Maryport Blues Festival 2007
Sunday 29th July 2007
www.maryportblues.com

Opening the final day was the Mike Harrison Band. Ex Spooky Tooth vocalist Mike was supported by guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. Mike showcased numbers from his latest album Late Starter including Done In The Dark, Let’s Talk It Over (Ray Charles), Standing On Shaky Ground, Feeling Bad, Your Good Thing Is About To End (Etta James), Sinners Prayer, I Can Give You Everything (Etta James) and a good version of I Am the Walrus. Mike has returned to music last year after 25 years in self-imposed exile - and this was his only UK gig in 2007....
 

The Holmes Brothers are a three piece band : Wendell Holmes - vocals, guitar and piano, Sherman Holmes - bass and vocals, and Popsy Dixon - drums and vocals. Rooted in blues and gospel, The Holmes Brothers’ sound is all their own. The rhythm provided by Sherman’s bass playing and Popsy’s drumming perfectly compliment Wendell’s hard-driving guitar solos. But what they lack in the number of instruments is more than made up for by their wonderful voices, mixing Wendell’s gruff and gravelly vocals with Popsy’s soaring falsetto and Sherman’s rich baritone creating a unique sound, bringing the soul of gospel music into everything they perform.

The set kicked off with two Jimmy Reed numbers – Big Boss Man and Baby What You Want Me To Do. The rest of the show was a master class in vocal harmonies on a range of blues and gospel songs including Feel Alright Today, Amazing Grace, Gasoline Ford, Whole Lotta Shakin’, Glory Glory Halleluiah, I Want You To Want Me, Jesus on the Mainline and God Be With You featuring piano and superb vocal harmonies. The well deserved encore featured a country picking instrumental. A rare treat indeed!
 

Next up were rockers Never the Bride who’s songs included I’m A Loser, I Do It For You, The Living Tree (recorded by Shirley Bassey), Whole Lotta Love, Colour Me Blue and Pinball Wizard which included the Can’t Explain riff.
 

www.alligator.com

The final performance of the festival was by C J Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band (guitar, bass, drums and rub board) who provided a fitting end to the festival with a set of danceable Zydeco music.

C J who fronted the band with his accordion took us on a trip through Louisiana with numbers such as Boogaloo, Got My Eyes on You Baby, Looks Like A Woman, Coming Back Home, On The Bayou, I Got A Woman, Don’t Mess With My Tutu and the encore of Caladonia.
 

All in all, a good well-organised festival but the highlights were definitely the American artists Eric Bibb, The Holmes Brothers and C J Chenier who showed their class and mastery of the idiom.  

On a negative side, the lack of seating within the marquee was an issue with a large number of the audience complaining that standing all day long was difficult and almost impossible for some.