It?s a lowdown sad and lonesome feeling to see this incredible music festival come to an end. That?
s why it?s only right that Sunday?s Tall Stacks lineup had the blues.
Playing for a crowd of music gluttons ? a crowd not as big as Saturday?s but strong-willed enough to roll out of bed and rock on a fifth and final day ?
were heavyweights Buddy Guy and Dr. John, plus lesser-known blues and R B acts of all stripes like Marcia Ball, Charlie Musselwhite, Nathan the Zydeco Cha Chas and Sean Costello. The gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama, roots-rockers Ollabelle and the bluegrass band Mountain Heart rounded out the roster of national acts.
If this festival is about rivers and music, it makes sense that a son of New Orleans, the country?s most historically significant musical river city, gets to close out the affair. Dr.
John?s 90-minute headlining set of Crescent City R B represented the keyboardist?s career and paid tribute to his hometown?
s legacy at the same time.
Iko Iko,? his hit single ?Right Place Wrong Time,?
and covers of songs by New Orleans figures like Dave Bartholomew and Cousin Joe, Dr. John was settled into his customary cool and relaxed groove from start to end.
The one subject that makes him hot?
The response to the disaster in New Orleans. ?Not that we are (mad) at FEMA?
the federal government, the state government, the local government,? he said with tongue in cheek, introducing the tune ?Sweet Home New Orleans.
? The song of despair ended with a happy lyric: ?We?
re gonna be back twice as strong.? The government?
s mishandling of New Orleans was a common theme on the day. Ball is another student of the Louisiana-piano tradition, and she snuck in a line about New Orleans being ?the city that Bush forgot.
? Musselwhite, a native Mississippian, sang in his song ?Black Water?
of ?poor people paying rich people?s dues.
? Musselwhite, often regarded as the best living white blues harmonica player, was one of two products of the Chicago blues-club circuit who played Sunday. Musselwhite chronicled what it was like to make the trip from the South to the North in ?
Stranger in a Strange Land,? a Muddy Waters-style piece of electric blues and one of the highlights of Musselwhite?s set.
Guy, who preceded Musselwhite onto the Chicago scene, turned in a fairly standard-issue performance, which means it had its share of thrills. Some, of course, came from Guy?s slash-and-burn guitar styling, but on those moments when his singing was a whisper and his guitar playing a peep, he had a crowd of thousands frozen in complete silence.
It?s an incredible trick to pull off at a blues-rock show and created an eerie circumstance in the riverfront setting. Between Musselwhite and Guy on the Yeatman?
s Cove stage were the Blind Boys of Alabama, playing a soulful brand of gospel that pulled material from all corners. Alongside traditional songs like ?Down By the Riverside?
and ?Nobody?s Fault but Mine?
were tunes familiar to those souls dwelling in the secular, like Curtis Mayfield?s ?People Get Ready?
and Norman Greenbaum?s ?Spirit in the Sky.
? There was also a run through ?Way Down in the Hole,?
bringing to mind two pillars of pop culture: the song?s writer, Tom Waits, and the greatest show on television, ?The Wire,?
which uses the song as its theme. Less memorable was a pair of acts appearing on the pavilion stage prior to Ball and Dr. John.
Costello is a blues guitarist and power-trio leader who plays proficiently and sings ?bluesy? enough but lacks something in the way of fire in the gut.
Ollabelle is a somewhat precious-sounding roots band in the manner of Cowboy Junkies and Cincinnati?s own Over The Rhine, although the quintet has an individualized sound formed by an obsession with folk, country, gospel and all things old-timey. That obsession sometimes took them to interesting places, like a leadoff version of the traditional ?
Ain?t No More Cane? (which, incidentally, was once covered by Ollabelle singer Amy Helm?
s dad Levon?s band, the Band). But just as the Band does the song better, Ollabelle?
s roots-digging certainly has been done better by other bands, Levon?s included.
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