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Blues Fest picks for Thursday


bradm

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I'm planning on being there tonight, and the highlight for me is going to be Robert Cray (8:00pm, Rogers Stage). I've been a fan of his for years now (and saw him at the Ontario Place Forum in 1989 or 1990, when he had The Memphis Horns with him), and I'm hoping for a soulful/funky set (moreso than a bluesy one).

Caridad Cruz (6:00pm, Rogers Stage) and Basia Bulat (6:15pm, Blacksheep Stage) also interest me, but aside from that, not much has me excited for tonight. Does anybody have any recommendations?

Aloha,

Brad

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I think we'll be heading down for Robert Cray and Blue Rodeo.

I caught the first two songs by Blue Rodeo ("'Til I Am Myself Again" and "Day After Day", IIRC), and was really impressed: they had a huge sound, much bigger than I thought they'd produce. (I think of them more as a "theatre" than as a "stadium" band.)

Robert Cray was good, but I found the pacing of the set was a bit too slow; there were a couple of times early on when he said something like, "OK, now we're gonna get funky" before starting a song, and then played a slow-ish soulful down-tempo thing, rather than something up-tempo and funky. The first song of the encore had the punch that I wanted, and I liked both the playing and the re-interpretations of some of the songs ("Smoking Gun" was re-arranged nicely), but I wanted more energy in the set. Cray's guitar impressed me more than it has, especially his tone (I've found Cray's tone and playing a little thin and "plinky, plinky" at times in the past, but last night there was more oomph to it).

I caught a bit of Hugh Pool band on the River Stage, and it wasn't bad. When I got there, he was doing pretty much standard blues-rock, which was good, but not distinctive, but he did two covers (a really slow version of "Baby Please Don't Go", and then Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks") that impressed me.

Aloha,

Brad

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I thought Robert Cray was fookin awesome, not a single bum note, great backing band and some of the sounds he had going were out of this world.

Scully and i were raving about that sitaresque sound for the last song before the encores.

oh yes and william didn't shower yesterday- stankyass neohippy, confirmed

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