Saturday night in Porretta

Saturday is always the busiest night at Porretta and last night was no exception. Rufus Thomas Park was packed and thousands of people thronged the food and drink stalls on the street outside. It was a varied evening music-wise and a long one but a pretty good one overall. The first act, Johnette and Scott, was a strange act for a soul festival. Scott is record producer Scott Billington, who is in town to promote his book 'Making Tracks' which tells the story of record production at Rounder and elsewhere for artists such as Johnny Adams Irma Thomas, James Booker and others. Together with Johnette the duo sang some early blues and gospel songs accompanied only by their harmonica and ukulele. these included 'When I Lay My Burden Down', 'Goodnight Irene' and 'Jesus On The Main Line', on which they were joined by Larry Batiste and Nona Brown. Pleasant enough but not soul. Things moved up a gear with the next act, Curtis Salgado and his band but only to a degree. There was blues, rock and a load of old cobblers of a song about Cleopatra and ancient Rome but not much soul until near the end. Curtis is a pro however and brought life to his songs, the best being '20 Years of B B King', 'Walk A Mile In My Blues', the O V Wright song 'Born All Over' and the highly appropriate in my case 'The Longer I Live The Older I Want To Get'.The ever reliable Anthony Paule band, dressed in red this time, took the stage after a brief interval and reprised some of the previous night's numbers with songs once again from the three backing singers Larry Batiste, Omega Rae and Nona Brown, who was excellent on "You Don't Know Nothing About Love'. Next up was Larry Springfield, a young soul singer from Memphis and a new name to me, who in many ways was the purest sixties soul singer of the weekend. All his numbers were covers but he has the uncanny knack of sounding like Johnnie Taylor on 'Who's Making Love' and 'Steal Away, like Otis on 'Hard To Handle and 'Try A Little Tenderness', like Al Green on 'Tired Of Being Alone' and 'Still In Love With You', like Tyrone Davis on 'Can I Change My Mind' and 'Turn Back The Hands Of Time', even like Marvin Gaye on 'Let's Get It On'. A flexible voice and a dynamic stage act makes Larry a natural for Porretta. After a second break along came the artist who was the undoubted highlight of the night, Terrie Odabi. She put real soulful emotion into her songs which included 'Breaking Up Somebody's Home', 'Wade In The Water', the Staple Singers' 'Why Am I Treated So Bad' 'Love Trumps All' Bobby Bland's 'I'll Take Care Of You', 'Love Out Loud' and 'Aint Nobody Gonna Turn Me Around'. She included several songs written by Christine Vitale, wife of Anthony Paule, including 'Hate Take A Holiday ' and 'After A While'. When MC Rick Hutton called for 'one more time' as he always does Terrie closed with her song about neighbourhood change 'Gentrification Blues'. This was aching, emotive soul singing of the highest order. There are few if any better female soul singers around today. The final act of the evening was soul/bluesman Ernie Johnson, who arrived wearing a brown jacket and matching cap. Ernie, from Dallas, is an old school blues singer with a gruff voice, a little like that of Bobby Bland. The hour was late and people were leaving but he managed to come across well on numbers which included 'I'm In The Mood For Blues', 'Loving You', 'Move Along', 'Baby What You Want Me To Do', 'Take It Where I Find It' and 'I'd Rather Be Six Feet In My Grave Than Let You Waste My Time'. Sadly time was against him but he finished strongly with 'Dreams To Remember' during which he attempted a crowd walk among a thinning audience. The end to another great night at Porretta.