In the past, critics have accused the Mayor’s Office of Special Events and the Blues Festival’s all-volunteer advisory committee of adopting a cynical “book it and they will come” attitude: if almost anything that includes the words “Chicago” and “blues” will draw tourists to Grant Park like flies on sherbet, and if four days of free music and outdoor drinking is enough to entice throngs of Chicagoans to join them, then why bother being creative? But this year, at least, it appears as if a genuine attempt has been made to strike a balance among regional, aesthetic, and even generational considerations to please locals, tourists, novices, and aficionados alike.
THURSDAY, JUNE 7
Harpist and guitarist Nigel Mack (ne Nigel Mackenzie) hails from Saskatchewan, where he discovered blues through the rock-infused sounds of Johnny Winter and Paul Butterfield. Since the early 90s he’s gigged around Chicago on occasion, but he remains best known north of the border. DW
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Keyboardist Maurice “Mighty Mo” Rodgers is an R & B and blues journeyman–he worked shows and sessions on the west coast in the late 60s and early 70s and produced Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee’s 1973 electric soul album, Sonny & Brownie, for A&M. His own debut, 1999’s Blues Is My Wailin’ Wall (Blue Thumb), uneasily blends smooth-funk bass lines and atmospheric production (deep echo,
