Doña Oxford, 2 p.m.
If
you want to hear some of the best, most energetic boogie-woogie and
barrel-house blues piano around, make sure you get to the Fest site
early on Sunday for Doña Oxford. As Blues
Revue says, her work on the
ivories is "stunning."
Perhaps best recognized as the former keyboardist for Shemekia Copeland, Doña has also performed with Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Levon Helm, Hubert Sumlin, Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks, Sam Lay, Kenny Neal, Willie Kent, Syl Johnson, Jimmy Johnson, Bernard Allison, and her idol: Johnnie Johnson, the father of rock-and-roll piano.
Born into a musical family in New York City, by age seven Doña was performing publicly. As a teenager she developed a love for musical theater and began acting and singing in regional and off-Broadway plays. She studied drama at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.
Doña acquired a love of the blues when she worked as a waitress at the legendary Lone Star Café in New York City, and soon she was sitting in at open-mic nights. There she met veteran guitarist Arthur Neilson, and the two formed a band called Oxford Blues, which played throughout the Northeast. Eventually she was recruited by Shemekia and with her toured all over the world, where Doña's amazing keyboard playing and vocals wowed fans in Europe, Japan, Canada, and the U.S.
Doña now calls Chicago home, and she continues to impress audiences worldwide with her double-fisted, high-energy performance. This set will be a great way to start the party on Sunday!
- Karen McFarland
For more information, visit (http://www.Donaoxford.com).
Tom Principato, 4 p.m.
Ted
Dames of BluesWax
said, "Tom Principato remains one of America's most gifted
guitarists. ... Be careful, or he could easily topple one of your
current guitar heroes from their lofty pedestal." Bob Margolin said
in Blues Revue,
"If you've never heard him, Tom Principato is a more amazing
guitar player than you can imagine."
Principato has spent the past 40-plus years as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter based in Washington, D.C. In the 1970s, Tom was the leader of the band Powerhouse, an East Coast phenomenon that released one album to critical acclaim. He also played one year with Geoff Muldaur. Other artists he's played for include Billy Price, Big Mama Thornton, Johnny Adams, Sunnyland Slim, and the Assassins with Jimmy Thackery.
In 1984, Tom began a solo career that includes his recording 11 solo albums as well as two collaborations, one of which is the live release Blazing Telecasters (1990) with legendary guitarist Danny Gatton. Tom's Anniversary CD, a career retrospective, received a four-star review from Down Beat, the only blues album so honored in 2005.
Of his latest release, Guitar Gumbo, BluesWax said, "Nobody imposes his will over the wild Telecaster quite like Tom Principato." Tom has endorsement agreements with Fender and Roger Mayer effects pedals (which made electronic gadgets for Hendrix).
All this seems dry when compared with the slack-jawed experience of hearing Tom Principato live. So here's one more quote, from Layla Ferrante of The Musicians Exchange: "What impressed me most about Tom's performance was the level of emotion his guitar playing and singing were infused with. 'Virtuoso' is a word too easily applied to the undeserving these days, but it's a word that fits this guitar master perfectly."
Tom Principato will also present a workshop at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
- Karen McFarland
For more information, visit (http://www.tomprincipato.com).
Ruby Wilson, 6 p.m.
"Bobby
'Blue' Bland has it. Z.Z. Hill had it, as did the Reverend
Franklin, Aretha's dad, and Rufus Thomas was a master of it. Well,
Ruby Wilson has it, too, and a lot more." - Big
City Rhythm & Blues
"It" is a set of powerful pipes that Ruby Wilson uses to transmit a raw energy steeped in blues, R&B, and gospel. The undisputed Queen of Beale Street, when she's in Memphis, she's usually holding court at B.B. King's. But Ruby Wilson is a Memphis legend who has also taken the Delta blues and her emotional, unforgettable voice worldwide.
Ruby has recorded more than 10 albums and performed with such stars as B.B. King, Ray Charles, The Four Tops, Jerry Butler, Willie Nelson, and Isaac Hayes. She's also an accomplished actress, with roles in movies including Cookie's Fortune and Black Snake Moan. Her 2005 album, Show You a Good Time, received national acclaim and soared up the blues charts.
Ruby Wilson is one of the most dynamic and soulful entertainers you will ever see. With a first-rate band and the charisma that has charmed thousands around the world, Ruby Wilson turns mere songs into events. Don't miss her set!
- Karen McFarland
Little Charlie & the Nightcats, 8 p.m.
"Little
Charlie and the Nightcats take a healthy dose of blues and make it
shimmy and shake with hip jazz and rolling retro-rock riffs
punctuated with sizzling guitar and harp solos," notes the New
York Post. The Chicago
Sun-Times says, "It's
tough for fans to stay in their seats when Estrin and Baty and their
musical cohorts get cooking."
If you're unfamiliar with guitarist Little Charlie Baty and Rick Estrin on harmonica, I guarantee that you'll have become a fan by the time they finish their set. "Little Charlie Baty plays as much guitar as Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy put together," raves the Village Voice. "He is one of the swiftest, most fluent guitarists working in any genre." As for Estrin, he "sings and writes songs like the brightest wise guy in all bluesland and blows harmonica as if he learned at the knee of Little Walter," according to Down Beat.
Little Walter Jacobs, Muddy's harp player, was also an early influence on Charlie Baty. When he met Estrin more than 30 years ago, Baty was the harmonica player in his own band, named after Little Walter & the Nightcats. But soon Baty learned to play the guitar "fills" he heard behind his harp heroes, and he went on from there. He and Estrin take Chicago blues, jump, Texas swing, and jazz and mix it with rockabilly and bebop to create a sound one critic described as "Charlie Christian playing in Little Walter's Band."
Baty and Estrin are joined by J. Hansen on drums and Lorenzo Farrell on bass. And if you think all these quotes are exaggerations, just wait until the Nightcats pounce on your musical soul!
- Karen McFarland
For more information, visit (http://www.littlecharlie.net).
