The 16th annual HeatherFest celebration of blues music in Heather McKibben’s backyard in Norton, Massachusetts went off without a hitch, until it rained during Duke Robillard’s set. Half the crowed headed for the display tents and the cover of trees. The other half for their cars and motorcycles. But, it was a lot of fun up until the dark clouds that had been threatening all day finally opened up.
Diane Blue And The Beantown Boys opened the festival with popular standards like “Use Me” by Bill Withers and “Fever.” Blues owed a lot to her backing band. Bass grooves, drum thumps, and organ swirls built these songs into funky, danceable numbers. Horn shots from Johnny “Blue Horn” Moriconi, Bruce McGrath, and Jimmy “Two Suits” breathed new life into these works with explosions of joyful sound.
Blue’s voice and harp were in rare form. Her rangy rasp and mellifluous harp notes were put to good use throughout her set, and she held her own against that mighty brass section of hers.
The Dirty Tricks, featuring the combo of Mr. Nick on vocals and harp and guitarist “Lonely” Gus Carlson, proved to be an act that cuts across age and tastes. Carlson and Mr. Nick have taken oldies, rockabilly, and blues from the 1950s and forged them into their own sound. If someone were listening to only a recording of The Dirty Tricks, the listener would think he was hearing something recorded in an earlier time and polished with digital remastering.
“Let The Good Times Roll” showed that Mr. Nick has the perfect timbre for the popular blues songs that everybody knows. He could certainly get aggressive in his vocal approach in the rockabilly numbers. He also excelled at making the train music sound on his harp.
Carlson cut loose with those brittle guitar rhythms that perfectly augmented Mr. Nick’s voice and harp. Even when The Dirty Tricks slowed things down a bit, there was still a sense of action in their music. “Worry” gave Mr. Nick a chance to do some serious belting. Their rhythm section kept bopping along with aplomb throughout the show and Carlson and Mr. Nick knew how to have fun skipping over the top with their guitar and harp rockabilly tactics.
Two incredibly ladies of the blues paired up to bring forth some new ideas for old songs simply by making them duets. Toni Lynn Washington was a graceful as ever in her fine svelte croon and Cheryl Aruda contrasted well with her gorgeous belt. “Ain’t Gonna Cry No More” got an extra boost from the barrelhouse piano from Bruce Bears. “Sax” Gordon Beadle kept it ever brassy with his gripping horn lines. Aruda stretched things a bit when she briefly left the blues element and went into 1970s funk classics “Tear The Roof Off The Sucker” by Parliament Funkadelic and “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry.
Racky Thomas filled in between everyone else’s sets with a side stage treatment of solo acoustic blues. Thomas came up with a fulsome sound that compensated for being a one piece. He also sounded so clear and note-for-note perfect that I thought someone was using house music until I made my way over the knoll to the other side of the stage.
Duke Robillard’s standup bass player delivered the goods with a palpable thump that worked wonders in the great outdoors. Robillard’s gentlemanly, svelte, blues-drenched voice has gotten even stronger over the years. He had that control over his dynamics that kept things even when he was on stage. Robillard played an undercurrent of notes on his six string during “Bluesorama” that made his guitar sound thick with edgy spikes throughout.
All was going well with Robillard until the rain forced him and his band to pause and tarp their equipment. The bikers understandably wanted to get on the road before they ended up driving home in a downpour.
Many of the popular yearly staples of HeatherFest stood out. Food was plentiful and as good as ever. The HeatherFest flag was in its rightful place, several hundred feet up a tree in Heather’s backyard. The blues road sign post statue was located near the stage…with all of its signs pointing to blues cities in America pointing in all directions. Heather had her statue of an American army soldier not far from the stage and she recognized that American troops were still fighting overseas before a local youth took to the stage to sing the national anthem. Everyone had their HeatherFest necklace passes, and the October Fest and Blueberry ale booth had their two faucet beer taps set up, becoming a popular stop throughout the day. Many familiar faces were present and quite a few new ones too. This annual event is made possible by the efforts of a ton of volunteers.
I was one of the folks who left before Robillard could finish his set. Missing the final set, by Mr. Brian Templeton, was a great disappointment, as Templeton is one of the greater-Boston area’s greats. But, as it goes each year, HeatherFest was still a roaring success. People just kept coming and coming and the crowd remained calm, peaceful, and respectful. At different points throughout the day attendees could be heard comparing it to Woodstock.
www.HeatherFest.com
A friend of a volunteer, I finally made it to my first HeatherFest. I’ll definitely be back! Thank you to Heather, the musicians and all the volunteers who help put together an amazing time. So well run and thought out. Don’t know how you do it!
A huge thanks to all the musicians who played, volunteers that played and guests that came and supported HeatherFest. It’s all of you that make it possible! See you all on 9/11/11!
Heather
I’d never heard of the event until now –seeing it on Jonel Peterson’s facebook site.
It looks like a very pleasant time!!!