By
Kim "Two-Dat" Welsh
Jazz Fest 2010 was the most amazing show on earth; I don’t care what Barnum and Bailey said. Even B. B. King put on one helluva show to a packed tent. I have been all the way to his homecoming in Indianola twice and paid $75 to hear him play at his Club Ebony there after the Homecoming and I have never heard him play so well and so long.
Last summer, I visited the excellent museum dedicated to B.B. King in his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi. In the three hours I spent, nobody else was there. It was a lovely time spent alone with the music of the man who helped invent the searing, urban Chicago electric blues guitar sound.
That was not the case at the Blues Tent. The crowd was spilling out all sides, butting up against the beer stands and spilling into the craft area. I don’t know why they didn’t put him on one of the big stages; he definitely merited it.
King rocked "Rock Me Baby," then introduced "The Thrill Is Gone" with a Cialis endorsement.
Finally, the unmistakable notes of former Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis' "You Are My Sunshine" were heard. When the Blues Boy directed his horn section to kick into "Saints," the tension and crankiness of the crowded festgoers lifted; King lounged Lucille on his thigh, holding court from his chair, as fans raised their rain umbrellas to second-line in place. I guess in 60-odd years of performing, you learn a little something about reading your audience.
I hope you enjoy these images from the Jazz Fest which include Ernie Vincent, Margie Perez, Billy Iuso, Anders Osborne, the Neville brothers, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Big Al Carson, John Mooney, Jose Feliciano, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi… and lots of injuns and second liners!
Meet y’all next year at Jazz Fest… in the Blues Tent!
“Fest Junkie
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