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With Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Neko Case, Marianne Faithfull, Earl Scruggs, Booker T & The Drive-By Truckers, The Duhks, Natalie MacMaster, Alison Moorer, Dar Williams

Photography by David Simchook

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Pictured: Wallace Coleman, Shenekia Copeland, Rosie Ledet & The Zydeco Playboys, Mavi Staples, Magic Slim & The Teardrops, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, Lil' Dave Thompson, Johnny Rawls, Guy Davis, Elvin Bishop

The first annual Vermont Blues Festival is now in the books, and even though the weather did not cooperate, blues lovers from all over the region had a weekend to remember at the Mount Snow resort in southern Vermont.

On the opening evening, festival-goers were treated to a soul food buffet followed by an evening of soulful music under the event's Bud Light Tent. It turned out we spent more of the weekend than planned under the tent, as the rain was relentless throughout Saturday and into Sunday. When all was said and done, the only act that performed as planned on the Dover Main Stage was Saturday's opener, Johnny Rawls.

With ticket prices at close to half what Reggae on the River once charged and a lineup to fill almost two festivals, one could have been a little skeptical about this year's Reggae Rising Music Festival. But the sold-out 4th annual Reggae Rising Music Festival, which ran July 30-August 4 on Dimock’s Ranch in beautiful southern Humboldt County CA, delivered everything it promised and more—musical abundance, great weather and well organized festival logistics.

Luciano, Capleton, DeMarco, Freddie McGregor, Aswad, Chezidek and many more of reggae's biggest acts all impressed, but it was a handful of reggae's female artists who stole the weekend. In an industry dominated by men, the women of the weekend shone.

The trend began on Friday with burgeoning reggae heavyweight, Jamaica's Queen Ifrica. All I can say is that her mentor Tony Rebel had better be careful his protege doesn't soon upstage him. On Saturday, it was roots singer Dezarie, out of the U.S. Virgin Islands, backed by members of the Midnite Band and exemplifying that region's slow, heavy sound, that most caught my ear. This was clearly message music, not just entertainment.

Photo: Marcia Griffiths

 

Wow, did that just happen?

As the audience at Fort Adams State Park was reminded more than once over the weekend, as recently as six months ago it was by no means clear that there would be a folk festival in Newport this year. (Or a jazz festival either, for that matter, but that’s another story.) That there was one is pretty miraculous in itself; that it was a resounding success in both artistic and financial terms almost defies belief.

But I know it happened, because I was there.

If I believed in this sort of thing, I would be tempted to say that God (or the gods) gave the festival a big thumbs-up on Saturday, when the weather, after a week of very iffy forecasts, turned out to be almost perfect: a trifle hot for my taste, but sunny and clear. Sunday was a different story, with clouds and fog all day, but even then the weather was a lot more cooperative than it might have been: it didn’t start to rain until the festival was almost over.