Australian Blues & Roots Airplay Charts

Crossroads is the tent to be at today if you like your blues...especially if you like it with heavy lashings of electric guitar (a teenage boy’s wet dream) - Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, The Marcus King band, Chain, Eric Gales, The Legendary Buddy Guy and to round off the night, Joe Bonamassa. Who knows what collaborations will be dreamed up today!

We make it to the festival site after the challenge of our power and communications loss at home and head straight over for another of Christone “Kingfish” Ingram’s sets. Arriving at the Crossroads just a little past 2, our timing perfect  as he heads out into the audience right in front of us. Security guards didn’t seem to get the memo that this was going to happen until Christone with his manager in tow appear behind them. Kingfish is certainly playing in top form and the appreciative crowd continues to swell at each performance, certainly his mantle has grown since his inaugural performances at Bluesfest last year.

The Nikki Hill band on the Delta stage gave us the high energy set the band is known for and constantly deliver. The combo of Matt Hill with Laura Chavez (one time carer and guitarist with Candy Kane) duelling on guitars. Nikki Vincent Hill as always owned the stage with her high energy performance and prowling stage presence.

Back to the Crossroads tent for the sweet southern soul of The Marcus King Band in his last gig at the festival. Jam band Southern rock/soul is the band’s style and it was certainly a top notch, outstanding performance taking out our nomination for act of the day.

Chain is always a crowd favourite and again prove why they held the mantle of one of the premier Australian blues acts over the last fifty plus years. The band played last year without Matt Taylor but this year sees the four reunite on The Crossroads stage being the only Australian band to grace this stage today.

The large crowd that gathered in the Mojo to see Jackson Browne might have been just a little disappointed that he really focussed on delivering more recent tracks. What seemed a volume of single day attendees for double bill of Jackson & Buddy Guy’s last show seemed to swell numbers. Jackson’s voice still with its signature timbre & strength, playing many pieces on both electric and acoustic guitar, but also pulling up to the keyboard for a number of well known Jackson songs. He closed out the set with Running on Empty. Ably supported by some well known band members with Jason Crosby playing piano and violin as well as Greg Leisz on guitar and lap slide. There are plenty of artists, various hanger’s on & VIP’s in the pit to witness Jackson’s performance including Beck who has been sited backstage visiting a number of this evening’s acts.

Clarence Bekker is a performer par-excellence, giving us a fine soul/R’n’B set of wonderful selection of tunes. He is become a bit of a regular performer over the years here at Bluesfest and is joined on stage this year once again by Clayton Doley on keys and Davo Fester on percussion. Also in the band making his Bluesfest debut, is actor, singer, pianist and music director Eric Stang on second keys...when 88 is just not enough!

Buddy Guy at the tender age of 86 is the true legend & elder statesmen of Chicago Blues, he took his final bow at Bluesfest at this performance. Buddy dedicated the show to the audience in an emotional, heartfelt set. The opening track It Feels like Rain ensured maximum crowd participation which Buddy held in his grasp for the whole one-and-a-half hour set.

After his regular shtick of demonstrating the various playing styles of past guitar legends including Jimi, John Lee, and Jimmy Reed, he proceeds in covered many songs including Bobby Rush’s hit Chicken Heads & the Slim Harpo track, I’m a King Bee. After what was a pretty smooth opening three-quarters of an hour he is handed his next change of guitar but some irritating technical glitches rendered his signature polka dot Stratocaster guitar unplayable. Buddy maintained his cool as the consummate professional he is and did his walk out into the crowd where he ended up focussed on a couple of the younger kids in the audience and gave them a chance to get their hands on his guitar. Finished with Someone Else is Stepping In, handing over the mantle to the younger up-and-coming musicians. Did I see Kingfish sitting in the pit transfixed by Buddy’s final Australian tour gig? 

Joe Bonamassa threw everything at his set in a dizzy haze of jet lag, food poisoning recovery & true blues/rock passion to perform at Bluesfest. A full-tilt blues set heavy on guitar and ably backed by the talented 7 piece band including fellow blues guitar virtuoso Josh Smith and ex-Double Trouble SRV hall of fame keyboard player Reese Wynans. Also included in his band are long time Sydney-born backing vocalists, Jade MacRae and Danielle De Andrea.

Joined by Eric Gales, who’s recent album The Crown was produced by Bonamassa, for the finale of the night saw a trading lick for lick guitar extravaganza. Joe had also made an appearance earlier on the X-roads stage with Eric Gales last song, along with Marcus King and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. A day of guitar worshipers heaven!