I am not really that into blues. I like it, but it's not a passion. It is however, the basic foundation of all African-American music and as this blog is about American culture, I think it's ok to review it here.
Friday's show started with two short plays by a free theatre group. I saw the first one and was not really that convinced it had something to do with blues, so when I discovered there was a geezer sitting in the café room playing electric guitar, harmonica and singing, I decided to give him a listen instead of watching the second play. I think his name was Christian, but I ain't too sure. I really liked his music, though. I think it had a country feeling to it's bluesiness and I got thinking along the terms of Townes van Zandt, even though this bloke first of all wasn't as good as Townes and, secondly, had his own sound. I really liked his guitar playing though.
As the clock approached 9 pm, the headliners of the night entered stage, The Big Bang Group. This group celebrated their 25th anniversary as a band this year an had, for that purpose, invited a lot of mates from throughout their career that they had enjoyed playing with. There was a few oldies, like vocalist and harmonica playing Bill Öhrström, as well as young vocalist Susanne Eriksson. All their guests were hugely talented though and even if I really liked Erikssons singing, it's unfair to say that one was better than the other.
Credit must also go out to guitarist of the day, Mange. The usual guitarist of the band had called in sick yesterday and just a few hours before the gig, they had called Mange and asked if he wanted to play with them as a stand-in and he agreed.
Together, they made one heck of a show! The basics of all the music was blues, but the band and their guests then went on picnics in jazz, as well as r&b/soul. I really liked the r&b-ish stuff. Sure, I can listen to a bit of jazz, as well, but I have a soft spot for r&B and soul, there's no denying that!
One of the highlights of the show was the Fats Domino tune Blueberry hill. Ulf Johansson Werre, who sang it, made a real crowd pleaser of a scat-singing at the end of it, which he evloved into a "Jojk", a Lapplandian singing style, that is.
Some tunes were in English and some in Swedish, but they were all good!
I enjoyed myself thuroughly throughout the show yesterday and am looking forward to tonight's show. Not sure I'll watch all of it, as I must get up early and go to church in the morning, but I'm really pleased that my little town can arrange a good festival like this one.
Big Bang Group made one heck of a great show and gets 81,3% in rate of satisfaction!
