Springing The Blues

What do you have when you combine traditional blues, Mississippi Delta blues, Chicago style blues, searing guitar work, screaming harmonicas, some brass thrown in for good measure, and even a zydeco accordion, along with some incredible vocal talent soaring above the mix, and stir it up for three days? What you have is one incredibly good time! This is what I got to be a part of last weekend. This was one of the best music festivals in this area….Springing The Blues in Jax Beach. The whole event was sponsored by Georges Music. It was the twentieth annual event and it was wonderful from beginning to end. Oh, and did I mention, that it was all FREE! That’s right, 3 days of incredible music and great times, and it was all FREE. It doesn’t get any better than that.

All in all, about 25 different artists performed on 2 stages. There were local bands and folks from across the country, as well as one little lady from the UK, Joanne Shaw Taylor, who rocked the house and tore up the stage with her telecaster! I was a fan of some of the artists before this, including Michael Burks and Willie Mae, but this gave me a new venue in which to see them. While I’ve wanted to see them for months, it was the first time I got to see Toots Lorraine and The Traffic, a local band, and they lit up the stage on Friday night with their performance. Another local bunch was Woody and The Peckers and I was blown away by their set. I didn’t even know that one of my friends was a member of the band and he showed me a new side of him. The closer on Friday night was Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band and they had the fans dancing in their places and up on stage, and even gave them a taste of hot sauce to go along with the hot zydeco music. Mile Train was a big crowd pleaser in the Southern rock tradition. Keep an eye out for Skinny Legs and All; they’re 14-19 year olds who put on a fabulous show that was so unexpected from a group so young. The highlight for me was Michael Burks on Saturday night; I’m a HUGE fan, and anyone who loves the likes of BB King should check him out. When I was photographing him, he kept getting right up into my face and challenging me….to the point where he backed me up, but I didn’t back down! He even went out into the heart of the crowd, playing all the while. It was so much fun to be there for his performance. Michael also hung around so he could jam with some of the other artists on Sunday afternoon, and his performance on stage with Shane Dwight was fun and phenomenal.

Festivals like this are so much fun, and for me, even more fun to shoot! I got the opportunity to meet some new people, renew some acquaintances and shoot folks I never had before as well as some favorites. And to use some of my “arsenal” like a wide angle lens that I very rarely use. I’m so glad that I was asked to be there and even happier that my images are showing up on some of the artists’ sites. I have so many great photos from the weekend. If you’d like to see more, head over to my website.

Michael Burks after playing way out in the crowd