Thunder Bay Blues Festival - Day Two

Thunder Bay Blues Festival Daily Column

Publication Date: 7-10-11

By: Hubert O’Hearn

It was a day as wet and as cold as a polar bear’s paw. There’s a fine old Irish saying that I’m fond of quoting: There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. On the Saturday of the 10^th Annual Thunder Bay Blues Festival, that saying was proven as a piece of Blarney. If ever there was a living definition of sodden, this was it.

The sheer wonder of it all is that several hundred people actually managed to gut it out from the day’s opening performance at 11:30 AM until the grey sponge overhead finally ceased wringing itself out around 7PM. Half-frozen hands clapped enthusiastically after each song, in equal due to the slightly drowning performers as well as perhaps generating a bit of warmth from the friction.

The performers indeed do deserve thanks and gratitude. Yes, they were under a show tent, but wind shows absolutely no respect to a tent’s open side. Between acts a cascade was swept off the front of the stage by the hard-working stage manager Rob Jensen.

The first truly memorable moment for me at this year’s Festival came when Big Walter Smith blessed us with a classic rendition of Stand By Me.  This by the way was on Walter’s 81^stbirthday, which proves if nothing else that you’re never too old to play or enjoy the Blues.

As I have written before, one of the joys of the Festival is discovering new acts. Trampled Under Foot was quite literally the last act booked for this year’s Festival. The two brothers and sister electrified the audience, closing with the first encore call-back – Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll.

Dana Fuchs...what God looks and sounds like when God
feels like singing

But you’ll want to know my opinion of Dana Fuchs, who was my pre-Festival pick as the potential best act of the entire three days. I do not deal in hyperbole. I do not exaggerate. I state honestly what I feel. She is the best female – strike that – she is the best Blues singer I have ever heard. Over. Said. Done. Partially it must be due to her equal talent as an actor – she connects with a mass audience on a truly individual basis, specifically when she dedicated Keep on Rolling to her recently deceased brother. Simply astonishing, this connection, one worthy of the best stage actresses I have seen. And what an incredible instrument she has been blessed with. It was an honour to share this soggy time and space with her.

3:00PM


Amanda and I have made a retreat to the Prince Arthur to recharge equipment, update this blog and generally restore sensation to extremities. On the one hand, the rain is supposed to pass by 4PM. However, it's not 4PM yet and we're damn cold. Yes indeed, it IS possible to see your breath on a July day in Thunder Bay.

Not taken today...

But why complain? Well, it's fun for one thing. But the bands are playing bravely through the streams and are doing their best for a small, sodden audience. And there have been lovely moments. Big Walter Smith, who has been coming up to the Blues Festival from year one, celebrated his 81st birthday on-stage with cake and a gift chair presented by the Blues Fest organizers. He then sang one of the songs that always brings a tear to my eyes: Ben E. King's Stand By Me. And yes, those were tears and not raindrops.







12:35 PM

Someone throw a briquet on Richard Branson - it is raining like a sumbitch out here. Then again, God invented tents for a reason. Then again, according to the radar map, this should blow over in an hour or so. Mind you, one can always just pretend that one is swimming....whilw clothed...and walking around.

More later.