After about 30 years of attending the Long Beach Blues Festival, from the second one and beyond until the 1990s when the crowd got too large, we decided to check out the scene one more time. At about 4:30pm on Saturday, the surprisingly large crowd was in place. Without those fans who decided to stand at the VIP fence to get a better look with a blind eye to those in lawn chairs whose view they blocked \u2013 and the idiots who thought it was a Dodgers game and brought beach balls to throw around the crowd \u2013 the crowd was cool and appreciative and the music was mainly great, with Saturday ending on a strong guitar note.<\/p>\n
Bettye LaVette (known to those who bought her 60s and 70s records as Betty LaVette) put on a strong show with a sympathetic rhythm section. She rushed through the song that established her (\u201cMy Man, He\u2019s A Lovin\u2019 Man\u201d), paying more attention to one that didn\u2019t sell (\u201cYou\u2019ve Changed\u201d). Then came the song she said kept her on the blues circuit (\u201cLet Me Down Easy\u201d). An extended \u201cA Change Is Going To Come\u201d and what looked like an exit with the band departing, but LeVette hung in with lyrics that sounded like she was thanking the festival \u201cI Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got\u201d \u2013 but it became a fine acappella performance.<\/p>\n
What can be said about Johnny Winter that hasn\u2019t? This time, he played seated and did a good number of shuffles, \u201cHide Away\u201d \u201cSugar Coated Love\u201d \u201cMiss Ann\u201d and others, but he also rocked out with \u201cBony Maronie\u201d then brought out headlinder Kenny Wayne Shepherd on a rollicking \u201cIt\u2019s All Over Now\u201d and encored with Dylan\u2019s \u201cHighway 61\u201d as an encore.<\/p>\n
Between these two powerful guitar based sets came an enjoyable set by Long Beach\u2019s own Laurie Morvan Band, with Morvan on guitar. I especially liked her high-pitched semi-doo wop opening number, but didn\u2019t catch the title. Face it, the lady has a very high voice, which she puts out to good effect. Not so effective was \u201cSkinny Chicks,\u201d but all-in-all, Morvan and company delivered.<\/p>\n
At dusk, dusk being about 8 p.m., Kenny Wayne Shepherd took the stage, not by the KJAZZ host, the Wagman, but by an off-stage announcer. Shepherd\u2019s vocalist, a highly active Noah Hunt took to lifting the stage mic over his head during portions of the show. Shepherd tended to open several songs with the classic \u201cDust My Blues\u201d guitar riff, and finally got around to playing that Elmore James blues classic with great effect. He credited Earl King\u2019s \u201cCome On (Let the Good Times Roll)\u201d to versions by Freddy King, Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but Shepherd\u2019s version was no slouch. He dazzled with guitar effects, axe behind his head and other stage pyrotechnics, but it was his guitar that kept the audience engaged because the sound was great and the sound was loud and after his set, it was time to go\u2026 even though the Funky Meters had not yet taken to the stage. It was clear there was going to be a fairly substantial break before the next set. It was dark, and many fans who had been on scene since about 2:00pm began leaving. <\/p>\n
This was hardly the greatest day in the history of the blues festival \u2013 something about the grounds of CSULB always lent itself better to the scene, not so much Rainbow Harbor – but the fun factor was high and to those who love their personal slab of the blues, be it guitar based, vocal or soul-blues, it was well worth the price and the time investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was hardly the greatest day in the history of the Blues Festival, but the fun factor was high and to those who love their personal slab of the blues, it was well worth the price and the time investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5740"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5740"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}