival organizer has its privileges, especially if you want
to gig at your own shindig; Clarke was also a member of the Syracuse
All-Stars conglomeration on Saturday and at the front end of his Rhythm
Sharks outfit on Sunday.
The All-Stars also showcased bassist Gary Lavancher, keyboardist Dave Liddy and guitarist Steve Quenneville
among others. The around-towners got off on a high note with Savoy
Brown’s “Let It Rock (Rock and Roll On the Radio),” reciting unison
vocals that brought the party grooves to a simmer. The group also asked
luminary Ron Spencer to trade some eights; with all due respect
to the musicians’ talent, however, later, more obscure blues selections
made the performance drag. Regardless, the chance to be in front of the
large gaggle that had gathered to check out the Thunderbirds was great
exposure for a once-great local blues scene that so badly needs to be
noticed again by Syracuse music fans.
According to Wilson, his band is currently in its prime with the recent additions of guitarists Johnny Moeller and Mike Keller, as well as with bassist Randy Bermudes and drummer Jay Moeller
to accompany Wilson’s harmonica prowess. Johnny Moeller came to the
Salt City with a grizzled poker-stare and fantastic stage antics; his
wilder side contrasted with the more cerebral approach of Keller, who
stood on the opposite side of Wilson on stage in a way that casually
suggested competition. Indeed, the two bounced solos back and forth
throughout the night, although Johnny Moeller seemed too absorbed in
throwing his hair around stage to notice any contrived tensions.
{mospagebreak}
Home-grown and blown: (Top) Guitarists Terry Mulhauser of
the Kingsnakes (left) and Mark Hoffmann shared some intimate musical
moments during their performance with the Syracuse All Stars as part of
Sunday’s lineup. (Below) Kim Wilson charmed the crowd with an
incredibly long harmonica solo on Saturday.
More than a bit self-indulgent, Wilson climaxed the
night’s gig with a seemingly endless harmonica solo. Darting between
low notes of his harp that served as a self-bassist and rhythm section,
Wilson accentuated a solo full of gusto that would have required less
talented musicians to take a few pulls from an oxygen tank. Regardless,
whoever was running the soundboard cranked Wilson’s groove way, way too
loud; the subsequent ear-shattering, single-note runs might have
accounted for some hearing damage among onlookers. Still, the imbibers
in the crowd didn’t seem to care; they stormed the photographers’ pit
in front of the stage toward the end of Wilson’s set, as the band’s
“Mustang Sally”-like lick formed the prelude to the Thunderbirds’
primary hit “Tuff Enuff.”
Earlier that day, Wilson shared a few candid moments with
his fans during a workshop held in Hanover Square. The artist,
accompanied by Johnny Moeller and Keller), continued to harp (get it?)
about the need to impress womankind with musical mischief. He also
shared some advice for harmonica aspirants. “You’re not missing
anything by not being up at the front,” he said. “It might be better to
get a job where you can make some money.” And “A good harmonica player
lays {his instrument} down and doesn’t play it for a while {during a
set}. It’s better when people are looking for it.” However, harmonica
players should always “think about the girls.” Perhaps Wilson’s
girlfriend, Amanda, who also spoke with The New Times via telephone
prior to the festival, should be a bit worried about Wilson’s fixations!
That education, which elicited the roots of blues over
its flashier elements, seemed to have wore off on those festivalgoers
who managed to weather Sunday’s torrential downpours. Blues maven Erin Harpe’s workshop was washed out by the storm, while the greatest tragedy of the festival came when Hammond B3 organist Bruce Katz and his band The Organiks were hit with the brunt of Mother Nature’s rage.
Those hippies who twirled multicolored umbrellas and
splashed in the pool in the front of the Budweiser stage, as well as
the brave souls who donned raincoats and sat in their folding chairs in
the front seats, were treated to an amazing batch of Katz tunes and
other favorites. The concert was the kind of thing from which musical
legends are born, and was something like a fisherman’s big-whopper
tale; it’s almost hard to believe it happened under such disastrous
circumstances.
Saxophonist Jay Collins sympathetically praised
the crowd, “You are amazing. Unbelievable!,” after calling for a round
of applause for the drenched, hard-core blues fans. As if to test their
mettle, however, the group launched into an instrumental jam that was
followed by an increase in the volume of rain falling from the sky.
{mospagebreak}
Guitarist Chris Vaterllo and his Fender
Stratocaster seemed to morph into the increasingly blustering
sentiments of the storm itself during the solo section of a highly
emotive instrumental jam. Even Katz noted the special character of the
moment: “In the middle of that solo, he was playing what was coming
down!”
The band also slipped in a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tonight
I’ll Be Staying Here With You” that made the best of Dylan’s atypical
song form. Along with percussion that was perfect for the mood of the
gig from drummer Randy Ciarlante, the set began to draw to a
gentle conclusion when Vaterllo gently plucked through a speckling of
delicate harmonic chimes at song’s end, giving the performance the
feeling of sitting in on an intimate, private rehearsal.
Tom Townsley, host of Sunday Night Blues on
WAER-FM 88.3 as well as a harmonica player in his own right, announced
to the few stragglers remaining that the Hanover Square concerts would
be cancelled. “The guitar clinic in Hanover Square has been replaced
with a scuba clinic,” Townsley kidded, then advised onlookers to “float
your inner tubes” across the pool that had gathered inside of the
Clinton Square pond, where the audience was standing prior to Bernie Clarke and the Rhythm Sharks’
set on the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que stage. The group engaged in a variety of
classic blues standards that demonstrated Junior Wells and Little
Milton as influences.
Anson Funderburgh, the famed Texan guitarist and frontman of the Rockets, then performed with harmonica player James Harman during another set that had to be seen to be believed. Pianist Christian Dozzler stood out during the run, with the group in total riffing mode on some seriously roots-based music like “I’m Coming Home.”
Dr. Killdean (aka Chuck Dean), a local favorite
and pioneer of the boutique amplifier company Retro-King Amps (one of
which was sold to Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top last year), then made his
mark as the only festival performer who covered the one blues song
everybody knows: B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.”
{mospagebreak}
By the time the Rebirth Brass Band took to the
stage in the early evening, most of the bad weather had passed, leaving
nothing between fans and the music they’d come out to see. The group of
New Orleans-based horn players mass-improvised an arrangement of Fats
Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” that sent waves of brassy pleasure through the
air.
Rebirth implored every audience member to get out of
their seats and dance, as the partiers exploded in a conga line during
that Nawlins tradition “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Another
highlight was sit-in tuba player Herbert McColbert, a
replacement for the group’s ad-hoc bassist Philip Frazier, who was tied
up down South due to an emergency according to the group’s frontman, Stafford Agee.
An improvised rendition of Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” somehow came
across like a formal arrangement, and found its roots in the song’s
unforgettable bass line via McColbert.
The Syracuse All-Stars’s second try during the festival was largely a reprisal of The Kingsnakes’ lineup, especially shining under the auspices of local guitarist Terry Mulhauser. Skip Murphy,
quixotic harmonica player and Syracuse New Times’ Orange hoops
kibitzer, joined in the fun during a rendition of his song “Time’s
Gettin’ Tougher Than Tough, ” which has been receiving airplay on
WAER-FM 88.3. And recently inducted Sammys Hall of Famer, guitarist Mark Hoffmann
simply blew the crowd away with his musical collaboration. The band
drew the crowd’s dancers to a frenzy, kicking up water in
mini-explosions in front of the stage during Warren Zevon’s “Bo
Diddley’s A Gun Slinger.” The group aptly dedicated the tune to
Diddley, who left a huge hole in American blues music with his passing
in June.
The festival’s conclusion was nigh, and the crowd cheered when Jimmie Vaughan’s
band sauntered on stage prior to his entrance, as the musicians
launched into an instrumental blues jam. Vaughan’s set included a
slurry of tunes with musical compadre Lou Ann Barton, a
vocalist in the coal-miner’s-daughter style. Lacking the youthful perk
of LeAnn Rimes but harboring all of the heartbroken, weather-stricken
notes of Tammy Wynette, Barton’s performance of “Candy-Coated Love”
came across as versatile and influence-loaded, on par with the likes of
the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack as well as more contemporary
country sounds.
“Natural Born Lover” similarly featured a sexy swagger
via Barton’s learned lips, all the while giving Vaughan a chance to
step away from the mike and explore guitar histrionics aplenty. The
crowd soaked up every line of Vaughan’s Stratocaster poetry.
Furthermore, Barton invited Anson Funderburgh back on stage to provide
for some magical moments of guitarist collaboration.
And what more fitting a way to draw the festival toward
its conclusion than with a reprise of “Bye Bye Baby,” a good-will nod
from Barton and Vaughan to the absent Nappy Brown. Although festival
goers had to work through some difficult circumstances throughout,
those sentimental vibes of Vaughan’s partnership with Barton will leave
an aftertaste that is sure to linger for years.
