Herb & Rita attends the Ft. Smith Blues Festival

photos by Herb

Ft. Smith Blues Society has been bringing the best blues acts from around the world for 18 years now and this year was no exception.After over 100 water deliveries on Friday we made it in time to check in at the hotel and get in our seats by the time Ruthie Foster opened the show. Ruthie’s blues, gospel modern sound was an inspiration to Rita and set a cool tone for the rest of Friday nights show. We missed The Belairs but got to meet them in a coffee shop Sat. morning downtown on the way to the workshop.

Westside Chicago’s best bluesmen Lil Ed and the Blue Imperial’s were the nights headliners and stood up to all the hype. These guys could jam and set the crowd on fire. With the experience of over 25 years playing together, the band was extremely tight and well rehearsed. My Friday night favorites. Unfortunately we were unsure if we could take any cameras in so we did not get any Friday night pics. Cameras were cool and Saturday was filled with great music and fun.

Saturday arrived with great anticipation because the line up and weather was ideal. Seth Freeman from Russelville, Ar. opend up with his young band and was very impressive with his older than his years blues rock chops. Great showing and good luck to a a local blues star. The show had it’s usual fill in cover bands like The Cabbageheads and Grey Street but the performances where professional and listenable. But up next was one of the acts I wanted to see. Larry McCray from Magnolia, AR. was up. Rita and I saw him open for Al Green in Little Rock last year and he was truly professional and a blues master with his high energy 80’s type guitar play. Backed by his brother’s and cousins from Saginaw, MI. Their long set consisted of crystal clear guitar and great foot tapping high brow blues.

Ana Popovic arrives next, a stop on her Still Making History Tour 2008. Ana was high energy and quite the guitar slinger. Rocking Blues at a fever pace. Her Bass player was a show in himself with a very hot solo. Nice band from The Netherlands. Real T-Bone Walker Fans.

The evening ended with Johnny Lang on about just in time. The crowd was very reay but we were all disappointed a bit because they show admin’s decided not to run the stage lights and J.L played in the complete dark. They stated it was because the bugs were to bad. They were, some kinda hatch along the river. So next year start the show earlier before dark .