Guest Low Roller Posted April 23, 2004 Report Share Posted April 23, 2004 These are some unconfirmed artists for the Ottawa Bluesfest that I pulled off of Pollstar.com: Sun 07/11/04 Jaga Jazzist -> AWESOME!!! Tue 07/13/04 Bryan Adams Fri 07/16/04 Blanche Fri 07/16/04 Weakerthans Sat 07/17/04 Keb' Mo' Sat 07/17/04 Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited Sun 07/18/04 Bernie Leadon Sun 07/18/04 Chris Isaak Sun 07/18/04 Olu Dara Sun 07/18/04 The Dirtbombs Sun 07/18/04 The Greenhornes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted April 23, 2004 Report Share Posted April 23, 2004 Weakerthans :) :) Although they ain't blues! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 holy shit. Is Bryan Adams going to be this year's Sheryl Crowe? I know that there were some SCI rumours, but I guess they just want way to much money for the amount of people they'd actually attract. SCI wouldn't even be suitable for the main stage...would they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guigsy Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 SCI wouldn't even be suitable for the main stage...would they? not anywhere. :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggo Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 love keb mo and chris isaak! mmmmmm! and if you need a suggestion on where to stay - a few years back, what was it... 1999. we had been in ottawa for canada day. then we headed on up to montreal for the jazz festival. we stayed in this little place, "la couron" or "the crown" for you non-french-friendly. our first indication that this might be a questionable decision was when some barefoot person went in through one of the downstairs windows. or maybe this was a good sign??? anyway, it was the cheapest place around, it looked like a formal brothel and it was in a sketchy part of town - are there 6 strip joints per block in all of that city??? my favourite was the "pussy corps"... very nice... but anyway, nothing bad happened to us, so give it a try if you're feeling adventurous. and remember to go ... oh shit... hahahaha i just realized this is for OTTAWA. not montreal. okay i typed all that so fuck it, i'm posting it anyway, for anyone who may go to montreal. sorry for being a tad dense. cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggo Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 dammit!!! make that "former brothel". it's all coming down now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_sniffer_ Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 LIne up looks like shit. I ain't coming to Ottawa for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stapes Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 I bet Taj Mahal and George Thorogood will be there too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 teehheee meggo :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 Weakerthans :) :) Although they ain't blues! They are probably playing the Birdman Stage, which features a lot of punk music. Probably my main impetus for going this year. "Bluesfest" has been a misnomer for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Funk Dawg Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 Sat 07/17/04 Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited These guys are really cool.... They play thumb pianos.. called mbira's and have their own distinctive music that they created called "Chimenga" music... which is African 60's pop music influenced and overtly political Nigerian Music. If you ever read up on the guy Thomas... you will notice that he's a lot like Fela Kuti, a political/musical force that the government has tried to silence... I sure hope to see TAJ MAHAL this summer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimmyB Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 I went to the Ottawa Bluesfest five years in a row from '96 to '00. And as every year rolled on there were less and less actual BLUES acts on the bill. It went from Robert Cray, Johnny Copeland, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown to Sting, Shawn Colvin and many others that I can't recall. Not to say that I don't like Sting, I do and will be seeing him this summer, it's just not the blues. Also as this transition was happening one year to the next I also found that the festival was gaining in popularity, so why would the promoters that run the Ottawa Bluesfest stop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 The organizers are fully aware that this isn't a Blues Festival. It was branded many years ago with a GENRE, but there are only so many big blues acts and it wouldn't keep growing that way. It's quite simply a music festival branded as Bluesfest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimmyB Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 I wasn't intentionally trying to knock the promoters of the Ottawa Bluesfest, my intention was to describe the transition. Obviously it's difficult to keep a festival based on the blues viable as the years go on. Many of the aforementioned people in my last post, Johnny Copeland, Junior Wells have since passed on, may they rest in peace. Also in '00 the great John Lee Hooker was supposed to be a headliner but had to be replaced by Buddy Guy, due to illness. I was lucky enough to see Hooker at Bimbo's in San Francisco later that year, but in early '01 he too passed away. There aren't many Blues masters left and there also isn't many picking up the torch to carry on the tradition. It's one of those genres that sadly is shrinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gentlemonkey Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 I am guessing they have a few major surprises yet to be announced/determined, but last year??! my lord, that was the best.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Not Bob Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 The organizers are fully aware that this isn't a Blues Festival. It was branded many years ago with a GENRE, but there are only so many big blues acts and it wouldn't keep growing that way. It's quite simply a music festival branded as Bluesfest. There is always plenty of great Blues at the Bluesfest, it's just that there aren't enough living Blues masters left who are capable of headlining at a big festival like this in Ottawa ... it's pretty much Buddy Guy and BB King, and both of those guys have played in the past 5 or so years. The harsh fact of it is that it takes the Sheryl Crows , the Lauryn Hills and even the Stings to bring in the big crowds and the big money to pay for bringing in the Lousiana Reds, the Pinetop Perkinses and the Gatemouth Browns. Since people keep whining that "it isn't really a blues festival because artist X is playing, evidently it is too much effort for some folks to take their eyes off the main stage headliners and see that there is plenty of great music and plenty of great blues to be seen throughout the festival. I've been to the last 3 Blues Festivals and hopefully will be at the upcoming one, and I can tell you from hard experience that anyone who goes to the Blues festival and can't find a whole lot of awesome blues just isn't trying hard enough ... or at all. Rant over. RnB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimmyB Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 If you read my above post you would see that my intention was not to knock the Bluesfest, just describe the same harsh reality that you did, there aren't many Blues greats left. If I lived up in the Ottawa region like I did when I attended Carleton I would still be attending the festival annually, but since I'm down near the GTA again I can see most of the acts during the Toronto Bluesfest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Not Bob Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 If you read my above post you would see that my intention was not to knock the Bluesfest, just describe the same harsh reality that you did, there aren't many Blues greats left. If I lived up in the Ottawa region like I did when I attended Carleton I would still be attending the festival annually, but since I'm down near the GTA again I can see most of the acts during the Toronto Bluesfest. Sorry, Timmy, my rant was not directed at you ... I'm just frustrated at others who can't seem to be bothered to look past the headliners and just complain about there supposedly being no blues at blues fest. One of my hair trigger reflexes, but as I said it wasn't directed at you, or anyone on the board really. RnB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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