My Trip to the Riverfront Blues Festival in Wilmington, Delaware

[daviddesper]

Hey Blues Fans!

As mentioned I attended the Sunday session of this two-day festival last weekend, so here is a report and if all goes well, some photos you may enjoy.

I attended mainly to see two of my favorite blues acts and was thrilled to see them performing on the same stage on the same day. The first was the Chicago-based band Mississippi Heat, led by Pierre Lacoque, a group that has released about 12-15 albums on the Delmark label.

They feature a female lead vocalist named Inetta Visor on most of their recordings but they also use a younger lady named Carla Stinson for some of their live shows. Both are quite talented.

The show began at 11:00 with Pierre warming up the crowd with his formidable talent on the harmonica. They opened with the title track from their most recent CD, "Cab Driving Man." [[Later in the show, they mentioned plans to go back into the studio in November, which sounds great to me.)

Carla took the stage and worked the crowd very comfortably. This was of course an outdoor setting and you could stand literally right in front of the stage if you wanted, although most of the crowd chose to sit under canopies on lawn chairs on a rolling hillside looking down at the stage.

After several numbers featuring Carla and of course more harmonica from Pierre, they brought on their special guest of the day, Lurrie Bell. He is a noted guitarist and sometimes records with the group. He wrapped up the show with several numbers.

For those of you that might not know this group I would encourage you to sample one of their CDs and you just might be hooked. I know that Alabama Shakes and the late Sharon Jones are considered favorites in this genre, but I would match Mississippi Heat against either of those groups in overall appeal.

Taking the stage between my two faves was a band I had never heard of called Billy Price and the Charm City Band. But I enjoyed them as well and they performed solidly for about 90 minutes in the 90 degree heat. Billy was quite the showman!

That led to the highlight of the day for me, a 2:30 show by veteran blues diva Trudy Lynn. As you guys know from my many postings over the years, I absolutely LOVE a good blues mama who will growl and snort her way through a song if it puts her no-good man in his place, and Trudy is one of the best.

She is based out of Houston and will turn 72 this Friday. But she puts on an energetic show and I could tell that she won over many neutral fans that day that had likely never heard of her.

Her first recordings were in the 80s and 90s on the awesome Ichiban label that I still miss to this day. [[By all means, play her 1993 song "Instant Breakfast" one day, but not in front of the kiddies!)

She later moved around to different labels but in the past several years has found a home on the Texas label Connor Ray Music. Her label-mate Steve Krase writes and produces a lot of her material and they make a great team. He opened the show Pierre-style with a few harmonica-led numbers before Trudy took the stage in a form-fitting jungle print outfit.

She opened with the lead cut on her latest CD, a rocker called "Blues Ain't Nothin" that got the crowd rolling from the get go. Her set did not go as long as I might have hoped but due to the heat, I was willing to cut her some slack.

There were chances for some autographs and photo sessions after each act and among the photos you will see will be one with me, the previously-mentioned Carla and Lurrie, and MH guitarist Michael Dotson, which was my favorite shot of the day; and one with Miss Trudy and me.

All in all a great day. If you ever have a chance to attend this or any other blues festival, I highly recommend it!