Robert's Review of Bull Durham Blues Festival at Durham Athletic Park , 9/11/98

Order CD * NCBlue - Carolina Blues Newsletter * Robert's Reviews Home Page * COMMENTS*

Two days of blues in the old Durham Athletic ball park, the 11th annual edition of a festival that just gets better. Friday's night show featured Buddy Guy, Clarence Carter, and Deborah Coleman. Saturday night headliners were Wilson Pickett, Charlie Musselwhite, and Boozoo Chavis. Sponsored by the Hayti Heritage Center, local Carolina blues talent winners opened each night and were followed by traditional piedmont style pickers. The highlights were many but Charlie Musselwhite and Deborah Coleman played great sets.

Charlie Musselwhite came out of Chicago in the 60's playing harmonica about the same time as Paul Butterfield. His first album, Stand Back Here comes Charlie Musselwhite's Southside Band, was a haunting classic backed by the innovative guitar work of Harvey Mandel and the soulful keyboards of Barry Goldberg. Since that time he has covered straight ahead Chicago Blues, Country, Jump blues, and recently introduced Brazilian blues fusion music to his repertoire.

The band was incredible, nice bass solo, tasty piano work, and an outstanding guitarist that had the crowd going wild over his solos. Charlie plays harmonica clearly smoothly and powerfully and he covers the musical area with much more flexibility that one normally expects from a harmonica player. His harmonica roars through the rough and tough classic blues like "Early in the Morning" while adding a playful carnival accordion like sound to the Brazilian numbers.

Deborah Coleman played an extremely confident and strong set with soaring solos that carried as well as any you will hear. Her songs don't strike one as anything special but she has the guitar chops and sings passionately with a strong voice. The band is solid and matches her well. They jammed allowing her to stretch out in her solos and she made the most of it. Her solos made me think of Peter Green not necessarily technique but in their soaring quality. Her solos are thoughtful while still wild - the sign of great things to come.

Clarence Carter got the crowd into a groove - reports are that he stole the show last year, this year he didn't but he didn't disappoint. Backed by a solid band, he played guitar and sang his hits including "Kiss you all over", "Patches", "Too weak to fight", "Slip away", & "Stroking." He also added a guitar based version of Ray Charles "What I'd Say" that added a nice jump to his set. Along the way he teased the audience with playful stories and sexual innuendoes. Musically the set was solid but not especially challenging still a crowd pleasing performance.

Buddy Guy finished the night with an interesting set. He plays hot and loud then so soft you can barely hear. He taunts the audience to sing along then wanders through the crowd on long solos. An excellent backup band that matched him step for step. They started with "Mojo Working" and "Five long years", and included the trademark impersonations of Clapton, Hendrix, and Vaughn that seem unnecessary - we all know he can play as well as they do that's why we are here.

His young guitar player Scott Hole lead the band to a hot version of "Tear Down." but they ran out of time (the park must close at midnight) and they failed to bring the set to a climax. Still amazing guitar work & wildly passionate vocals from a master.

The festival takes place on the infield of the old Durham Bulls ballpark with a nice size crowd - not too big to make the lines annoying and definitely not too small to keep the buzz going. There was great weather and a very diverse crowd - white, black, yuppies, blue collar workers, students, grandparents, hard core blues lovers, hard core party lovers, and dancers. One of the core American music styles played in a baseball park to a true American melting pot audience - maybe they should hold it on independence day. Nah, it works just fine in September.



Visit the web site for Bull Durham Blues Festival
and tell them you came from Robert's Reviews

For other related sites visit Links

Click here to order Bull Durham Blues Festival CDs & Cassettes at discount prices. Book Mark this page for future orders

A review of ordering CDs at Robert's Review of CDNow

Profits from advertisers now to go to blues societies and foundations. If you like the reviews and CDNow, please bookmark this page for all future cd orders. If you have any have comments about the service let me know. - thanks Robert.