"Monterey Bay Blues Festival 2002"
By Revn Kevin
Although I am a rocker at heart I am a lover of the blues also as it is the origin of today rock. When a friend of mine mentioned a huge blues festival in the beautiful city of Monterey Bay I thought what a wonderful way to blow out of the city and see some wonderful acts. So I packed up my camera and enough provisions to cover the weekend event and blasted away from the sweltering So.Cal. heat, literally heading to greener surroundings and the cool ocean breeze in search of the "17th Annual Monterey Bay Blues Festival".
Originally blues was an escape from the depression of day to day life and one of the things I must admit about the genre is that the people involved are much happier. The organizers of the festival couldn't have been nicer and that theme carried through the whole weekend. Everybody there from the fans to the vendors and artists were in the right frame of mind and this had to be one of the most enjoyable events I have ever attended. I know that I'll be back next year for sure and I'll be encouraging all of you to attend once I know the dates.
Some of the major acts playing in the arena included Coco Montoya, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Taj Mahal and others. Although I didn't have access to those events, there were two other stages with some wonderful acts playing so I wasn't lacking entertainment. The promoter staggered the sets between stages so one could literally walk between them and catch everybody. Once again, hats off to the promoter for a well-run event! I can't possibly tell you about all the acts I saw this weekend but I will tell you about some of the ones that grabbed my attention.
The Al James Group come from the surrounding Monterey area and won their slot at the Festival in a local Battle of the Bands competition. Al has great voice along with a strong stage presence and is backed up by a strong rhythm section including an ace guitarist who ripped tasty licks throughout the whole set. Their final song was a very cool cover of Steve Miller's "Fly Like and Eagle" which was a great way to finish out the set. Nina Storey and her band made the trip out from Colorado and I perused her press kit finding that she has quite an impressive background. Some of her accomplishments include 3 CD's, the latest being self-titled, and many important shows opening for the likes of The Allman Brothers, Los Lobos and Joan Osborne to name a few. Festivals that she has performed at include Woodstock 99, Lillith Fair, and she has evening sung the National Anthem on Monday Night Football. While she considers herself a blues singer I found her music to more of the alternative variety which is why she fit the Lillith Fair tour so well. A powerful and lovely voice I particularly liked the tune "Be With You Tonight" from her latest CD and you can find out more about her by visiting her website at
www.ninastorey.com.Da Mudcats cruised out from Tennessee and brought a van-load of what I would call down home blues. When people talk about blues to me this is kind I hear in my head. Good solid playing combined with funny in-cheek lyrics, not too serious and a whole lot of fun. One of the closing acts of the weekend were So.Cal. locals The Red Hot Blues Band. While they looked more like a metal or hard-core band their playing was straight-up hard rockin blues. I talked to them after the set and was impressed by how friendly they were and told them to let me know about any shows down in our area they would be playing and I would come out and give them a full review.
It was with a combination of great happiness and sadness that I packed-up on Sunday night and began my long journey home. In a few short hours of driving the temp went from the 80's to the 100's I pulled in to the driveway home (hotter than-hell) sweet home here I am. I'll tell you what, next year everybody should mark this festival on their calendars as a "must see event". I'll see you there and we'll have a wonderful time. For more information go check out their website at
www.montereyblues.com or call (831) 393-8273.As Seen in Rock City News