The Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival closed another successful year a couple of hours ago, and I am still buzzing from the combination of a slight contact high and a series of high-powered performances on stage.
Headliners The Pointer Sisters provided a polished performance of their various top-forty hits, including Jump, Neutron Dance (from the Beverley Hills Cop Soundtrack), and I'm So Excited. They've been performing together for more than thirty years, and brought everything they had to the Salmon Arm festival. My seven year old daughter and I boogied along with them and a couple of thousand other festival-goers under the stars, then closed the night out with a celebratory rendition of Will the Circle Be Unbroken, featuring many of the day's performers, including Jim Byrnes (pictured centre stage, at right).
The strongest performance of the day however (and quite possibly the entire weekend (according to some fellow attendees), was soloist Matt Andersen ( and again here on MySpace) from Bairdville, NB.
Mr. Andersen was the last performer on Stage 5 before it and several other venues were broken down at the end of the day. Nevertheless, his outstanding acoustic blues fretwork, original material, and powerful, soulful vocals pulled in a rapt audience away from both the food fair and neighbouring stages. On a couple of occasions the crowd spontaneously lept to its feet as he finished a song; not the by-ones-or-twos kind of standing ovation one often sees at live performances, but rather the kind where the entire crowd surges up at once, screaming and freaking out before they can even consider restraining themselves. He's that good.
Now, I confess that I don't make the time to attend a lot of live music anymore, but this man evangelized me. He was nominated as Male Artist of the Year for the 2006 East Coast Music Awards, and it is plain to see why. His cds were sold out long before I got to the tent, so I ordered his two cds (Solo at Sessions and One Size Never Fits) online at Landwash Distribution as soon as I got home. I'll say it again; he's that good.
Recordings can never capture the essence of live performances as strong as what I witnessed today, but nevertheless I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either recording to anyone who's looking for something new and enjoys the blues. I expect that even if Mr. Andersen made a poor recording, it would still make it onto my own personal heavy rotation. He's that good.
Here's a short video I captured of Mr. Andersen playing Leavin' Blues (with permission):
Were you at the festival, or have you seen Matt Andersen or other performers from Salmon Arm live at a different venue? Did you attend Nakusp or some other music festival this summer? Click on "Comments" below to share your experience with Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops readers.
