Photos by Tina Pastor
LIVE MUSIC IS BACK AND IT FEELS SO GOOD! Yes, the prevailing emotion at the Briggs Farm Blues Fest was joy—a sentiment too seldom felt in the past 18 months. Joy was everywhere, from the musicians playing again and reunited with their bands, from the audience singing Grateful Dead tunes at the top of their lungs, brought to their feet by the power of live music. With ten years of attendance interrupted only last year by the Pandemic, this writer finds himself using similar adjectives to describe this festival each year because it never fails to deliver a great experience.
Other festivals were hesitant about going forward until there was more clarity on masking, social distancing, and the like, but the Briggs family made an early commitment to hold their event as scheduled. What a great decision that proved to be as the 10,000 plus enthusiastic fans were in dire need of the connectivity and vibe that only live music can bring. In the intervening year, the Briggs family made even deeper commitments, building a permanent, much larger stage, repositioning, and enlarging the Back Porch venue, expanding camping and parking space and attracting more vendors, even to the extent of selling beer and a much wider variety of food. They also stayed true to their word of bringing back the acts that signed on for 2020. All but one accepted for this year, that spot filled by fest fave Vanessa Collier.
What began as a two-day festival 24 years ago has evolved to a three-day festival with music on Thursday night; this year a celebration of the music of 1970 performed by Bret Alexander (of The Badlees fame) and friends with singer-songwriter Mike Miz nodding to the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty album for a singalong and nostalgic vibe that had the crowd dancing like crazy after enduring a mostly rain-filled afternoon. Yes, there was more than just blues. Across Thursday night and the two full days, we also heard singer-songwriter, jam band, soul, and some funk.
The Jack Adams Band with special guest powerhouse vocalist Dane Tilghman opened Friday’s Back Porch stage with a burning set of straight-ahead blues and soul. Then, in the first of two memorable “Most Improved Performer” acts, young guitarist Gabe Stillman totally ignited the Back Porch audience with a sizzling combination of guitar picking and showmanship. Later that afternoon local duo Pappy Biondo and Justin Mazer did an intimate, often riveting set of JJ Cale songs.
Saturday’s Back Porch began with local mainstays, the rocking, jamming Mighty Susquehannas, continuing a similar stoked-up atmosphere from the previous evening before the second of the “Most Improved Performer” acts, young guitarist King Solomon Hicks, who won the BMA for Best Emerging Artist, delighted the crowd with his mile-wide smile, , Sam Cooke-like vocals. and clean, crisp, no-pedals set of blues that included originals as well as classic blues and soul covers. This writer missed the set from Wes Knorr but caught an engaging singer-songwriter set from Mike Miz and Zandi Holup, two Pennsylvanians who somehow found a promising musical partnership in Nashville. Check them out as they have a significant social media and Spotify presence. It takes more than a bit of gumption to perform in front of crowd acoustically that mostly favors loud blues rock but those present rewarded them with a warm ovation. Making her first Briggs Farm appearance was Boston born and raised, Memphis-based Gracie Curran and her High Falutin’ Band, who delivered an energetic mix of blues and soul, with inventive soloing from all members, plus a guest appearance on two songs from Victor Wainwright’s guitarist Pat Harrington. Curran’s most recent album Come Undone featured members from Wainwright’s band, The Train, and Curran joined them later for their encore in their Main Stage performance.
Friday’s Main Stage lineup was as consistently powerful as any you will find at a major blues festival (this is no longer a small one!). With much of the crowd adorned in t-shirts bearing her name, perennial fest favorite Vanessa Collier began by playing the traditional National Anthem alone on her alto saxophone and followed by soulfully singing and playing her array of saxes with her full band, including renowned guitarist Laura Chavez. As per usual, her splendid stage presence and charisma not only carried her set but likely led to more merchandise sales than any performer. The premier sacred steel performers The Campbell Brothers took the crowd “to church” in stomping, roof-raising fashion as only they can, reaching seemingly impossible intensity levels, especially on the encore “Jump for Joy,” which among other things, had the next performer Lil’ Ed dancing stage left in the wings. Faced with a tough act to follow, Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials delivered the fest’s only true 12-bar exhibition of traditional Chicago blues, spiked by Lil’ Ed’s acrobatic showmanship, and wit as exemplified in songs like “Icicles in my Meatloaf.” Headliner Ana Popovic and her six-piece potent band closed with a set that included some funk, jazz, and R&B mixed in with Popovic’s signature blues-rock shredding–one of the best sets that this writer has seen Popovic deliver.
Scott Pemberton and his Electric Power Trio, who had first played on The Back Porch in 2019 had the young element of the in-front-of-the-stage crowd on their feet as they kicked off Saturday’s Main Stage with danceable, sing-along fare that mixed classic rock with their own material. Pemberton has a very unusual way of playing the guitar, often sitting it on a table as if he were playing a pedal steel but plucking instead. Venerable Mac Arnold and Plate Full of Blues followed, as the veteran who played with Muddy Waters, Albert King, and many others delivered “old school blues,” mostly via vocals but also with his trademark gas can guitar. Victor Wainwright and the Train showed why the front man won the BMA B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award a few years ago, exciting the audience with his six-piece band, like Popovic’s, that featured two horns. Wainwright connects with an audience like few other performers, making him the prototypical Briggs Farm act. Finally, the reigning Queen of the Blues, Shemekia Copeland, closed with her longtime band delivering a set of tracks from Uncivil War and America’s Child, both of which earned BMA Album of the Year honors. Copeland mixed these with favorites from past albums such as “Never Going Back to Memphis,” “Dirty Water,” Ghetto Child” and the staple encore “2 AM.” She never “phones it in,” delivered her political statements such as “Ain’t Got Time for Hate” and “Apple Pie and a .45” without any preaching, and left it all on the stage, as the cliché goes. This was her first performance in 18 months, and she left the stage totally exhausted to a raving audience that couldn’t get enough music.
The Briggs family is turning an increasing number of responsibilities over to the next generation, perhaps reflective of a more eclectic, contemporary lineup that also includes some of the top performers in today’s blues, making it ‘the best weekend of the year,’ a gathering of friends and kindred spirits unlike any other. Visit www.briggsfarm.com to make your plans for the 25th Briggs Farm Blues Fest July 7-9, 2022.
—Jim Hynes
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