Festival final day

The final day of the Blues and BBQ Festival was another hot one but less crowded. I missed the first two acts as I was watching football (England v Finland) and arrived to see Mitch Woods and his Rocket 88s (pictured above). He is a regular at Porretta so I knew what to expect - New Orleans piano R and B. Not bad but not exceptional.

Next up was Eric Lindell who I thought was great. He's a blue eyed soul singer who moved from San Francisco to New Orleans in 1999 and has recorded for Alligator records. He has a relaxed style and a decent voice and was well supported by Samantha Pelham on vocals, Jay Stiles on keyboards and John Mueller on guitar (who also backed Marcia Ball). Songs included 'Lay Back Down', 'Bayou Country' and Jackie Moore's 'Precious'. Guesting for one song was Sunpie Barnes, who had his own set earlier which I missed.

The next act was the James Rivers Movement. James is a genuine New Orleans legend having played sax on many of the great hits recorded at Cosimo Matassa's studio in the fifties and sixties. He played with Deacon John at the very first Jazzfest in 1970 and aged 87 he is still performing. This was a jazzy set with some sax numbers and gentle vocals on a few songs including "Blue Monday' and 'Ain't That A Shame'. He also played the bagpipes on 'Amazing Grace' (in Ron's honour?) and the flute.

Over on the Camp Street stage things hotted up with Kenny Neal who was celebrating his 67th birthday, although he has the energy of a teenager. He began with 'Funny How Time Slips Away' and other songs included his dad Raful Neal's 'I Know Someone Cares', a Jimmy Reed medley including 'Honest I Do' and 'Rock Me Baby'. As usual it was very much a family affair with two brothers playing in his band and a third brother,harmonica player Larry, coming on to do 'Baby Scratch My Back'.

There was more blues next with Little Freddie King backed as usual by Wacko Wade on drums and Robert Louis diTullio Jr on harmonica. Immaculately dressed as ever Freddie was immobile as he sang and played his own songs such as 'Dr Bones' and 'Chicken Dance' and classics including 'Baby Please Don't Go' and 'Hello Josephine'. At 84 Freddie shows no sign of giving up any time soon for which I say, as he says after every song 'Thank you very much. Thank you'.

And so we got to the final act of the festival, folk singer Leyla McCalla. Leyla is of Haitian descent and plays a variety of stringed instruments including guitar, banjo and cello. She would go down well at a folk festival but seemed an odd choice to close out this particular one. Ron and I, along with quite a few others, voted with our feet and left. The pub beckoned.