Sugar Blue / Pocono Blues Fest



Well, we made it to only the second day of the Pocono festival and got
there late to boot, but it was definitely worth it. Sugar Blue was the
closing act on the second stage, and at first we got a scare -- an
announcement was made that he had not yet shown up, so some of the other
bands would be coming back on to play. Having driven 90 minutes mainly to
see him, I was >not< pleased. But fifteen minutes later his van pulled up
and the band started setting up.

First off, I like his band a lot. Very funky, a lot of jazz changes, and an
excellent groove. They had the audience going with their two opening songs,
and then SB started playing harp from beside the stage, and walked out into
the audience.

He was every bit as good on the harp as I'd heard -- John Popper reminds me
a bit of him, but Blue is much funkier and harder. He did a fairly short
set, but it really got everyone going. Then he was called back out for the
encore, and all the folks who'd already headed over to the main stage for
the closing act missed the best part of the show.

He did "Another Man Done Gone," which he credited to Sonny Boy Williamson,
but what it sounded like really was "Bye Bye Bird," the SBW II song that he
does on a low F harp, with some excellent rhythm chords. Blue did this all
by himself, with a good chunk of the audience keeping time, and it was
amazing. He did a lot of the Sonny Boy-style riffs you'd expect on a song
like that, but he also was playing a lot of the high notes, as usual, and
playing rhythms on the low end of that harp so hard you could almost hear
the reeds banging the cover plate. (That is one big mother of a harp to do
fast chords and bends on in the lower octave). 

I picked up BLUE BLAZES, and I like it a lot (but I don't love it). His
harp is outstanding, but some of the songs are just flat, not as good as
the originals ("Help Me," "I Ain't Got You"). I love his version of "Miss
You," "Back Door Man" cooks, and the two originals make me wish he'd done
some more of his own stuff.

Anyway, I forget who posted the schedule for this festival to the blues
list, but thank you whoever you were. :)


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Ken Ficara                                                      ficara@xxxxxxx






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