Live from New York, it's G E Smith - Blues-rock Master?

[kexodusc]

Wow!
I'm volunteering security at the local annual blues/jazz festival - a great little grass roots music gig the small town in Atlantic Canada I'm living in right now puts on every year...far cry from the stadium sized shows I've seen this past year (Stones, INXS, Gov't Mule, Dream Theater, Tori Amos, Pearl Jam, Ben Folds), but in many ways much more entertaining. I try visit all these blues fests in the towns I visit, for me this stuff will always be more about live shows and grass roots, unpolished music than what the indusry's blues genre has become...anyway, last night my venue hosted none other than that guy on Saturday Night Live who sends them off to commercial breaks...

G. E. Smith is one serious blues afficianado - sure has an appreciation for a lot of the old stuff, too. I always thought he was just hired help for SNL, but I chatted with him a bit backstage and he's got a mile long resume of guys he worked for - — Dylan, Clapton, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Hall and Oates, Carly Simon, Chuck Berry, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, Neil Young, David Bowie, etc...He's on my wife's Hall and Oates CD's to boot!!!

I know he didn't get paid much to come, he just loves to play - and man can he put on a show...his girlfriend can sure sing the blues too!

Anyhoo, highly recommended to anyone who ever has the chance to see this hard working dude...He totally upstaged Delbert McClinton last night!

Here's some of the other acts this weekend, don't think anyone else at AR lives in the area, but if you do, check it out: http://www.harvestjazzandblues.com/performers/performers.php

(yeah, that's right, I saw INXS)

[musicman1999]

kex

i am only a few hours away,in halifax,but have never made it to that festival.a buddy saw little feat there last year and really enjoyed it.Are you coming to town for the Stones this weekend,i live about a quarter mile from the stage,constuction has begun on the stage.

bill

[kexodusc]

Hey musicman1999 - I saw the Stones play last year and just can't get away this year - though I must admit, it was a heckuva party. The HJ&B Festival here is unreal..I lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 5 years, right in Blues country - we had a lot of blues acts there, but they definitely aren't grass roots and have lost the personal touch of it all. This was a wicked show put on by a small town. I can't wait for next year's. North Dakota doesn't have any I can recall, and there's nothing Bluesy or Jazzy about Maine.
The Jazz Festival in Montreal is something to behold too, but it really concentrates more on real Jazz and less Blues in my opinon - still, one of the best cities on earth, everyone should get to it.

[hifitommy]

and neither is on AMG, one is the live from ny.