2005 River City Blues Festival Revisited

All photos on this page courtesy Dusty Scott

W. C. Clark

Aligator Recording artist W. C. Clark took to the stage as the Friday night headliner at 9:30 PM. It was a little disappointing to see W. C. Clark sitting down on a chair on stage. I’ve seen this man perform several times in the past few years at different festivals and he was energetic and entertaining. The recent tragic road accident in which his wife and bass player were killed, left W.C. with back and and shoulder pains and almost caused him to quit music entirely.
Clark did a lot of slow shuffles that the dancers seemed to enjoy, but never got the joint jumpin’; however, his vocals were right on. His vocals and timing really caught my attention. This Texas act has the promo from Alligator records to sell CD’s and get festival gigs. His CD a few years ago “Texas Soul” won W.C. a Handy award and the art work was also used on this year’s festival poster.

- Cobbler

“How come the blues makes me feel so good?” Fruteland Jackson, Marietta, Ohio 2005

In his introduction Fruteland Jackson sang, “You know Marietta Ohio ain’t my home but I sure am glad they brought me here!” I sure am glad, too. Hope you caught Fruteland Saturday afternoon at the Festival. His performance is my pick for high point of the weekend. Talking to Fruteland I learned that he has visited museums, universities and other music archives searching for and listening to the earliest recordings of slave songs and work songs, prison songs and gospel songs. He integrates the blues history he learns from the old songs into interpretation of the modern genres and is able to follow a brief discussion of each regional divergence with a solo acoustic rendition of the musical tradition he’s just described.
Fruteland is dedicated to the Blues in the Schools Program. He told me about his experience working with a group of children who were tough to reach and didn’t ‘get it’ until they got to playing a big drum. Fruteland paused and then said, “You know how sometimes you just don’t know how to hold your face?” Well, frankly when he played the women’s prison song and I thought about the ladies busy at their sewing machines, the pathos and the beauty of the music overwhelmed me and I didn’t know how to hold my face. Later, Fruteland told the audience that the one thing he requires of the blues is hope. “There should always be hope in the blues.” Then he showed us where to find it and how to hold onto it. - Maren Beery

Stomp Down Mike Lenz

Mike Lenz, first place winner of our River City Blues Competition in February had the honor of sounding the first note to kick off a whole weekend of real Blues music in March. Stomp Down Mike led us down a path of Blind Boy Fuller, Son House, Bo Carter, Robert Johnson, all covers done in his own style but close to the source. I wish he could have embellished on the author and the text of these songs. I always like a little lead in to Traditional American Roots Music. Mike later captured the audience at the River View Lounge that evening after hours playing to after 1 a.m. accompanied by “Elivs” Dave Saenz on harp for one set. I call him Stomp Down Mike because he has a habit of taking his left foot and stomping down high & hard on the last beat of the song. God Luck Mike next year at Beale Street. - Cobbler

Dietra Goes Far in Marietta

Saturday afternoon festival participants received a real treat as Dietra Farr took the stage. Our own Steve Wells put his foot in it by introducing Dietra as “Back in Marietta after ten years and bigger than ever!” Dietra immediately showed her humor by laughing and admitting that anybody who quit smoking cigarettes was gonna get bigger. Then she proceeded to wow us all with superb blues vocals backed up by Lurrie Bell and his band. Fruteland Jackson told me he believes Dietra has the best female blues voice in Chicago today and I have to say I believe him. Her high energy (“My fat ass is sweating already”, she said after her first number), her flirtatious charm and her unique, winning smile all captured our hearts as her deep, resonant vocals inspired, soothed, saddened and uplifted us in turns. This woman really sings the blues like she means it. I’m not surprised she’s getting bigger. I don’t think it gets better than that this side of blues heaven. - MarenBeery

Delta Moon

Well, it seems that after this RCBF’s matinee performance, some folks were heard saying, “…that wasn’t blues…”. Maybe not. But neither did they claim to be just a blues band…and as far as that goes, neither did Eric Clapton or Duane Allman or Mark Knoffler or Doc Watson claim they were just blues players. But they all created great, enduring music heavily rooted in and flavored by the blues.
With their foundation solid, thanks to Scott Callison (drums) and Jon Schwenke (bass), Delta Moon, past winners of the prestigious International Blues Competition in Memphis (2003), was rendered absolutely unique by their songwriting, the bottleneck slide work of Mark Johnson, the complimentary slide work and vocals of Tom Gray (that was a Weissenborn guitar, Ladies and Gentlemen…when was the last time you heard a Weissenborn in your Blues Quest ?) and, of course…and certainly not least, the voice of Kristin Markiton (recently replacing original DM member, Gina Leigh). They came on and jump-started the crowd. People were standin’ and yellin’ for more as the band finished, thrilled to have had their emotions grabbed and shaken by a performance so energetic and soulful that you could almost see “…the little juke joint in the woods...” that Kristin sang of. As Leadbelly once said, “Da blues is a feelin’ and when it gets ya, dat’s da real news”. I think Somebody just delivered the news ! www.deltamoon.com

- Dennis Butcher

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Page last updated June 2005