Blues Society of Western PA - Newsletter

It’s past Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer, and for the Pittsburgh region, pretty much the end of the major blues festival season. That’s a shame, since there were lots of blues goodies to be had on festival stages in the past few months.

There’s the Pittsburgh Blues Festival, of course, and then the Wheeling Heritage Music Fest, which seems to get better all the time. And for the past few years, I’ve tried to get to the Western Maryland Blues Festival in Hagerstown, Md. It’s not real close, but it’s an easy drive. And it’s a good festival.

I though it might be fun to look back at those fests for some of the highlights and surprises I found. Festivals are always a good way to take a look at new artists, or somebody you’ve never seen before.

The first of the summer for me was the Hagerstown event. It’s a nicely run festival, with two large stages set up at opposite ends of the site, so the music is almost continuous. This was my first chance to see the relatively new Janiva Magness, a real dynamo of a blues and soul singer. She was terrific, strutting and singing and telling stories, and she was a high point of the day for me. It’s always good to find someone “new,” and have them turn out to be so enjoyable. It was also great to see Willie “Big Eyes” Smith working out on harp and fronting his own band. The former Muddy Waters drummer is one of those “real deal” bluesmen who it’s always special to see, especially since they’re getting so scarce.

Next up was the Pittsburgh Blues Festival, and I found another performer that I’d never seen – Curtis Salgado – who just blew me away with his over-the-top harp wizardry and soulful singing. He’s been around for years, mainly in the Pacific Northwest, and was a sort of newcomer to the Burgh area. I also thought Philly’s Deb Callahan, another new performer, put on a really strong show of soulful blues and R&B. And I also got to see Burgh blues guitarist Eugene Morgan for the first, another musical treat. I really enjoyed his strong, down-home blues work.

And finally, the excellent Wheeling blues festival offered even more highlights, with great music that never seemed to stop coming. On opening night, Eden Brent was a vocal and piano powerhouse and John Nemeth played harp and sang with soul and passion. Both of these artists are young and fine, and throwbacks to the way music should be sung and played – with lots of enthusiasm and excitement. A couple of other favorites were the legendary Magic Slim and his still-sharp Chicago blues axe, and Ruthie Foster, the Texas gospel-blues singer with the kind of big beautiful, soul-stirring voice that can make grownups weep.

Those were the high points for me. I didn’t get to see every band at every festival, so I’ve probably left out somebody who really deserved to be mentioned. But I got to see some great performers who helped make my summer a musical success – some news I hope I get to see again, and some old ones that I hope I can get another chance to see as well.

By the way, some of you may know me better as BlueNotes, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the BlueNotes blues blog. If not, please check me out at http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/blluenotes. Thanks.