Blues Festivals: Part 1

May 1, 2011 by DaleR
Filed under: blues festivals, Blues History

There seems to be more Blues festivals across the country every year. The first Blues festival I attended was in St. Louis. Actually, I went to the festival in St. Louis for several years. I think that the first made more of an impression than the others or maybe the have all just melded together and I can no longer separate the first from the others. I can, however remember the last one I attended.

The St.Louis Festival was set up so that they had a number of small stages set up in the Lacledes Landing area of the St. Louis Riverfront. My wife, my daughter, my son and I went together. My son had taken up plying guitar some time before and was pretty well wrapped up in playing Rock Music. He didn’t have a lot of use for other types of music and I helieve that he felt he was being punished by being required to to go with us. We walked by an acoustic stage and Catfish Keith was playing in his eccentric style and we stopped and listened. After a couple of songs, I heard my son say “Now, that’s music. As we were leaving when the set was over I asked my son if he liked it. He said “Now who could like music by a guy named Catfish.” But his attitude changed for the rest of the festival. Later, in High School he wrote an essay on who that particular festival had made a major difference in his life.

B B King usually had a concert at the Fox Theater a few days before the festival started. The concert I attended featured The J. Geils Band, Robert Cray, and B B. I would have loved to have been able to go to more of his concerts but money was always an issur.