Roaming Reviews the Kitchener Blues Festival.  Rural South Blues Jam the Urban Streets for four days and five nights. Downtown Kitchener Ontario. August 2009.

Photo courtesy Sean Jasmins  FUSION Marketing

This was the Kitchener Blues Festival’s 9th year - a free, well organized celebration and support of the blues tradition with nearly 65,000 thousand music fans in attendance over the 5 day event in downtown Kitchener Ontario.

The 2009 Kitchener Blues Festival has gained momentum and a large caliber of sponsors over the years with Kitchener City Hall originally hosting the first blues festival in 2001 and 3000 visitors on one day.

Each subsequent year, the blues festival news has continued to attract more talented musicians and dedicated fans to the local area known as already having a vibrant blues based culture, thanks to musician Mel Brown and his many protégés.

How can one think about the blues Festival without noting the contributions of the Brown family from the south?  With the local legend Mel Brown’s recent death this past March many blues musicians will continue to feel his influence and presence as they move forward in maintaining the blues spirit in this community.

The Kitchener Blues Festival has become successful in retaining the best regional and international talented blues artists, continuing a sold out Gala fundraiser, an awards ceremony, expanding showcases and offering audiences more than enough music to fill any void keeping enthusiast blues fans content this weekend without mentioning weather concessions or construction.

The rain and lightening in the distance made it very surreal. The audience was prepared with golfing umbrellas and blue tarpoulines.

And who more experienced though perhaps expected to fill a gap and pay  tribute to Mr. Brown and heal a community as it reflects on the blues genre but Multiple Grammy Award winner, Grammy Hall of Fame Award Winner and recently - Member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame vocalist and band leader David Clayton –Thomas.

David Clayton Thomas, known in the blues circle as DCT along with his 10 piece big band celebration brought a generation back 40 years to Café Au Go Go of which they will perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Massey Hall in February 2010.

David’s popular renditions of “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” “And When I Die”, and “Spinning Wheel” still complement the era of his recognizable past performances with Blood Sweat and Tears and his vocal strength he has embellished as a solo act.

DCT has appeared at major venues around the world - Royal Albert Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, The Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Garden and Caesar’s Palace, as well as the Newport Jazz Festival and Woodstock.

Closing the 2009 Kitchener Blues Festival Main stage were Mel Brown’s backup group The Homewreckers with Kitchener natives Ian Taylor, Shawn Kellerman and Steve Strongman.

Miss Angel, Mel Brown’s wife, left us with her popular “Just Your Fool” and “Hip Shake”.

Michelle Malone and Ronnie Baker Brooks finished the Bar Blues at Bobby O’Briens and the Boathouse.

I didn’t notice the King Street construction and I had the perfect parking spot at the court house.

I listened to the KBF 2009 Volume VIII CD which featured the many blues artists on the way home.  The CD was another fundraiser in support of live blues music.

I snagged a Mel Brown poster and a new florescent pink T shirt too.  Somewhere I lost my VIP pass.

*Regrets to other blues performers that I could not capture due to scheduling conflicts.

www.kitchenerbluesfestival.com
www.davidclaytonthomas.com

This entry was posted by roamer on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 1:02 pm. It is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.