Ears are still ringing, mind still busy after watching the Sam Roberts Band freewheel through a roller-coaster 15-minute encore set here in Salmon Arm, bringing the 17th annual Roots & Blues Festival to a close this evening.
Despite the headliner's great finish, I can't stop thinking about Johnny Winter. In spite of his frail appearance, Mr. Winter delivered heavy blues licks that echoed memories of his music from my childhood. I would often listen to my older brothers' vinyl before they arrived home from high school, and so spent most of those intervening hours listening to Ten Years After, Santana, and Johnny Winter. I liked the album art of the last two best; Santana for the heavy-breasted women featured prominently on the cover, and Johnny Winter for the novel appearance of the talented albino bluesman.
There's something familiar and appealing about the blues that can hook a person, even when they're unfamilair with the specific artist or song. It's difficult to say the same thing about a lot of pop in a fairground environment however, where otherwise obvious hooks get lost in echoes and imperfect sound systems. Although I personally enjoy Sam Roberts, it was pretty obvious that a portion of this evening's crowd just kind of lost interest once his band took the stage.
Too old? Probably. Too young? Some of us.
But when the blues are on stage, most of us are still alive and well.
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Ironically, we also watched Johnny on the weekend, although this was on the bonus disc of stuff not included in the original Woodstock movie. And boy, was it amazing. But, 40 years later, I'm betting Johnny's still got that touch.
Posted by: Dale Bass | August 17, 2009 at 07:15 AM