Thunder Bay Blues Fest 2011 Live Blog!

9:00 PM

Thunder Bay Blues Festival
Day One Column
Publication date: 7-9-11
By: Hubert O'Hearn

Without a word of a lie, as I walked into the friendly and comfortable lounge of the Prince Arthur Waterfront Suites Hotel to write this column (explanation shortly) there was the smiling face of Richard Branson on the widescreen TV. That absolutely ruined my intended opening joke.

The weather was perfectly perfect for the opening day of the 10th Annual Thunder Bay Blues Festival. That's not unusual. The weather is almost always perfect for the Blues Festival. So my thought was to put a twist on an old line and say that the organizers surely did not commit virgin sacrifice to guarantee the weather, but nobody's seen Richard Branson in a few days and there was a suspicious looking hibachi in the backstage area. Ba boom bing. Thank you very much. We're here all weekend.

The reason why the Marina Park venue has been abandoned for a hotel lounge, is that while the Festival venue offers virtually all the amenities one could ask for - outstanding food (mmm...Thai Kitchen), cold beverages and a standing army of water closets - its wireless signal is a blistering one megabyte per second. I could engrave these words on stone quicker than I could email them. Therefore, myself and a charming reporter for The Walleye have made the lounge into the press gallery. Cheers.

But that truly was my only complaint. It is surprising how many people come up to tall long-haired men (me) carrying laptops and assume that one is writing coverage. They then enquire, 'It's going to be positive, right?' Well good Lord of course it's positive! The reason I come back each year is for the - well - let someone else tell the story.

While I was waiting in the efficiently moving line to enter the site along with my aspiring photographer step-daughter Amanda Zawacki, we started chatting with a lovely couple from Winnipeg, the Stangers. This is their seventh year of coming to the Blues Festival. After asking them if they minded being quoted in the paper, Susan Stanger happily explained what they liked about the Festival. 'The music's great of course, but it's so well run and this such a friendly city.' Nicely said.

As to the day's musical events, Bob Halvorsen of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium did his usual masterful job of booking. You never want to over-excite the audience on the first day of a three-day event; intrigue and entertain yes, but you don't want the energy drained on day one. Therefore the acts from the opening curtain jerker John Booth and the Southside Band, through to our long-time favourites Tracy K and Jamie Stenhoff and carrying through Les Dudek played what can be called comfortable Blues. Blues like your favourite pair of blue jeans; the ones you step in, hold you just right and make you want to stretch like a well-fed cat.

I particularly enjoyed Les Dudek. This will be quite a description, so breathe deeply. On his first visit to Thunder Bay, the legendary guitar player seemed like a trimmed-down Santa Claus on summer vacation playing a jazz-blues fusion with a country twang. And if that is hard to imagine, well, you should have been there Charlie.

Tonight is the act I am most looking forward to - Dana Fuchs, star of Across the Universe, who I suspect will be the show-stopper of this year's Festival. Be seeing you.








7:15 PM - Well THAT has certainly been frustrating. I am writing this from the comfortable lounge of the Prince Arthur Waterfront Suite Hotel because...Thunder Bay in its infinite lack of wisdom chose to REMOVE the wireless routers from Marina Park right before the biggest event of the year. Nice. helpful.

The event itself is going wonderfully - the local bands, given the traditional Curtain Jerker spots did solid, capable sets. Plaudits to John Booth and the Southside Band and the returning favourite Tracy K & Jamie Steinhoff.

As I write this, Les Dudek is entertaining on-stage. So back I go. Next update will be tomorrow's column in about two hours.

Cheers from me and Amanda!








PREAMBLE: 
The blog will be up and running at about 5PM EDT today, assuming the wireless signal is better than last year's 1 MPS. Yes, I said 1 MPS. Your hosts will be Hubert O'Hearn (words) and Amanda Zawacki (pictures)