blue sky Bradenton Blues

The first Saturday in December has brought Bradenton the Blues for the last five years - in the form of the Blues Festival.  This was the first year the headliner was not a female and I don't think I would be the only one who had the opinion that this was not a positive thing.  The order from first year through last was Ruthie Foster, Shemekia Copeland, Marcia Ball, and Janiva Magness... this year the women were sorely missed in the line up.

We arrived about 2:30 in time for the gender bending Jason Ricci- whose harmonica was virtuoso - and had a guitar like depth of sound...

 
The next act was Victor Wainwright- our favorite of the day - just an all around good performer- piano and vocals---

weren't crazy about the next one- nothing horrible just not inspiring-

the headliner- had a mean blues guitar but there was something quite flat about the whole afternoon- maybe because there were no named acts who were female- just a thought...

 2012

 2013

 2014

 

2015

 the venue is right along the Riverwalk in downtown Bradenton-

so not the best line up we have seen but - who knows what 2017 will bring... the day was beautiful- sunny and blue skies and in the high 70s... a perfect day to sit by the river... tomorrow we are off on a getaway vacay... so I will be off for a week (roughly) but will be back with reports on the changes in Cartagena since I was last there in 2012..... stay tuned...

OK- been busy

so to catch up- as you remember - or maybe not- we were having family for Thanksgiving - we spent most of the time cooking and eating and hanging out in the courtyard outside the kitchen (for easy access to food and drink- LOL)

We did go to Indigenous one night for dinner but mostly it was a relaxed holiday weekend where we just spent the time catching up with everyone and enjoying the company of family and friends.  Just after the weekend, we headed to John & Barb's for a fabulous dinner and some fun rummikub throw downs.  We loved getting to meet Barb's mom Barbara- who can certainly hold her own in the rummikub arena - this gal is as sharp as a tack (as they say) and looks easily 15 years younger than she is- we would say 20 but we know how old her daughter is! LOL

the below photo shows John & Barb's courtyard which they have decorated for the holidays - we have no decorations but we did have a very pretty (but the least successful) Thanksgiving dish to display- made by Angela and Michele and me...

the veggie roulade - stuck to the pan and the veggies cooked at different rates making it less than optimal- the recipe needs some tweaking but I think could be good. Maybe next time...

Later in the week we caught up with my former Chairman of the Board (who lives about 45 minutes from us in the winter time) and his wife - Lew & Ellie... we did some catching up with them but since we haven't seen them since early last spring - we still have plenty to cover in our next "date"- Lew and I worked with each other for two decades and so some of what we talked was "shop talk" but they are travelers like we are and so we frequently found ourselves talking of trips we have taken since last seeing each other... Aperol Spritzes anyone?? LOL

we had a few meals outside and inside - one at Blue Marlin and the others at Clancy's and Tide Tables (both of those last two were the first time we had made it to those venues this "winter")

photos below from Blue Marlin dinner

then two of the beautiful day we ate lunch at Clancy's -

Then as the week after the holiday was coming to a close we had two music events!

Saturday the Bradenton Blues Festival and Sunday a concert by John McCutcheon at the Craftsman House... the headliner for the blues fest was Janiva Magness (you may remember her from the post about her concert at SPACE from our Chicago summer time) you can read that one here:

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2015/06/reporting-back.html

anyway- she was again magnificent- what a voice! and she sang several favorites - including When We Were Lovers and I Won't Cry ---

here is some info from the Blues Festival-

we arrived mid afternoon in time for some of Mike Zito's set and stayed until the Janiva was finished singing... around 7:45 or so... a beautiful day -

and to almost catch up- last night we heard John McCutcheon- an amazing talent who can apparently play any instrument you put in front of him as well as tell you stories, sing songs he wrote and at the same time tell you incredible music history from his font of musicologist's knowledge -

guitar (of both twelve and six string variety LOL)

 fiddle-

 auto harp-

 hammered dulcimer (he's a master!)

I hope this loads - I had a tiny video clip of his hammered dulcimer playing- 

banjo-

 keyboards-

we laughed - we cried - and we laughed while crying- he's that kind of artist... the venue is extremely intimate- kind of a semi house concert style- and is easily reached from our winter home so we will be back in the new year for other concerts!

so I think that catches you up on our last ten days or so... and soon (at the end of this week) we leave for Cuba-  so we will stop in Miami the night before and see Larry, and Michele and maybe my cousin Cathy (Michele's mother) if our schedules for visiting Miami coincide-

here is our trip on a map- and of course little Internet access in Cuba so we will be "radio silent" for the time we are there- back by Christmas- but don't expect much December posting -

look for a lot more details around the first of the year... Happy Holidays! - oh I sooo have to work on the letter and cards today!!!!  time is running out!

singing the blues

Last year we were out of town (in Louisiana for our Cajun class) when the sold out Blues Festival was held (with Shemekia Copeland headlining) - so we vowed to come this year and when tickets went on sale - we snapped them up...

It's a nice one day thing- with many places in the area running day before or day after events at bars and other music venues.  Here is the line-up for the riverside stage for the actual blues fest-

the location of the event is right on the Manatee River which leads into Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico 

the event map-

the event logo-

there were also food vendors with some tasty items-

Here are some of the food items sold by from local restaurants:
•Ortygia: Sicilian Chili, Chocolate Pâté.
•Yachtsea Grille: Bayou Mac-n-cheese, Polynesian Pork Shanks, and Chicken Sausage Gumbo (inspired by Marcia Ball’s gumbo recipe).
•SOMA Creekside: Mangrove Snapper and Short Rib Tacos, Crispy Calamari Salad, and Local Fried Green Tomatoes.
•Cedar Reef Fish Camp: Shrimp-n-Grits, Blackened Gator Chowder, Mini Key Lime Crème Brûlée.
•Anna Maria Oyster Bar: Fish-n-chips.
•Hickory Hollow: Deep Fried BBQ Ribs, Pulled Pork Sliders, Loaded Yucca.
•S.O.B Burgers: The Voodoo Burger and homemade french fries.

so we went over for ....the second half of the day arriving as Samantha Fish was ending--- I really wanted to hear EG Kight but just couldn't get it together to be there that early- and since we didn't really want to hear Samantha Fish we decided to wait until the afternoon/evening acts...

we had some BBQ from Hickory Hollow for lunch and then headed into the stage area for the afternoon acts...

And here is the review of the acts we did see in order of how much we liked them -

Jimmy Thackery an AMAZING guitarist- where has he been all our lives? answer in the Nighthawks... but now he is leading his own band - what an incredible talent!

you can see from the photos - he played as the sun was setting- one in daylight one under the spotlights...

then in the number two slot a shared review of Lil Ed and Billy Branch... with a slight nod to Billy Branch just because he studied with Junior Wells (a favorite for decades) - both acts were excellent with Lil Ed getting points for his foray into the audience while playing...

two of Billy Branch-

a number of Lil Ed photos-

he was having a good time!

then in the next slot, of my favorites, I would put Marcia Ball- excellent piano - really rousing as the blurbs said but her voice hurts me... it sounds like a female Rod Stewart- totally blown- she can barely talk without a raspy/hoarseness much less sing... so I would say while I enjoyed the band and the act, it was uncomfortable to listen to her-

we didn't know how this was going to go - so we bought the reserved seating - otherwise it is bring your own chairs-  next year - and there definitely will be a next year- we will bring our own so we have more room and less hard seats... plus being right in front of the stage was great for seeing the acts but the hearing part would actually be more enjoyable a bit further away... live and learn.

a worthy investment of time and money... and we capped it off with a later dinner at SOB Burger's actual restaurant and had some really great burgers as well.... all in all a good Saturday afternoon/evening!