Robben Ford Discussion

[BlueRunner]

Another great Long Beach Blues Festival this weekend, with my daughter. It's becoming a great family tradition.

Saturday's line-up

The Mannish Boys (plus lots of friends): Floyd Dixon was supposed to be here this year, but, sadly, passed away in July. An expanded crew of Mannish Boys paid tribute with a wonderful set of Dixon's stuff. Kid Ramos caused all of the guitar players in the audience's collective jaws to drop. Finis Tasby and Johnny Dyer set the mood with their Deep South to L.A. vocals.

Lucky Peterson: Was the hit of the show, to my thinking. Very powerful, very soulful. Tremendous impact on the crowd, and Hammond B-3 licks that just poured out over everyone.

Rickie Lee Jones: Sorry, but just what were the promoters at KKJZ THINKING? This is a very talented, but very laid back lady. She set up with a couple of acoustic musicians and tried out some of her more stream-of-consciousness musical tales. And ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. At a place like Long Beach, with 10,000 people spread out in the hot midday sun on an athletic field, you have about 15 seconds to grad them by their pants and shake them. The crowd kept waiting for Jones to do it. And she never did. The crowd was polite, and had a look of feeling sort of sorry for her. (Especially for having to follow someone like Peterson, whose stuff hits you like a truck.)

Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson: Woke everyone back up. Back to the blues, folks.

War: Finished off the afternoon with a great set. OK, so they're not exactly blues. But they ARE Southern California. East L.A. to be more precise. Left us all dancing.

Found a nice little retaurant in Belmont that evening (Cafe La Strada, on 2nd Street), and a good night's sleep at the Motel 6, an hour's run down around the Marine Stadium in the early morning, and then back at it yesterday:

The Campbell Brothers: Definitely opened by taking us to CHURCH. I picked up one of their CD's at the Tower (Chapter 11) Records booth, and every one of the Campbells (plus bass player Malcolm Kirby) chatted with everyone individually and signed everything for everyone.

Kenny Neal (with Carl Weathersby): Started with great traditional acoustic blues, and then turned the heat up.

Betty Levette: Still rocks. As in REALLY rocks. She just has a ton of soul. And at 60, looks as though she could make the Olympic Team. In just about anything.

Jerry "The Iceman" Butler: Pure class. The warmest, smoothest, most soulful set. Picked up one of his books and a CD, and when I got to the head of the line to get them autographed as gifts for my sister-in-law and her husband, he couldn't have been more gracious. Held out his hand, shook mine, and thanked ME for coming to the show. No no, Mr. Butler. Thank YOU.

Joe Cocker: Just gets better and better. Some of the very young skinny kids with long hair and tie-die outfits could have been the children of a lot of the folks out dancing on the grass and singing along. Except that I figure out that in a lot of cases they were the GRANDCHILDREN. 37 years later, we're all still gettin' by with a little help from our friends.

All in all, another great one.
_________________
- BlueRunner