Event:
Annual Sea Blues Festival
Venue:
Coachman Park
Date:
February 24-25 2018
All I can say is wow ! Each and every year the Sea Blues Festival continues to get better and better! The weather this February was picture perfect, the food was tantalizing and the Blues was epic! Hats off once again to the organizers and the volunteers who make this event one of the very best in the entire country. Amazing job!
I am going to focus on one day at a time, So Saturdays program began with some classic acoustic blues from
Mr George Worthmore- a veteran of the New York City Music scene. Anyone who has played with
Screamin' Jay Hawkins has got my attention. George is a one man band, as well as a proverbial fountain of music knowledge and experience. I really enjoyed the way he interacted with the audience as he shared his songs and stories of his life. He brought out his National Steel guitar and entertained us with some classics. I really got into his rendition of Taj Mahal's "Fishin' Blues.
Next on the agenda, from Chicago;
the Steepwater Band found center stage. This four piece group is a serious, extremely tight blues/rock band that has been around since 1998. Their set was reminiscent of British Blues bands of the 60's (
Cream, King Crimson, Yardbirds) with a little bit of Southern Rock thrown in as well. They played material from the recently released recording;
Shake Your Faith and it was well received by the festival goers. Guitarist / vocalist
Jeff Massey and
Eric Saylors lit up the crowd by dueling on lead guitar with some ear-catching riffs and progressions. Enjoyed their energetic set.
Every once in a while, you swing and miss on a group that you think may be a good fit for a Blues Festival. I am a lover on many genres of music besides blues, but
Super Doppler in my humble opinion was s super dud. Enough said.
However things got a 100% better when
Greyhounds made their way to the stage. From Austin Texas, this three piece band played their unique style of eclectic music that hit the whole spectrum of music styles. Keyboardist
Anthony Farrell and guitarist
Andrew Trube both share vocals and on stage they feed off each other to produce some extraordinary music.
Greyhounds have opened and played with some great bands throughout the years including
JJ Gray & Mofro, Tedeschi Trucks Band and Gary Clark Jr. Check out their music catalog on itunes as they get ready to release a new recording in April:
Cheyenne Valley Drive.
ZZ Ward graced the stage as the sun was going down. Her smooth vocals and stage presence was second to none as her set ended way too soon for many of us. She played electric, acoustic guitars and added some harp to the mix. Ms Ward has collaborated musically with
Gary Clark Jr, Robben Ford and others through the years and played an outstanding set at the Festival. So glad I was able to see her as many others were as well.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd was the festival headliner for Saturday night. It has been a number of years since I have seen KWS, but his guitar work is still some of the best in the business.
Noah Hunt handles lead vocals on the majority of their songs but Kenny Wayne is stretching his wings and vocal chords to take on the entire payload of certain songs and he is shining in the process! Having a larger catalog of songs to choose from,
The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band can easily fill up a hour & a half set. His show was indeed the highlight of the night.
As is customary, I had in my possession, the trusty Nikon and was able to document the days activities. Hope you enjoy.
