Buddy Brown Blues Festival 2005

Yesterday was great fun! I packed my backpack with all the day-long-festival necessities: Blanket, water, smokes, phone, lip gloss, camera, and of course, a couple of in-the-works knitting projects!

The Buddy Brown Blues (BBB) Festival, put on by the Humboldt Folklife Society, honors a local Humboldt bluesman who died shortly after headlining the first blues festival at Blue Lake. They memorialized him by changing the name to the BBB. Wish I could have heard him play; must have played some pretty mean blues to have a whole festival named after him. So I got to the festival around 12:05 this unfortunately means I arrived a little late and missed the first act (Eric Park) but you can read about him here. I'm certain he was great!

Second in the line-up was Earl Thomas. Definitely check out the link to his website, you can hear him singing! After all was said and done, Earl was definitely my favorite act of the day. He's performed with people like Etta James, Ike Turner (wife beater), BB King, and Dr. John. It was just him in a chair and a guitarist up on stage. I could hear them as I was walking from my car to the park. The sound those two made almost made me feel like I was going to church. It was stirring. Earl said, "This is great. It feels like I'm in the backyard at a friend's house."

At 1pm was a band by the name of Shinbone. They were a fun, upbeat type of group. I'm trying to think back to how they sounded. If I had to put an era on their sound I might say 50's. They had alot of energy and helped wake me up.

Next up was the Clint Warner Band. These guys sounded polished and I really liked how they coordinated their outfits. It was a very warm day at Perigot Park, they must have been sweating up there in all black. Musically, they were pretty tight. Clint went slightly astray on one song most of us recognize when we hear Stevie Ray Vaughn sing it. Perhaps it was the wind blowing the sound of the band away from the monitor and he just couldn't hear the chord. Yeah, that must have been it. Anyways, this group was enjoyable and you can here clips of their music at their website.

Then came Dr. Squid. Not sure where they got their name but they sounded pretty darn good. The only issue I had with this group is: 1. Their singer. and 2. They didn't play but two blues tunes. What's up with that? I mean, the BBB is a blues festival. Hello. They call it a blues festival, it's named after a bluesman. Whatever. They did play one song that made me very happy, it's that one Doobie Brothers song that I can't remember the name of. Could be Michael McDonald, but I'm pretty sure I remember it from the Doobie Brothers 8-track.

Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing. And, the second most important thing. In between the Clint Warner Band and Dr. Squid I went and got a beer. It was from the Steelhead Brewery (I think it is in Blue Lake Casino. But who knows if they really brew the stuff there or not. I went for the Pale Ale. Pretty good as microbrews go. Of course, it might have just tasted that way because I was in such a good mood. How often does that happen? Don't answer that. And, secondly, I got the scalloped hat done but not finished. I have to stitch it up and sew in the ends. Look at me, listening to the blues, drinking beer, and knitting. Who the hell was that jerko who said I couldn't multi-task.

Just as a tangent, I am currently up at 4am writing in my blog. I keep getting woken up by the damn animals. I could just kill them, except I can't because that is why I got them from the shelter in the first place, was so that they wouldn't be killed. Grrrr. My mother is also up at this hour regularly. Another sick example that I'm turning into my mother. Not that that is a bad thing. She is a peach and I love her.

Okay, so back on track.

Mojo Daddy plays west coast blues. A style I happen to like quite alot. It's right up there with swamp/river blues. This was my second favorite performance of the day. I wish there was more to say about this group but by the time they were up I'd had about 4 beers and had stopped taking notes (I'd also pretty much stopped knitting by now too). Sadly, Mojo Daddy didn't have a website. I will definitely be on the lookout to see where they are playing next! Wait a minute, now I remember. Mojo Daddy had the dude playing the harp, and the young guitarist. The guitarist was decent and may want to consider using less notes. As my former band director Ike Pagett used to say, "Don't dazzle me son. Just play the song." This was definitely a case of less would have been more. But like I said, overall, great group.

While at the BBB, I found another knitter! Who knew. Geraldine was working a "top down" sweater. I was impressed. She's been knitting and sewing for years. Her husband told me she's a great talent and should put that to good economic use. Geraldine says she prefers gifting her work to family and friends. She said she'd kill me for posting this picture of her when her hair wasn't "just so" but I will post it anyways because I hope when I'm her age I will look as graceful. OOO, I almost forgot. Geraldine mentioned this cool computer program for knitting call the Knitting Wizard. She wanted to talk with someone else who uses the program. I have her email so if you'd like to get in contact with her about this send me a comment and I'll give her your email.

Lastly was Buddy Reed. He wasn't bad. He's played with some folks we've all heard of but, I guess I was ready to leave the BBB at this point because I didn't feel very impressed. Maybe he was headlining because the festival is a namesake. Whatever.

The festival was over at 6pm. I was starved because I didn't eat any of the Blackberry BBQ they had there (and it smelled sooooooo good). So I made my first batch ever of shrimp cocktail. Not bad for a rookie.