Sunday Evening 25th July 2010
www.maryportblues.co.uk

Canned Heat (US) - The Robert Cray Band (US)
 

 The final night was opened with Canned Heat, one of the bands featured in the original Woodstock Festival in 1968. This current line up features original drummer Fito de la Parra, bassist Larry Taylor, guitarist Harvey Mendel and Dale Spalding on vocals and harmonica. The set consisted of all their hits and classic album tracks including On The Road Again, Time Was, Red Hot Mama, Midnight Sun (featuring Harvey Mendel solo) World In A Tangle, Future Blues, Sugar Bee, Going Up The Country, Amphetamine Annie and Let’s Work Together. The encore featured an over long Refried Boogie with the audience losing interest with the solos from each of the band. This indulgence was OK in the late sixties and early seventies but was lost on today’s audience. It was great to see Canned Heat again which brought back a lot of memories of bygone years.  

Closing the festival was headliner guitarist and singer Robert Cray. Robert with his backing band of Jim Pugh on keyboards, Richard Cousins on bass and drummer Tony Braunagel delivered a set of slow and funky blues in true Robert Cray fashion with Robert swapping between a silver and sunburst Fender Stratocaster virtually every number. The songs in the set spanned Robert’s career and included Our Last Time, Anytime, Love Comes and Goes, Bad Influence, Sitting On Top Of The World, Strong Persuader, I’ve Done Nothing Wrong This Time, Don’t You Even Care, Does She Even Think Of Me featuring an excellent organ solo from Jim Pugh and Smoking Gun. The 75 minute set concluded with the encores of You’re The Reason I Can’t Fail and That’s What Keeps Me Rocking. This was great performance by Robert and the band, however the set was marred by a lot of audience noise which was commented upon by Robert on a few occasions.  

Overall this was an enjoyable festival with a varied range of artists to suit most tastes. Long may the Maryport Blues Festival continue.

[Editor's note: Many thanks to Courtland Bresner for the review.     Alan White, earlyblues.com]
 

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