LONG BEACH BLUES FESTIVAL
1998
Day One: Saturday, Sept. 5
What I had been hearing before I got into L.A. was that the weather had been extremely hot throughout the summer. But as it turned out, it became suddenly cool and cloudy for this weekend, and it was really pleasant. There was even a drizzle on the first day (I'm glad it didn't get any harder...) which is very unusual for summer in L.A.
Lonnie Brooks started out the 3-day event with very distinctive style of his own. While he is not the kind of artist that overwhelm you with a strong presence, the music was great and got us in a good mood. Just when I was thinking we could have more heat from the audience, Lonnie came down into the crowd playing his axe, and the crowd went crazy!
Lou Ann Barton sang with a band that featured Derek O'Brien on guitar. I have always like her lazy yet wild voice and the good-rockin' songs that she do, and that was just she gave us in her one-hour set. It's funny that she doesn't move much on stage. (all the pictures I took look quite the same) Derek played a strat with capo throughout the set, and this made the guitar sound solid which I though was really good. Lou Ann closed the set with my favorite "Sugar Coated Love".
It was the 30th anniversary they said. It's impressive to know that the band Roomful of Blues have been around for so long. This was their show to celebrate this special year, and it sure was gorgeous with the alumni of the band Curtis Salgado, Ronnie Earl, and Duke Robillard appearing as guests. I was little disappointed that Curtis didn't play harp, but he showed the audience how much he could sing and that was
a treat. Ronnie played an instrumental plus a song or two with the new vocalist of the band McKinley Odum. Duke played some real wild blues unlike the ones he plays with his own band. (which are mainly more jazzy stuff) One of the songs he played was "My Tears", a classic originally done by Big Walter Price with Albert Collins on guitar. Wow that was hot and nasty!
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Lonnie Brooks
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Lou Ann Barton
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Roomful of Blues
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Ronnie Earl
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Robben Ford appeared with his band the Blue Line. I really like him for his
incredible ability to play the blues guitar, but I'd rather hear him backing up somebody
else than to hear him leading his own band I think. He goes too much towards the
jazz/fusion approach which I am not that excite about.He did play some good blues
numbers, but basically his set was just as I thought. His playing was really hot
though. He played "Chevoret" which was funky and I liked that.
Fest closer of the day was the Blues Brothers. As the movie "Blues Brothers
2000" was released this year, their set looked much different compared to the
previous one I've seen. They played lots of numbers from the two Blues Brothers movies,
and they had a John Goodman look alike guy doing the vocals. The featured guest vocalists
were Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett, but it's a shame the majority of the time was
spent with this look alike guy instead of these two legends. Also a major disappointment
was the bassist Donal Duck Dunn not being in the band. I thought it was because of
his health (he's been suffering from health problems due to cancer) but Steve Cropper
said that he had to attend his son's wedding. Well, can't blame him for that, can
we? The band played tunes like Sam and Dave's "Soul Man", Bar-Kays' "Soul
Finger", or the one from the movie "Looking for a Fox". It was fun,
but to be honest, I was thinking all the time, "It's about time Wilson Pickett
hit the stage".
Eddie Floyd came on after an hour, and sang for about 15 minutes including the classic
"Knock On Wood". And when he was through, Steve Cropper started to talk,
and it seemed like the show was going to be over. Where's Wilson Pickett? He did
come out as Steve introduced him to the audience, and he started singing "In
the Midnight Hour". Oh but his voice was really harsh, and Wilson seemed pissed
that he wasn't singing like he thought he should. He sang two more numbers including
"Mustang Sally", and he was gone. Eddie Floyd came back on to do Wilson's
number "634-5789" with Wilson (I think), but he wasn't there anymore so
Eddie did it without him.
This was all for day number one.
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Robben Ford
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Matt "Guitar" Murphy
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Wilson Pickett
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(CLICK THE IMAGES FOR A LARGER VIEW)
  
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