Vacaville Represents at Sac IBC
Northern California Blues Festival
Bodega Seafood, Art & Wine Festival - 8/23/08
B.B. is still the King of the Blues
Sacramento Jazz Jubillee 2008
Memorial Day weekend brought the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee back to town for the 35th year and it was better than ever. This is one of the best festivals in northern California without question. Year after year more blues acts are brought in, recognizing the deep connection in the roots of blues and jazz music. This was a fantastic year for blues acts at the Jubilee. The size of the audiences for the blues acts was proof of a great appreciation for blues in northern California and in particular the Sacramento area.
There were so many blues shows it took meticulous planning to get all the favorites lined up. Sac fave Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers, featuring Mick's harmonica prot'g', fourteen year old Kyle Rowland again lit up the festival with several shows including the big Friday night gig at the Firehouse lot. Mick and gang were fantastic and the huge crowd loved every minute of it. Mick is so good at this festival business and takes pride in not repeating sets. We saw him three times over the weekend and each show had a different play list. One of my favorite Sac guitarists, Jimmy Pailer played several shows with his band, Jimmy Pailer and the Prophets, as well as filling his role as lead guitarist for Mick Martin. Jimmy and I were going over his show line up before his first set and I counted eighteen shows over the weekend. These musicians work very hard to keep us happy and we do appreciate it.
Perennial Sacramento favorite, Johnny 'Guitar' Knox with Dave Croall was excellent Saturday night on the Blues stage at Laugh�s Unlimited as was Leo Boots and Southside Shuffle the night before. The venue was appropriately renamed 'Blues Unlimited for the weekend and the place was under the control of my pal Willie Brown and his volunteers from the Sacramento Blues Foundation. Great job gang 'many thanks.
We saw Marshall Wilkerson and Smoked Sugar play twice and he was as deep and soulful as ever. Marshal is a great performer with a great band, including a hot lead guitarist, Joe Hougnon. At his Friday night show he also had Steve Wahl of the 'Beer Dawgs' jamming on guitar. His original song, 'Remember Me' he wrote for his ill wife brought the house down and was quite a moving moment.
The blues acts went on and on. We saw great performances by Nitecry, Catfish and the Crawdaddies, Mike McGowen and Mighty Delta Roadmasters, as well as a fantastic after hours show by Mr. December.
We allowed plenty of time in our schedule to see some wonderful jazz acts. I love checking out the different music styles that are available at a festival like this. We also noticed that all the jazz acts seem to fit the blues in somewhere! We caught an excellent show by Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition, a swing style country jazz ensemble. These cowboys could really swing and played a nice cut named, 'I got The Blues for Dixie'. We also saw a nice performance by Salsambo, a salsa jazz troupe that had the blues girl up making the best of all those Salsa dancing lessons she took. Nice! We hit a cool performance by the Catsnjammer Jazz Band, an upbeat Dixie style jazz band and their set included, 'I Got The Blues When it Rains' and the 'Dallas Blues'. We even saw the one-man band, washboard style, Ralph Reynolds that was a hoot.
It is so nice to see a city that takes pride in its musical heritage and in setting up a festival that brings in such a broad base of talent. I've only written here about the shows was fortunate enough to attend. All in all, there were about a hundred acts on almost thirty different stages all over the City. Everyone I talked to enjoyed the Jubilee this year and most agreed that it just gets better every year. Even when you think that isn't possible. Kudos on a job well done to the Jazz Jublilee staff.
"Keep your eyes and ears open, the Blues are alive in northern California!"
Mr. December at Constable Jack's - 5/9/08
Cole Fonseca at the Torch Club - 3/28/08
Blues Blowout at Cache Creek - 2/1/08
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