Robert's Review of Blues Stage at Artsplosure, 05/17-18/97

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Raleigh had its annual Artsplosure Blues and Jazz Festival on May 17 & May 18 under near perfect weather, packed streets, and powerful blues.

I reached the Blues Stage at Moore's Square to hear Lightnin' Wells sing a few down-home blues. As usual he was in fine voice and chose a nice selection of songs. Algia Mae Hinton was next but unfortunately ran into technical problems - her set started with static and never sounded right. Algia learned the blues growing up in her living room and tried to bring a casual good time feeling out to the audience but from where I sat with the technical problems it was a lost cause.

Kenny Neal came from Baton Rouge with his brothers to close out Saturday with a solid set of blues with a little zydeco flavoring on top. He plays a nice guitar, some slide, and harmonica on a lot of classic blues including "Honest I Do." He worked the audience the best of the weekend doing a lot of call and response with songs like "It Hurts me Too." He also stepped off the stage with his harp to help everyone sing. It's always difficult to capture an outdoor audience in the heat but he did it.

On Sunday, BBQ - Bill Newton's Big Blues Quartet - a very nice 6 piece jump boogie quartet. (Yeah that's right) They had 2 saxes, piano, guitar, bass & drums and both Bill (sax) and the guitarist sang very well. At times they were jazzy, sometimes they boogied and bounced, and sometimes they just played soulful blues. The band seemed to weaken a bit in the middle of the set, maybe it was the heat which closing in on 90. Maybe it was the forced removal of an old guy dancing near the stage during their "Murder in the First Degree." But they bounced back. A couple of times they reminded me of Paul Butterfield's bands which brought back great memories. And then to top it off they finished with the great Butterfield classic, Nick Gravenites's song "Born in Chicago."

Mark Hummel & The Blues Survivors completed the weekend with blues harp virtuosity. The Blues Survivors opened with a couple of good blues rock numbers and then Mark joined in with a great song - "Love Shock." from their CD. Mark is a excellent harp player able to work both free solos and melody. He played the vocal melody on a great instrumental version of "Hand Jive." Overall the band was very good with the guitar and harp interplay especially great. This interplay is what raises a band from being good musicians sharing solo time to forming a band sound and it was good to hear. This was their last date on an eight week tour and they seemed to tire and once or twice Mark seemed to be going through the motions but still a great show. Definitely worth checking out when they are fresh.

The crowd was big, but unfortunately the sun shines right in front of the stage and it gets hot. It was closing in on 90 by Sunday. And most had wandered down the streets full of artists and craftsmen. And most had probably seen Ed Moore's sand sculpture of "The Totally HIPpo Band" consisting of 5 sand built hippos. And for sure, most had sampled enough street food to keep the vendors happy. So not much dancing this year but the crowd was sitting happily if not dancing up a storm. Pretty good deal - free blues under a Carolina Blue sky. I can't wait till next year. 

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