Blues legends will share the stages with younger, up-and-coming artists—proving the Capital City’s future in music is just as exciting as its past.
The Baton RougeBlues Festivalcaught a big fish this year. Buddy Guy, the festival’s Saturday night headliner, is a seven-time Grammy winner, 2015 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Kennedy Center and Presidential National Medal of Arts honoree.
Guy’s presence at the Blues Festival also resonates because he’s a Pointe Coupee Parish native who lived in Baton Rouge before his career-making move to Chicago in 1957. Known for his explosive guitar virtuosity and impassioned singing, the 79-year-old blues star recently fulfilled a long-held dream by moving home to Baton Rouge.
The Baton Rouge Blues Foundation’s festival committee began courting Guy, festival chair Chris Brooks says, following the even-bigger-than-expected response to 2014’s headliner, New Orleans’ Dr. John. “So we wanted to get another one of the major Louisiana acts,” Brooks says.
Luckily, Guy’s busy touring schedule aligned with this year’s festival dates, says programming chair John Kaufman. Sitting today with Brooks in a Manship Theatre conference room, Kaufman says, “We couldn’t be happier. He’s as big as it gets in the blues world, he’s from here, and people get to see him for free.”
Guy will join other local pillars of the blues, such as Henry Gray, James Johnson and Kenny Neal. The 39 acts at the 2016 Blues Festival—which expands to two days this year—also will include Southern soul singer Latimore, swampy, on-the-rise country singer Adia Victoria and classic New Orleans R&B singer-guitarist Walter “Wolfman” Washington.
While there’s more than blues at the Blues Festival, its roots are a common thread that binds the lineup, Kaufman says. Kenny Neal, the internationally touring Baton Rouge blues artist who—like Guy—recently moved back to Baton Rouge, enthusiastically agrees.
“When it all boils down, it’s still the blues,” Neal says. “The music, if it’s good, man, bring it on.”
David Jones II, singer-guitarist with one of the younger bands on the schedule, Honeyvibe, is thrilled about sharing the bill with the likes of Guy, Neal and Lazy Lester.
In addition to music, old cars are another of Kenny Neal’s passions.
“These musicians are legendary,” Jones says. “They’ve traveled the world a thousand times over. Kenny Neal is in the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Buddy Guy is one of the great blues artists of all time. So for this festival to happen in the place where I grew up, it’s always special.”
The lineup also features gospel music at the Soul of Baton Rouge Stage and local singer-songwriters on the Front Porch Stage. The singer-songwriter community in Baton Rouge has grown tremendously in recent years, Brooks says. “And I’ve been floored by how big the gospel community here is,” he adds.
The festival’s expansion to two days this year is a bold leap. It’s the first time the festival has spanned a full weekend since 1994, but organizers believe the move could help the Blues Festival become a destination event. “[It will] get the hotel rooms booked, see people traveling to celebrate the blues,” Brooks says.
“People want two days,” Kaufman adds. “People who go to festivals plan their vacations around them.” The festival committee’s increased confidence and resources, as well as marquee headliner Guy, further spurred the expansion.
“This is the right year,” Kaufman says.
A blues revival
The first Baton Rouge Blues Festival happened on May 3, 1981, at Scott’s Bluff on the campus of Southern University.
The River City Blues Festival, as it was then called, starred Baton Rouge’s indigenous swamp blues artists “Rockin’ Tabby” Thomas, Moses “Whisperin’ ” Smith, Raful Neal and the Neal Brothers, Silas Hogan and Arthur “Guitar” Kelly. Even at the first festival, the lineup featured more than blues, in the form of flamboyant New Orleans R&B singer Ernie K-Doe, famous for his 1961 hit “Mother-In-Law.”
Judged a big success in its first year, the festival returned to Scott’s Bluff in 1982. Thomas and Whisperin’ Smith performed again. Baton Rouge singer-pianist Henry Gray, a Chicago resident for years, made his River City Blues Festival debut that year. John Delafose and the Eunice Playboys became the first zydeco band to play the event.
(Photo by Paul Natkin)
“When I went to London for the first time in 1965, I met Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck, and they told me they had no idea they could play the blues with a Strat—which was more like a country and western guitar at that time—and seeing me play the Strat real wild like I did just turned them right around. It was just me playing what I had learned to play off Muddy and everybody else before me, but it really floored them back then. A few years later they all got famous [and] started saying things like, ‘I wouldn’t have played the blues without Buddy Guy.’ I guess I was in the middle of making history and didn’t really know it. That’s a blessing right there.”
—Buddy Guy, in a 2013 interview with 225
In 1983, the festival moved from Southern University to the Old State Capitol grounds. Attendance swelled from 4,000 to an estimated 12,000. The performers included Kenny Neal, son of classic swamp blues artist Raful Neal, making his River City Blues Festival debut.
“We were reviving the blues,” Neal says today. “All the old blues musicians and the fans were so excited that we were having a blues festival. I knew we were on to something.”
The festival had funding support from the Louisiana State Arts Council and the Baton Rouge Chapter of Links, Inc., respectively in its first two years, but the free event experienced financial struggles for much of the rest of the 1980s. The Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau assumed control in 1990. After the 1994 festival, a paid-admission event held on River Road below the Old State Capitol, the CVB declined to fund the event in 1995.
While Louisiana festivals of all kinds flourished, Baton Rouge lost its signature music event.
“It was like taking our baby away from us,” Neal remembers. “It felt like it was going to die out again. That was the scary part for me. We want to keep this thing alive, keep the blues alive.”
Following a 12-year hiatus, the Blues Festival returned in 2008.
“The festival was really missed,” singer Luther Kent said at the press conference that announced the revival. “It’s ridiculous that we haven’t had it in a long time.”
Local music business veteran Johnny Palazzotto, then-president of the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, seconded Kent.
“These musicians from Baton Rouge travel the world promoting Baton Rouge and blues music,” Palazzotto said. “So it’s time for the festival to come back.”
David Jones II of Honeyvibe, one of the festival’s younger acts.
The 2008 festival lineup reflected Baton Rouge’s swamp blues heritage: Neal, Kent, Lazy Lester, Larry Garner, Rudy Richard, James Johnson and Tab Benoit—the Houma singer-guitarist schooled at Tabby’s Blues Box and Heritage Hall.
Although the 2008 festival drew a disappointing 6,000 attendees, Mayor Kip Holden, a blues fan, pledged it would not go away again.
“I can’t tell you how many people came up to me and said, ‘Thank you for bringing this back,’” Holden said.
A bright future—rain or shine
In 2014, the Blues Festival drew an estimated 30,000 attendees. In 2015, attendance dropped to 12,000 when rain forced the event into the River Center. This year, Brooks pledges, it will stay outside, rain or shine.
The evolving festival appears to be here to stay. But how does it fit into the already-rich medley of Louisiana festivals? Brooks ponders the question often.
“South Louisiana offers an awesome range of music festivals in April and May,” he says. “Many Europeans take a holiday for a month, come down to south Louisiana and have a different experience in a different city every weekend. So I’d like to see all of these festivals working together rather than competing.”
“Logistically,” the upbeat Kaufman says, “we’re positioned in a good place, between Lafayette and New Orleans. And we have a fantastic festival where you can see Buddy Guy and an up-and-coming artist like Adia Victoria.”
Another attraction, specific to Baton Rouge, Kaufman says, is the city’s swamp blues legacy. The 2016 lineup includes surviving swamp blues artists Lazy Lester and James Johnson plus Kenny Neal and the Neal Family performing a tribute to their late patriarch, Raful Neal.
“So many legends came from right here in our area,” Kenny Neal says, “so this should be a major area for tourists coming to see what we have to offer.”
Kaufman adds, “It’s really important to get all of those swamp blues guys back every year. As long as those people are with us, we want to give back to them, because we appreciate and respect them. Without them, this festival wouldn’t exist.”
Neal agrees. “Henry Gray, Lazy Lester and James Johnson,” he says, “they should have a contract for the rest of their lives. They are part of what made our music.”
WHEN: 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Saturday, April 9 and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, April 10 WHERE: Two main stages at Repentance Park and Galvez Plaza, additional stages along North Boulevard ADMISSION: Free VIP TICKETS: $125
THE LINEUP
SATURDAY, APRIL 9
Buddy Guy • Latimore • Curtis Harding • Walter “Wolfman” Washington & the Roadmasters • The Reverend Peyton with Jimbo Mathus and Charlie Parr • Kent Burnside • Henry Gray • James “Chicken Scratch” Johnson • Quinn Sullivan • Smokehouse Porter, Miss Mamie & the Gutbucket Blues Band • Delta Saints • Luke Winslow King • Henry Turner and Flavor • Mz Pat • Sundanze Howie • Honeyvibe • OMT • Mighty Fine • Palomino Darling • The Rakers • Cliff & Company • Baton Rouge Music Studios
SUNDAY, APRIL 10
Kenny Neal & the Neal Family performing an 80th Birthday Tribute to Raful Neal • The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band • Gregg Wright • Adia Victoria • Leo “Bud” Welch • Lil Ray Neal • Chris LeBlanc Band featuring Luther Kent • Elvin Killerbee • The Banditos • Loudness War • Tank and the Bangas • Michael Juan Nunez • Café Au Lait • The Bedlamville Triflers • Southern Wonders • Lighthouse Singers • Danny Kane
