Baton Rouge Blues Fest performers keep coming back for more. Nineteen of this year’s performers have previously played at the festival, including local favorite Kenny Neal, whose regular set with the Neal family (and a plethora of guests) has become a festival highlight.
The festival’s 24th iteration features a stellar lineup of local, national and international talent across five stages.
Headliner Mavis Staples will surely attract a big crowd at Repentance Park to close out the first night. Though she’s had a long career, she seems to be reaching new audiences with her most recent albums, making socially conscious songs with a variety of indie musicians like Benjamin Booker and Jeff Tweedy. Here are just a few of the festival’s highlights.
THE MAIN EVENT
Mavis Staples April 14, 8:15 p.m.
Bridging gospel, soul, funk and pop, Mavis Staples is the marquee name for the 2018 festival.
In the 1970s, the Staples Singers, a family group led by Staples’ father, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, crossed over from gospel to pop and rhythm-and-blues stardom. The quartet’s dozen hits at Memphis’ Stax Records include “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom),” “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself.”
This year is the 70th anniversary of Staples’ debut at Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Chicago. Now 78, she continues singing truth to power. In November, Staples released If All I Was Was Black, her third collaboration with producer and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy envisioned the album as a collection of topical songs.
“You can’t stop me,” Staples says in a press release. “You can’t break me. I’m too loving. These songs are going to change the world.”
MORE PERFORMERS NOT TO MISS
Lazy Lester April 14, 2 p.m. At 84, Leslie Johnson, better known as Lazy Lester, is the living embodiment of south Louisiana’s indigenous swamp blues. Working as a session player at J.D. Miller’s studio in Crowley in the 1950s and ’70s, Johnson made major contributions to the swamp blues discography. He recorded his own classics “Sugar Coated Love” and “I Hear You Knockin’” at the studio, and he has backed swamp blues stars Slim Harpo and Lightnin’ Slim.
The James Hunter Six April 14, 6:35 p.m. James Hunter is bringing blues from Brighton, England, to Baton Rouge. A Grammy-nominated blues and soul singer-songwriter, he’s the first British artist to sign with New York City’s Daptone Records (which supported the late greats Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley). In February, Daptone released Hunter’s sixth album, Whatever It Takes.
Hunter made his professional debut at 22 at the Colchester Labour Club in his native Essex. In the early 1990s, he sang backup for Van Morrison. He later opened shows for Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Willie Nelson and Tom Petty. In 2016, Mojo magazine dubbed Hunter “the United Kingdom’s greatest soul singer.”
Samantha Fish April 15, 8:15 p.m. In November, Germany’s Ruf Records released Samantha Fish’s fifth album, Belle of the West. It was the second album she released in 2017, following the March release of Chills & Fever.
Fish grew up with a music-loving father in Kansas City, Missouri. Daughter and dad attended shows together at Knuckleheads, a local music venue that presented blues, rock, country and Americana music.
Fish played drums in her early teens. Switching to guitar at 15, she developed a twin passion for singing and songwriting. “This is who I am and this is what I do,” says Fish, who has lived in New Orleans since last year, in a press release. “Writing and recording and touring is when I feel the most like myself. Now we have a moment when people are paying attention, so I have to make the most of it.”
5 REASONS TO GO
1. Join the crowds to see the legendary Mavis Staples headline the first night.
2. Support local musicians like Kenny Neal and Chris Thomas King, who have become fixtures of the festival and often turn their sets into family reunions on stage.
3. Check out intimate performances and interviews with some of the headlining musicians at the Blues Backstory Stage.
4. Take the kids to the lawn of the Old State Capitol for tons of activities.
5. Visit local and regional vendors at the arts market.
THE BASICS
Baton Rouge Blues Festival April 14-15
Five stages in and around Repentance Park and Galvez Plaza
Free batonrougebluesfestival.org
OTHER EVENTS BLUES FEST WEEK
April 12: Preserve Louisiana, The Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, Dialogue on Race and Forum 35 host a “Blues Lagniappe” panel on the history of blues in Louisiana, followed by drinks and music from Harvey Knox & Friends. Free. 6-9 p.m. preserve-louisiana.org
April 13: The annual “Rent Party” kicks off the Blues Fest weekend at 8 p.m. (after Live After Five) on the Commerce Building rooftop with music from Lane Mack. Visit the Blues Fest website for ticket info.
Read more about other festivals going on this month.
This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.
