The 2013 Pittsburgh Blues Festival

I have a love/hate relationship with the Pittsburgh Blues Festival (PBF). The festival has certainly had its glory days. For example, in 1997, the lineup included Buddy Guy, Luther Allison, Charles Brown and a Roomful of Blues. That was also a sad year. When we arrived, there was a handwritten sign at the entrance to the parking lot saying, “Luther Allison has cancelled.” Nothing was said during the performance, but we found out later that he was hospitalized with a brain tumor. Six weeks later, he was dead.

Unfortunately, 1997 is long gone. In recent years, the PBF has suffered from two syndromes. One is the aging rock stars syndrome, in which rock musicians and groups from the '60s and '70s who are no longer able attract an audience on their own reinvent themselves as “blues musicians” and play the festival circuit. The other is the blues lite syndrome. (“Lite/light” is used here in both senses of the word.) The premise seems to be that Pittsburghers won't show up for real blues artists, so you have to attact them with something else—blues-rock, pop, folk, country, gospel, etc. This year, there are no aging rock stars; the lineup leans toward the blues lite.

Here's the lineup. Those in italics are referred to by the festival as “national acts.” The rest are local.

Friday, July 19

5:00 Miss Freddy and Blue Faze

6:30 The Slide Brothers

8:00 Jimmy Adler's Youngblood Blues Camp

9:00 Big Sam's Funky Nation

Saturday, July 20

2:00 The Olga Watkins Band

3:00 Gina Sicilia

4:30 The Pittsburgh Blues All-Stars

5:30 Joe Louis Walker

7:00 Eric Lindell

9:00 Los Lonely Boys

Sunday, July 21

2:00 Shot o' Soul

3:00 Billy the Kid and the Regulators

4:00 J. D. McPherson

5:30 theCAUSE and Friends

6:00 The Nighthawks with Billy Price

8:30 Tab Benoit

There are two legitimate blues stars in this year's lineup. Tab Benoit is a New Orleans-based singer and guitarist specializing in swamp blues in the Southern Louisiana-East Texas tradition. He has been recording since 1992. He won the Blues Music Award this year as best Contemporary Blues Male Artist, which is the blues-rock category, in contrast to the other three: Acoustic, Soul and Traditional. He's a likeable guy, widely admired for founding Voice of the Wetlands, an organization that is attempting to stop erosion of the Louisiana coastline. Musically, he works around the fringes of the blues and I find him mediocre, but I can understand why he was scheduled.

I chose this clip in an effort to put his best foot forward. This is my favorite of his recordings that I'm familiar with, but it also illustrates the limitations of both his singing—which pales in comparison to Otis Redding's original version—and his playing, which is acceptable, but hardly inspiring.

There other star is Joe Louis Walker, a blues man of much greater stature in my opinion. Raised in San Francisco, he started as a rock musician and was a contemporary of Jimi Hendrix. He formed his blues group, the Boss Talkers, in 1986 and recorded the first of his 25 or so albums. He plays a modern variation of Chicago-style electric blues, enhanced by his soulful vocals. He often includes some acoustic numbers in his sets, played on a Silvertone slide guitar. I rate him as one of the half-dozen best blues guitarists playing today. This year he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, an honor that musicians seldom achieve while they're still alive. His Alligator CD, Hellfire, was the #1 blues CD of 2012 according to Living Blues, which does monthly surveys of the playlists of dozens of blues radio programs. I previously posted the title song from that CD, so check it out. For variety, here's an acoustic number from Silvertone, one of my favorite of his CDs.

So these two men have to be the two of the three closers, right? WRONG!!! Tab Benoit closes on Sunday night, but Joe Louis Walker's set is at 5:30 on Saturday, in between a local group and Eric Lindell. Lineup placement is important to blues musicians and fans. This is an insult to Mr. Walker and an embarrassment to the blues fans of Pittsburgh! (If there is some logical explanation for this—for example, if he requested the time in order to catch an early flight to LA—well, . . . never mind.)

As much as I admire Billy Price, seeing him perform is not a novelty for most Pittsburghers. The rest of the “national acts” are either non-blues or fall clearly into the blues lite category. The Slide Brothers are primarily a gospel group. While I enjoy listening to pedal steel guitar, I found their recent CD disappointing. Los Lonely Boys are a Tex-Mex group. I'd never heard of J. D. McPherson, but judging by the music on his website, his genre is rockabilly. As for Big Sam's Funky Nation, a visit to their website will tell you in 20 seconds whether you want to listen to them for 75 minutes.

Colin Lindell is an odd choice, since this New Orleans singer's style overlaps with that of Tab Benoit. A few years ago, he might have been called a rising star, but since Alligator dropped him, he might be said to be hanging on by his fingernails. Finally, when did it become conventional for second-rate blues festivals to book one young, physically attractive white woman who is lacking in experience and talent? Aren't the women in the audience attractive enough? This year's Ana Popovic time slot goes to Gina Sicilia. (Listen and weep.)

When is the last time the PBF booked an acoustic country blues act?

I'm not going to be able to make it to the PBF this year. What do I recommend? First of all, I'd only consider going on Saturday, and for only one reason—the great Joe Louis Walker. You might want to plan on arriving around 4:30 to support some local musicians. And if you're a blues fan, you'll probably leave around the middle of Eric Lindell's set to beat the traffic.

Does it matter who performs at the Pittsburgh “Blues” Festival? I think it does. For one thing, the festival is cheating the young people who come to learn what the blues is all about and leave knowing little more than they did before. Secondly, the PBF is free-riding on the reputation of a musical tradition that they no longer honor. By calling themselves a “blues festival,” they get publicity and respect from sponsors and the media that they wouldn't get if they billed themselves more honestly as “just another rock festival.” Finally, they are taking away the livelihood of the real blues musicians who, if they were booked, could provide Pittsburghers with an outstanding musical experience.