Tampa Bay Blues Festival

[Ed S]

Anyone ever been to this?

Perhaps an interesting coincidence...... My wife's parents live in Tampa. In February, her mother passed away. As a result of the time we had to spend in Tampa - we missed two shows back in Buffalo that we had planned on attending - Tab Benoit and Jonny Lang.

A couple of weeks ago, I was surfing the net and checking out where some bands were playing. I stumbled on the Tampa Blues Festival - and guess who's playing there? Tab Benoit and Jonny Lang. There's a couple other favorites of mine as well - Lucky Peterson, Royal Southern Brotherhood, Dicky Betts, Trombone Shorty. There's also some female blues singer named Janiva Magness......

At any rate - I thought the coincidence to be be very interesting and since we needed to go down to Tampa to see my wife's father and take care of some legal matters I said what the hell - let's go to the Blues Festival.

Just wondering what the scene is like there - what's the venue like, can you bring chairs, how's the food, how's the parking, how's the beer?

[papsrus]

Vinoy Park is actually in St. Petersburg, right next to the pier downtown. It's not a huge park, but a nice setting on the waterfront. The waterfront area in general is pedestrian friendly, and St. Pete is more laid back than Tampa.

The park isn't hard to get to from Tampa. Just take I-275 to the Howard Frankland bridge that crosses Tampa Bay and the highway takes you right past downtown St. Pete.

I may head up there myself Sunday afternoon for the New Orleans blues lineup.

[Ed S]

Just back from the Tampa Bay Blues Festival.

Had a great time. My wife and I went all three days - though we did not see all of the bands every day. We were joined on two of the days by some of her family members who live in Tampa - which was nice.

The venue:

Basically a nice sized park on the waterfront surrounded by trees. Around the perimeter were tons of local food merchants plus the beer/wine/liquor kiosks. Beer was $5, wine was $6, liquor was $7. I got hooked on the Taco Bus Mexican food truck and also had a great pizza on Sunday from a portable wood fired pizza oven, of all things. They allowed chairs and there was an area towards the back of the spectator field that you could erect umbrellas and such. Having been stuck behind an umbrella more than once - that's a nice idea. You could stray from the the spectator field and head over to the sea wall - where you could sit and watch pelicans and dolphins - which I thought was pretty cool. There was also a section of vendors - some local, some not - selling jewelry, clothing, hats, and one selling the complete works of L Ron Hubbard along with a complimentary "stress test". I did not see those guys getting much business however.

The music:

In a word it was great. Friday I went to see Lucky Peterson - who hails from my home town Buffalo, NY. I also saw most of Rod Piazza and the Might Fliers - who were okay. The highlight of the day was Janiva Magness. She is terrific and the crowd loved her. Jim Alfredson just ripped it up on the keyboards. I was very impressed. It was also nice to say hi and finally meet Jim after the show. I skipped Dickey Betts who was the headliner of the night. I'd gotten up at 4 AM, spent the day in transit, then visiting my wife's father in a nursing home, the heading over to the hotel and then the Festival. I'm not the biggest Betts fan there is so we headed back to the hotel. More about that later.

Saturday, we got to the Festival a little later in the day. The third act of the day - Sugar Ray and the Bluetones were playing. For those who've been to festivals like this there are always guys you've never heard of before who leave a great impression. This was one of those acts. Highlight of the day, IMO. Another guy I never head of - Curtis Salgado was up next and they were pretty good. My wife really wanted to hear the headliner of the night - Jonny Lang. She picked up his first couple of albums years ago and became a fan - based on those. All I can say was that to me especially, but also to her - he was a huge disappointment. I actually thought the show was a mess. Lots of chops overlaid on crappy songs. Long periods of noodling around. Some of the songs were just so plodding that they were almost painful to listen to. Also - his spiritual awakening was a little too much in evidence for my taste - no offense intended. After 7 or so songs, we headed back to the hotel.

Sunday was fabulous. Started off with a nice lunch with my wife's brother and his girlfriend at an outdoor restaurant on Beach Ave, then headed over to the festival We then were treated to another one of those bands you've never heard of but were glad you did to start our day off - Walter Washington. Great stuff. Next up was the Royal Southern Brotherhood - one of my must sees at this festival. I stumbled on these guys last year at the Ottawa Blues Festival midway through their set and thought they were phenomenal. Hearing their full set this year confirmed that. Lots of really nice originals incorporating Blues, southern rock, soul, and a touch of New Orleans. They do a a killer version of Fire on the Mountain and also do great covers of One Way Out and Gimme Shelter. The band features Devon Allman, Cyrille Neville and Chuck Zito. If you dig the Allman Brothers - which I do - these guys can't miss. And they did not.

My absolute favorite of the Festival, though - was the last show I saw - Tab Benoit. Great, great, great show. Blues dripping with a Louisiana Bayou feel. The guy has a great voice and plays great as well. The music was a blast to listen to. About midway through the set he brought out Devon Allman, Cyrille Neville and Chuck Zito of the Royal Southern Brotherhood for one of those special moments that can only occur at live events like this. They played 3 or 4 songs that were phenomenal. For sure - a night to remember.

The hotel:

I wanted to stay close to the Festival and as I booked this fairly late in the game - so most of the "big guns" were booked solid. A TripAdvisor search led me to a boutique hotel about a 15-20 minute walk away from the Festival called the Hollander Hotel. Great place. It's older and oozing with atmosphere. Rooms were clean and decently sized. Bed very comfortable and flat panel TV.

They were certainly friendly and welcoming. Here's an example. They have a shuttle running to the Festival. It's an older gas golf cart. My wife and I were walking back from the Festival on Saturday around 10PM and they apparently recognized us, pulled over and asked us if we wanted a ride back to the hotel. Who recognizes people staying in your hotel these days?

The Lobby of the hotel was a beehive of activity. Really nicely decorated in a very eclectic fashion - sort of old world meets mid-century modern. There's a nice fireplace sitting area where we had some salsa and chips and our own wine on our last night. There's a huge porch with sitting areas as well as tables where we hung out on Saturday after the festival and, in the rest of the lobby - there's a bar area, dining area and lounge are with live music that was packed on Friday and Saturday. We ended up getting a few beers and hanging out each night as the atmosphere was great, they have 20-some beers on tap and live music. Can't say enough about the place.

Overall - good time. I've got regular trips to Tampa to visit my wife's father for the foreseeable future. I like to tie the visits in with hockey or baseball game. I'm thinking this Blues Festival could work as well for the next little while.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Ed Swinnich

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Great report, Ed. Made me feel good.

MG

[Jim Alfredson]

Ed, it was really wonderful to finally meet you in the flesh. Thank you for the kind words. We had a ball on that festival. Did I tell you I had to jerry-rig the Hammond during our brief set-up time? Had to do the same thing to another Hammond later that night at the after party. What is it with Florida and their Hammonds?

I'm glad you enjoyed Janiva.