If I were to guess the theme for this year’s Hot August Blues and Roots Festival I would imagine it would have to have been family. And this being my second year covering it, I’m gonna go ahead say that family is a running theme from year to year which speaks to the values of its founder and current organizer, Brad Selko. It was at this year’s festival that I truly embraced the notion that these large outdoor festivals are a direct reflection of the tastes of the people hosting them. This festival is laid back, it’s a family picnic, it’s full on timeless Americana of the apple pie and rock & roll variety. I can completely understand why people keep going year after year. It’s because this festival doesn’t ask anything from you but to have a good time. This is one of the only music festivals that I left more relaxed than when I walked in.
These days you can measure the success of a festival by the number of stilt walkers in attendance and the intricacy of their costumes. Melissa Webb and friends.
Kings Go Forth: Heavy disco, funk superstars, channeling the spirit of 1972. Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield would be proud.
There is, indeed, a time and place for air guitar.
Sweet Leda packing in the crowd on the second stage.
Sweet Leda
Out amongst the vendors we came across a curious sight: Guitars fashioned from cigar boxes. This was the work of luthier Thomas Allen. He was there at the festival selling handmade traditional solid body guitars and his more unusual cigar box guitars. The one I played had a unique, deep booming, tone that had a tenor like a bass sitar if you can imagine such a thing.
When asked about how he came to start building these unusual pieces, he tied his inspiration to this quote from a legendary blues player.
“So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it on to that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and I got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune, and I played from then on.” -Lightnin’ Hopkins
To find out more about Thomas Allen Guitars follow this link.
… and in other hand crafted artistry news, we ran into Sarah Boan who’s beautiful earrings are of her own design.
Johnny Thorne
Baby Madison
Brian Thompson, Misty Gray and baby Madison.
The sound coming from the stage when Robert Randolph and the Family Band took the stage could be described as inspirational as it drove the people up from the seats onto the stage. This music is designed to move the spirit and instead of trying to describe it, I’d rather link to it and let you experience it for yourself.
The procession of women swarming Robert Randolph, hoping to touch him and, in some cases, possibly make the case for being his baby’s mama, was awesome to watch.
Danyel Morgan, The Family Band
Brett Andrew Haas, The Family Band.
Keeping with the theme of family, the show was headlined by storied guitarist Derek Trucks and his soulful singer-songwriter wife, Susan Tedeschi, or The Tedeschi Trucks Band as they were billed. While the two of them lean towards entirely different styles of music, it seemed like only a matter of time before the two of them teamed up. The result was the perfect end to an amazing day of music shared with friends and neighbors on what was one of most beautiful days of the summer.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band
The Tedeschi Trucks Band
The Tedeschi Trucks Band
The Tedeschi Trucks Band
