Ottawa Bluesfest Ends: Sad To See You Go

After 15-years of attending Ottawa bluesfest, this year was no exception – each year continues to get better and better.

As usual, it’s often the side stages that bring the performances that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and those moments of pure musical genious when talented musicians combine to meet that perfect moment of synchronization with the heavens.  For the audience, suddenly the 40 or 50 feet between us and band disappears and we are the blue guitar god, the masterful beat master drummer or the honkey tonk keyboard player. 

With 6-stages, every musical genre covered, Ottawa bluesfest has world musical event.  Only at this festival could you have rapper Ludicrous playing on a stage right before Lynard Skynard take the stage with their Southern Rock experience. 

So – who was great, who was good and who wasn’t?

That’s a subjective thing of course and any one person’s opinions can only be issued based on the acts he is able to take in – after all, we are only human.

Here’s a quick summary from my perspective —

1. Los Lonely Boys were my walk-away favorites.  They had it going on…Henry Garza (one of the 3 brothers) is an incredibly talented guitar player, the closest I’ve seen to Stevie’s ability to channel his soul through the guitar and touch the crowd.  Not to slight the JoJo and Ringo on bass and drums respectively – they were incredibly tight while the entire night they knew exactly how far to push it to the line.

2. My second favorite was Doyle Bramhall – yes the senior one.  Not exactly the showman many may have thought, but a terrific songwriter, musician and entertainer just the same

3. Larry Garner put on a terrific show and although one would have liked to have had more time to hear his blues guitar shine -his show was certainly one of the best received with his gracious ode to the crowd, festival organizers and Sugar Blue who contributed his drummer when Larry’s was unable to come at the last minute because his mother had broken a hip in a fall. 

4. Oh yes, and a big positive for the Subway Rockband Guitar tent – an esecially big hit with my two kids while Dad watched some more blues

5. Who had off nights – the sound was horribly muddy at Lynard Skynard, they faught through and put on a giant show, but much of the fine guitar work all sounded like one big electrical surge – too bad on that one.

6. Jeff Beck – he may be one of the world’s finest technical guitar players – but he could learn a thing or two from Eric Clapton on keeping it simpler, but really touching the soul of his audience.  Many stared in wonder, but then wondered why they left unfulfilled

All in all, it was a terrific festival this year – for us fans of blues guitar, there was enough to keep us happy, though I can’t help but notice there seems to be a little less each year – hopefully Mark Monahan sticks with the blues and keeps us coming back for more.