2010 Monterey Bay Blues Festival

Pat Wilder - Photo credit: Crosscut Saw Photography

It’s 10:30 PM, I’m sitting at a wooden picnic table, and I feel great! The Monterey fairgrounds are still hopping at the 25th Monterey Bay Blues Festival, held June 25 – 27, 2010, with crowds of people standing in groups or walking around the grounds. The picnic table is in the middle of two different stages, so I can hear a blend of music from the acts still going strong.

My fingers are sloppy with grease after eating a plate of ribs. A handful of napkins are already saturated, so there’s no use looking there for help. My best option is to head for the mens’ room and hope there is still soap in the dispensers. Somehow, I manage to pick up my camera without getting grease on it, no small achievement given the condition of my hands.

I had arrived late on Saturday evening, family obligations preventing me from being there Friday for the opening of the festival. I wasn’t sure I’d get in that late, but I did, and just in time to see Pat Wilder and Serious Business start their set. I remembered Pat from when she was a member of the group of women who played as part of the “Blues Guitar Women Showdown” at the 2007 San Francisco Blues Festival. Only this time she was with her own band and all the band members looked like they were having a great time.

I’ve never seen a happier looking band! They were a pleasure to watch, especially the synchronicity between Pat and the violin player, Carol Mayedo. The Saturday night show ran until 11:30 PM, so festival goers definitely got their money’s worth.

Sunday morning, I was there in time for the opening act and was treated to some uplifting gospel music by Johnny Nash and the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir. To hear so many beautiful voices singing at once made a believer out of me.

Kenny Sultan the the 2010 Monterey Festival - Photo credit: Crosscut Saw Photography

A little later in the day, there was more gospel music, this time by Sista Monica with her 50-member Gospel Choir. One woman in the choir was signing the words to each song. She was so into the music that you could feel the music’s power and passion expressed through her hands and body language.

I spent a lot of time walking back and forth between the three stages, passing food vendors with names like Nita Bees, Creole TeTante’s, Sadie Mae’s, Willie Bird, and Woodies World of Wings. There were vendors selling glittering sequined clothing and jewelry, and other eye-catching goods. The festival offers a pleasant mix of sensations: smell – from the succulent ribs and other meats being barbequed; sight – such as a man wearing a bright red suit, red shoes, and a red hat to top off his look; and sound – from the ubiquitous music to the constant, underlying hum of voices of people having a good time.

Robert Hughes on guitar and Harp master, Dave Gastel in Monterey - Photo credit: Crosscut Saw Photography

At the Presidents stage, Kenny Sultan shared with the crowd his thoughts about finger picking a guitar. “Finger picking…there’s an idea. Because you’ve got a bass player and a drummer right here where your thumb is. You don’t have to pay him, he shows up on time, and hopefully he keeps a good rhythm. Those of you out there who do fingerpick know the most important thing is your thumb. This is the lead singer [holding up his forefinger] and this is the guitar player [holding up his second finger]. They think they’re getting all the glory, but the reality is, if the thumb’s off, if the groove’s gone, you’ve got nothing.”

I saw Teeny Tucker perform. Teeny is Tommy Tucker’s daughter. Tommy wrote the classic rock single, “High Heel Sneakers”, one of the first R&B songs I fell in love with as a kid. At the Garden Stage, the Blues in the School Honor Band with Dennis Muphy set the crowd on fire with a cover of ZZ Top’s La Grange. They captured the passion of the original and the teenaged singer even had that gritty vocal going on. How can these kids play so well?

J.C. Smith and Alvon Johnson - Photo credit: Crosscut Saw Photography

The most emotional moment for me was during the set by Dennis Edwards, the former lead singer of The Temptations. Hearing the sweet strains of “It’s Just My Imagination” made me well up inside.

If you’ve ever had a meaningful song from the past hit you hard, you know the feeling. After Dennis, a young black man dressed in white came on stage. The crowd went absolutely wild! I felt like I was at a Beatles concert in the ’60s. The crazier the crowd became, the more I laughed at myself, because I had no idea who this guy was. Turns out it was Johnny Gill of the R&B group, New Edition, who after working the crowd into a frenzy was joined by Eddie Levert of The O’Jays, and an already crazed crowd became even crazier!

This is a guitar magazine so let’s talk guitar stuff. Coolest guitar I saw at the festival was Tommy Castro’s Gibson Firebird. I’ve never seen Tommy play anything other than a Strat, so this was unusual, plus I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a Firebird being played.

Blues man, Tommy Castro, manhandles his Gibson Firebird at the 2010 Monterey Festival - Photo credit: Crosscut Saw Photography

The guitarist for Deanna Bogart’s band, Dan Leonard, played a beautiful rendition of Jeff Beck’s “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers”, (which is actually a Stevie Wonder composition) on a John Suhr Classic Strat with a chambered body, a humbucker in the bridge and Joe Barden pickups in the neck and middle.

Speaking of Strats, another Blues Guitar Women Showdown guitarist, Laura Chavez, was there with singer Candye Kane. Laura was playing the same beat up red Stratocaster as she did in 2007. There was a toss up for the most beautiful guitar. Both contenders were Paul Reed Smiths – a Santana II played by the dynamic Alvon Johnson, and a 1998 McCarty double ten-top, Hollowbody II played by colorful Robert Hughes, guitarist for the Teeny Tucker band.

Happy Birthday! 2010 was the 25th Anniversary of the Monterey Blues Festival. The Monterey Blues Festival is an IRS approved 501c3 organization created to perpetuate the Blues and promote youth and the Arts.

As Eric Burton and the Animals so aptly sang back in 1967, it’s all happening Down in Monterey. Come on out next year! Visit the Concerts/Festivals page of Mike’s Crosscut Saw Photography website for more pictures from the 2010 festival.