Old School Push & Adrenalin Jams: The 2010 Edmonton LaBatt Blues Festival - Feature

The inclementation of the blues from any perspective comes from the idealism of a type of coolness and suffering. Granted the structure of these two worlds sometimes collides but the belief comes in finding redemption for sins.The Edmonton Labatt Blues Festival held in the deep crescent River Valley between the Downtown Area and Old Strathcona has a perfect structure in the Heritage Ampitheatre in that the venue is not overtly open but also not overwhelmingly calustrophobic. It is intimate yet has a sense of scale.The key with blues is not having it relegated to a certain structure of perception. Different brands of blues bore their ways from different origins. In terms of this year's performers, The Twisters come from a swing angle of sorts while Superchikan seems to have some rock tendencies in his intentions of playing.Monkey Junk initialized the structure with the progression of a heavy harmonica bent but in a crowd-infused trekking Blues Traveler kind of way. Steve Mayer, wretchedly abandoned on the harp, understands interaction to progress the crowd allowing for an almost-barnyard mentality that keeps the attendees hopping before progressing into a visceral cover of a Muddy Waters standard before ending their set with the aptly titled "Dirty Day".Candye Kane followed bringing her fusion-observed act mixing Ella Fitzgerald and the down home dirty ditties of the South with an East Los Angeles background. Enraptured in a black dressed with a blood red boa, Kane roared her contentment in the visage of "Superhero", the title track off her new album. Following with her "boom-boom" anthem of "White Trash Girls" which painted a vision of a female Blues Brothers troupe, her guitarist Laura Chavez reigned through the possibilities vexing the chords with emotion at every step. As the show built towards her crescendo, the ideas took on more luscious steps with "I Put A Hex On You" and "I'm a Bad Girl" before vaulting into a rarified blues rendition of Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" bringing the house to a slow simmer.Jimmie Vaughn, brother of Stevie Ray, ended out the first night, intending through with an almost 50s surf style melding dark chords with an upright sense of brevity. While the girls in the front stage area, swayed along slowly in rhymthic slow motion, Vaughn's tenor sax player Greg Piccolo soothed the mind. Starting with the song "You Don't Want My Love At All" and progressing into "Say Then You Love Me", the implementation of singer Lou Ann Barton, long a stalward of Jimmie and Stevie Ray, on "You Make Me Love You Baby" brought the crowd full circle pinnacling in the cool night air.As the wind swelled, The Twisters raged through with an almost swing mentality melding the modern structure of Brian Setzer with a paradoxical rockabilly sensibility reminiscent of Buddy Holly. The style blossomed almost like an unseen dance as "Party Gone Down" transfixed new chords with a blasting harmonica chorus while "I Guess I Was Wrong" blended the blues medley harking to the beginning tendencies of yore.Henry Gray, the old school statesman of the festival, showed that you don't have to move to get the party started. Raging with his backing band The Cats on Ray Charles as well as "Blueberry Hill" (which had the crowd clapping along), it was his toe tapping anthems in "Goin Downtown" and "No One Here But Me" that displayed the true sounds of old time blues showing that the art may be overcome with technology but a simple keyboard and the right soul beats the over-produced progressions of many current artists any day of the week.Taking a balance of this into account, there is no one on the blues scene quite like James "Super Chikan" Johnson. With an intense stage presence mixing some elements of blues with a dexterous, almost circus-type arrangement, Johnson's idea actually masks how exceptional at times a guitar player he actually is. All of his guitars are handmade by him using various aspects from around the house. One of the most interesting on display was a slide guitar based on an actual ax. Each one of these guitars has a distinct sound. One towards the end of his set which looked like a toilet seat had an exceptionally deep sound (ironically) that simply added to the barreling train Super Chikan was on. Despite roots in Mississippi Blues, alot of Johnson's playing came off inherently rock with an utter effortlessness that at times was astounding simply because of its look of ease. Belting everything out from "La Grange" to his closer with "Shoot Dat Thing", Super Chikan is a true showman who will always get his due.As the chill of the afternoon set in with swelling clouds, Mitch Woods with his Rocket 88s slammed through the Boogie Woogie Blowout with tunes such as "Bugaloo" and "I Like It Like That" ensuring a sock-hop rebellion in the audience with utter ease. However it was when the ladies took the stage as special guests that the entire affair changed. Caroline Dahl, the first, has a dexterity of classical training and technique that is bewitching because of its blend with an all-together different type of blues style based on a structure of notes that many times cannot be messed with. Her old school musical progression gave way to the razor quick hands of Honey Piazza who utterly raged in a consuming jam with the drummer, fingers flying with a look of elation on her face contagious in its ferocity. The energy consumed in an absolute drove when all three of the piano players (including Mitch Wood) took through the stage in an effervescent littany of musical chairs and an incumbent sense of fun but never retained the pinnacle of Honey's insatiable viscosity.After the energy of the previous performance Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and his band including guitarist Bob Margolin had a fighting influx as the purity returned to blues despite the almost honkytonk wranglings of the previous performance. Margolin's playing, despite some technical difficulties, resided in the Crossroads/heavy blues guitar stylings that grate to one's soul with a sense of purpose. With his led progression of "Summertime" and "Baby I Don't Want To Go", the idealization moved back to a purist mentality with legendary blues bassist Bob Stroger leading the charge on "Don't You Lie To Me". Though the sidesteps of feedback caused a lapse in cohesion for a couple songs, once the quartet got going with Smith on the harp, the music was like honey.Closing out the proceedings with an utter bang, buoyed by the undeniably presence of its leader Curtis Salgado, the Big Band was completely in the mode. The vocal stylings of Salgado surpassed any vocalist at the festival by far with his sheer range. Able to screech out like Prince and then return to a deep octave blues standard is no small feat. Bringing to mind certain elements of old school Billy Vera with songs like "Clean Getaway" and "You Lying To Me?" changing genre stylings from blues to funk to doo-wop and back again kept the audience guessing. But when Salgado progressed into a full throttle harp jam, his undeniable talent took stage. Addressing the fact that some of the performers at the festival had been his mentors and had actually taught him spoke to the cyclical nature of the family created in this style of music. After raging through "I Can't Stop Loving You" and the belting prowess of "Too Loose", Salgado closed out with "20 Years Of BB King" (his signature song) before encoring with the gypsy influenced rage of "Forget About You" bringing the visceral progression of the festival to a close.With the fact that the essence of pure blues fades away a bit every year, it is great to see this kind of diverse talent enmeshed in this style of music thrive with a riveting cultural family. While certain amounts of musical genres converge at times from the swing of "The Twisters" to the almost rock stylings of Superchikan's Mississippi Blues, the true talents of these performers rings true at the Edmonton LaBatt Blues Festival. With such rich intentions as seen in the jam stylings of Honey Piazza sending a shot of adrenalin throughout the community, the heart of the blues still beats alive.