Day ten at the 2003 Ottawa Bluesfest.
I realized I messed up the "day x at Bluesfest" stuff, starting last Wednesday. Oops.
The Trachtenburg Family Slide-show Players: Cancelled. The cancellation is unexplained and maddening. It was to be the highlight of the day, and things looked pretty bleak without them.
Chris Brown and Kate Fenner: Suitably laid-back light pop. I had a very pleasant nap in the La-Z-Boy Lounge.
Dinner: At Carmellos on Cooper. Very good - linguini in olive-oil and garlic, with tomato concasse, sundried tomatoes, artichoke and grilled chicken.
Blue Rodeo: Like a middle-aged and blues-inflected Jim Bryson and the Occasionals, with a two-week dose of boring pills.
The Dirtbombs: rhythm-and-blues vocals atop heaving garage guitars. I wanted to like them but didn't have enough in me to withstand the rock'n'roll assault. Stayed for a few songs, then shakily made my way to the bus. (I made sure, of course, to give my pass to one of the sad souls clinging to the fence while the Dirtbombs made their noise.)
The big surprise of the day was Peter Green. I'm not exactly up on my blues lore, but I knew of Green's eminent history. ("Green is God" was spraypainted on walls in England, until Clapton came along and usurped the blues-guitar throne.) I, however, hate the blues, remember - and the last thing I expected to enjoy was the work of this famed electric guitar-player. It was strange, then, to find myself enraptured by the man's performance. His instrument sang things I didn't expect, soaring in precise, acheing ways. It was far from the loose-and-lazy guitar solos I'm used to hearing from blues-rockers. The band - "Peter Green's Splinter Group" - was a worthy accompaniment, spreading a patterned background of sounds, and demonstrating genuine originality in the swell and fade of the tunes. Green's voice is a flat, accented murmur - but it's fascinating, and a dignified alternative to the overly melismatic bluesmen I heard earlier in the week. Things only collapsed on the closing number, a "classic blues tune," and when the typical 12-bar form was resurrected, so was my boredom.
The question, now, is which blues do I like, and why?
Posted by Sean at July 14, 2003 12:16 AMlisten to Leadbelly and Mississippi John Hurt - they will change every bad cliche and stereotype you might have about the blues.
eric clapton isn't blues - he's a fucking wanker.
Posted by kevin at July 14, 2003 5:26 PMI thought Blue Rodeo put on quite a good show. They managed to make their songs sound fresh and different from the radio/CD versions, while not falling into the trap of people who do things in concert just to be different, and ruin them ("I'm going to sing the harmony instead, that'll be KEWL!!"). And that was one of the wackiest fiddle solos I've ever heard. Maybe not really the best quality, but definitely wacky.
And wacky is good.
Oh yeah and that rocked-up Johnny Cash tune was also cool.
Posted by Martin at July 14, 2003 8:22 PMAaaand you missed (or omitted) Luc Doucet, who was a lot of fun.
Posted by Martin at July 14, 2003 11:46 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
