Each year the Chicago Blues Festival picks a theme–usually either a slight play on words (the fest’s 19th edition, last year, was dubbed “She’s Nineteen Years Old” after the Muddy Waters song) or commemorations of a deceased artist’s birthday. This year, the fest fetes the centennials of bluesmen Big Joe Williams and Saint Louis Jimmy Oden and the 50th anniversary of Chicago’s Delmark Records. Aside from the title of his best-known song, “Goin’ Down Slow,” being grafted onto one of the events, there’s little visible connection between Oden and anything going on. But the Delmark link is more obvious–a number of artists from that label have been booked, and both Oden and Williams recorded for Delmark.
Tradition-minded aficionados will find much to appreciate at the festival. But just as Joe Williams did with his music–and just as Bob Koester did when he invited Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton to join the likes of Art Hodes and Sleepy John Estes on his label–they’ll need to challenge their preconceived notions of “authenticity” to meet this year’s lineup on its own terms.
On the first day of every Blues Fest, schoolkids who’ve been taught the rudiments of blues and blues history under the auspices of the city’s Blues in the Schools program take the stage. Here they’ll perform with some of their teachers, who’re worth seeing in their own right. Davis’s dusky vocals are a perfect fit for Erwin Helfer’s ebullient yet tender piano (the two should really think about doing a full-length CD together), and Eric Noden, who also teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music, is an ace trad guitarist. DW
4:30 PM Tony Rogers Band
2:30 PM Sharon Lewis & the Mojo Kings
2:00 PM Chicago! Blues! Today!
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3:00 PM Katherine Davis & the children of Agassiz and Gladstone Schools
