Video: Joe Bonamassa rockin' Telluride

Video blogger kellymon61is posting some of his footage from Telluride Blues & Brews, including this incendiary solo by Joe Bonamassa, which he describes thusly: "Joe jamming at one of the evening Juke Joints at the 2007 Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. He ended the show with Los Endos (Genesis song) which blew my mind...so cool!!!"

Henry Gray

Appraised by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of the great contributors to American culture, Henry Gray has an uncanny ability to distill old-time instrumental r&b right down to its essence. It's only natural, then, that he's been asked to perform at more than New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival editions every year since its inception, and his talents have been utilized in the studio and on the stage by everyone from Muddy Waters to Guitar Slim. And those rock'n'rollers recognize his contributions as well, after 60 years of his fingers hitting the keys-- he was flown into Paris to play at Mick Jagger's 55th birthday party.

Personnel: Henry Gray [piano, vocals (solo)]

Upcoming: Blues Masters at the Crossroads October 19-20, Crescent City Blues Festival October 19-20

A 1984 Clip of Gray Performing "Boogie Woogie"

Video by BobHardy1

Crescent City Blues Festival

October 19-20, New Orleans LA
Lafayette Square Park

Although they're highly regarded for their namesake and signature festival, the people at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival & Foundation, Inc. responsible for many more celebrations than just that one monster. The Crescent City Blues Festival is a case in point-- over two days, some of the city's finest as well as outsiders are gathered to bring home that hot stuff in N.O.'s downtown. The best part about this particular event, though, is that it's free.

Headliners: Bobby "Blue" Bland, Tinsley Ellis, Robert Belfour, Marva Wright, Tab Benoit, Henry Gray, Rockie Charles & Guitar Slim Jr.


No video available

And the winner is…..Whooooaaaa!

By Donald Frazier

In our effort to document the sights and sounds of this year’s Blues and Brews Festival, one remarkable feature eluded us: the frequent raising of glasses and chanting that took place throughout the tasting of beers from more than 50 breweries that was a centerpiece of Saturday’s action.

Well, it wasn’t strictly a chant. Rather, it was more like a few people declaiming a long and drawn-out “Whooooaaaa!”: softly at first, but gradually rising to a crashing crescendo as more and more happy beer tasters join in. By the end it was somewhere between a frat party just before the cops arrive and The Gathering of the Clans.

But what is it? What kicks it off? And why can’t we get it on videotape?

Austin Colby Nelson solved the mystery. As publisher of ‘Draft’ magazine and the sponsor of this year’s competition, he sees this ritual all the time. “It’s a regular feature of beer tastings.” We can’t catch it on videotape, he helpfully explains, because it’s totally random: a sort of spontaneous upwelling of exuberance that expresses the tasters’ studied appreciation of the beers they are assessing at the time.

(Oh yeah, and maybe the fact that they’ve carefully assessed more than a few as the afternoon wears on.)

This year’s winner was the Sweetwater Brewing Company, Atlanta, in a reprise of their victory of two years ago. Nelson says four to five thousand festival-goers took part in the balloting. Which specific beer were they voting for? The process has not yet become sophisticated enough to figure that out. But between the chuggings and the ‘Whooooaaaa’ings, not too many of the tasters were complaining.

TBB slideshow by Kelly Butler

Working out of the press tent at music festivals, it is interesting to see what other publications sent bloggers and photographers. At Telluride, some mainstream press was on hand along with most of the festival blogging corps--people from JamBase, MelodyTrip, MoBoogie.com and others joined Festival Preview in the photo pit for the first several songs of each act.

One of the more interesting press people I met was Kelly Butler, a professional audio engineer who was covering the festival for an environmental web site. (TBB's green initiatives made it an interesting story for that audience.) Now here is a great slideshow of Kelly's still photos of the event, set to the music of one of the festival's big acts, The Radiators.

Turns out that besides having a great eye for photos, Kelly has an ear for the music and is a self-confessed Fishhead (Radiators fan). Nice slideshow.

Showing the Colors

By Donald Frazier

One glance around the festival grounds confirms our observation that something very much like a festival-going lifestyle has emerged. And it’s not just youthful party animals either (although the ‘Brews’ part of this year’s event has certainly attracted a good number of them as well!). It’s people in their forties and fifties who come out in force as well.

To judge by their teeshirts, these festivarians are a broad-minded lot. Sure, we saw the logos for a number of blues-themed events. But they also attend festivals for jazz, indie rock, mainstream rock, country, bluegrass, folk, and even classical music. They attend these events all over the country and beyond, from Georgia and Rhode Island to British Columbia and even Spain. They travel great distances, such as the Festival Preview neighbor who rode out on his Harley from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

And they come well-prepared to party. From their lovingly-prepared campsites, taking in the festivals is not something they do casually. Rather, it’s something they take quite seriously, packing in and setting up with the supplies and the well-practiced order of a military campaign. All the better for those of us who need to borrow a working stove but hey, the spirit of sharing is where it’s been at ever since Woodstock.