Blueshounds fight off muddied show

by Joshua Ostroff

Saturday, 10 July 1999, Ottawa Sun

OTTAWA -- The sky was doing more than cryin' at last night's bluesfest -- it appeared to be throwing a full-fledged tantrum.

John Hiatt evoked a style that mixed blues with hints of country and folk during his appearance at last night's Bluesfes in Ottawa.
Peter Cutler SUN

The vast expanses of Lebreton Flats offered little shelter, and quickly devolved into a Woodstockian mud soup. But the hardcore blueshounds remained undeterred wallowing in the muck.

The evening got off to a late start when Chicago's Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials' were delayed due to weather. When they did arrive, the tight ensemble immediately kicked into, appropriately, Stevie Ray Vaughan-inspired electric blues.

The band occasionally raised the tempo for several numbers that echoed early R&B with guitar riffs seemingly ripped from Buddy Holly's Rave On.They mostly stuck to the classic blues traditionalist fans clamour for.

Such appetites were similarly satisfied by Bill Wharton and the Ingredients on the acoustic stage -- an eccentric man who cooked up gumbo onstage with his New Orleans-flavoured blues -- and local troupe the Sifa Choir and Grammy-winner Hezekiah Walker, among others, in the gospel tent.

The main stage reverted to its post-blues showcase with John Hiatt, one of few performers who truly fits the radio format "Americana." The celebrated singer/songwriter exuded an atmosphere of rurality, evoking blues with country and folk.

Alone with only a keyboard, mandolin and endless supply of acoustic guitars, Hiatt secured the attention of the soggy audience with songs like This Thing Called Love, one of his never-ending supply of songs made famous by other artists (in this case, Bonnie Rait).

Throat infection

But his vocals have never been his strongest suit and were further downgraded by a throat infection. The result left his solo set simply too stripped down to overcome the atmosphere of doom and gloom. Nevertheless, he put in a solid performance that combined new songs like I Know a Place and All Bad Love from his in-the-works album with classic numbers like Memphis in the Meantime.

By the time Booker T. and the MG's came on, the rain had stopped and the crowd had ballooned to nearly 6000.

They've backed up legends from Otis Redding to Buddy Guy, but the rock n' roll hall of famers' own work has been marked most by their lack of a singer. It worked both for and against them last night.

Whether their Grateful Dead-like jams and noodles were "the blues" is open to interpretation, but their expert musicianship -- which really encompassed blues, jazz, surf, Caribbean and rock -- remained unquestioned.

But without the lyrical hooks to bring people into lesser-known work, many songs began to sound the same -- albeit a similarity that rarely dropped in quality.

Though Booker T and the MG's set lacked the sing-along factor that drive many nostalgia acts, the Memphis group more than made up for it with the sheer joy of watching musicians 30 years past their prime still performing at the top of their game