Monkey around

MonkeyJunk have been having a charming 2010, haven't they? They scooped up an armload of prizes at this years Maple Blues Awards, and picked up a couple more at the Canadian Independent Music Awards and the 2010 Blues Music Awards in Memphis. It's a credit to the vast experience of guitarists Tony D and Steve Marriner and drummer Matt Sobb. And of course it wouldn't be a Bluesfest without a performance from some Tony D-related act, so here they are!

Steve Marriner gets down on the harp.



Tony D slides along.



Steve sings!



Tony D switches to the semihollow.



Matt Sobb and the backs of some audience members.



Bring the kids to work action!



More Steve and Matt!



More Steve!



More Matt!



The whole lot!



Guitar action!



Grimacing action!



They're still on tour, hitting the last few Bluesfests.

• Show reminder: New Teeth, The Gallop and Pruf Rock are at The Rainbow; Ceremonial, Insides Out, and Deformatory get nasty at Cafe Dekcuf; Wax Mannequin, The Kettle Black, Ship Shapes and Mike And The Valentines are at the Clock Tower, which I hear is trying to put a few more shows on.

Near and far

Day 2 at Ottawa Bluesfest meant even more brutal heat, but this time I made sure to drink more and keep the hat on until the sun went down. The umbrella I brought in case of rain helped as well. I arived a little bit later than planned. Once again the line to get in was a snap. I caught a flicker of two bands ... the first was Bluestone, who I heard sounding quite rocking as I cycled along the bikepath,. They were wrapping things up by the time I got my camera out.

The Gipsy Kings, who I took a few photos of from the distance. They had a huge crowd for their timeslot. Ming Wu noted over at his blog that they probably should have been booked for 9 p.m. instead.


Gipsy Kings at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 7, 2010

Jonas & The Massive Attraction hail from Montreal. They lack that big swaggering rock'n'roll that was au courant when The Cult were big. It's a tad cheesy but give Jonas credit for knowing his job as a frontman. Corey Diabo is no slouch as a guitarist either. I would like to point out that I officially hate Virgin Radio's stupid ball(s). I swear it has it in for me ...


Jonas & The Massive Attraction at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 7, 2010

I figured I'd got the drift of Jonas and Co. after a half hours, so I went over to see what MonkeyJunk were sounding like. They're definitely a band for the original Bluesfest crowd. They'll be playing Bluesfest again July 16, and The Rainbow on July 10. They're also playing a heap of other Bluesfests this summer.


MonkeyJunk at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 7, 2010

I wandered about a bit, first to take a gander at the Black Sheep Tent (don't count on much reporting from there, they're pretty clear about the no-cameras allowed rule ... Edit, according to Jeremy they're pretty lax about it during non-comedy shows. I will have to inquire further). It's a pity, since the Black Sheep Stage was the nicest one, for my money. Anyway, I also snapped some even more distant photos of Furthur, the project of Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. I didn't stick around since they weren't really my kind of thing.


Furthur at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 7, 2010

Finally I camped out at the Subway Stage for a few minutes. I wanted a good seat for reggae legends Steel Pulse. They've been going at it in one form or another since forming in Birmingham back in 1975. Their set wasn't quite up to the level of Toots and The Maytals last year, but was still mighty groovy. I think the amount of low end might have loosened a tooth or two.

David "Dread" Hinds. I'm not sure where he got his nickname from.


Steel Pulse at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 7, 2010

Hinds rocks the dreads, along with Selwyn "Bumbo" Brown and a vocalist who I think is Juris Prosper.


Steel Pulse at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 7, 2010

Guitarist Donovan McKitty gets some spacey sounds out of his Carvin.


Steel Pulse at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 7, 2010

A great set; Selwyn and bassist Amlak Tafari were nice enough to come out and shake hands with the crowd members afterward.

From New York to The Netherlands

Though there are only two originals Dolls, the foursome Sylvain Sylvain and David Johansen have drafted to fill the places of Johnny Thunders, Killer Kane and Jerry Nolan - namely guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks, drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin - all did a super job. It was a little strange to think of The New York Dolls striding the Main Stage at any festival, with a huge light show and thousands of people singing along, but we live in strange times. The band obviously enjoys playing together, which made it all the more enjoyable.
Earlier in the day I popped in to watch Daniella Cotton, who capped her main set with versions of Red House and AC/DC's Back in Black. She put a lot of rock in her blues.
I caught a few songs from Tena Palmer (of Chelsea Bridge fame). Since she once lived in the Netherlands and sang a song composed while on a freighter between Reykjavik and Rotterdam, my lame post title is therefore justified. Honest.
I witnessed some of Parisian Keren-Ann's set. "I did not know playing in Ottawa was like a sauna!" She was good, but I cut my stay short to head home for a bite to eat so I could get back in time for Calexico. Last time they played Ottawa, I was in Nelson, B.C. I swore I'd catch them this time, and so I did. Unfortunately, the band's set was bifurcated by some overenthusiastic weather. Though distant lightning forced a shutdown after a half-dozen tunes, the break was brief and they returned to give everyone their money's worth.
Then, after 45 minutes to set up, The New York Dolls came on and knocked everyone out.

And now for some of Friday's highlights; first American (not Irish as I thought) singer-songwriter Josh Ritter.



Here's a picture of his organist - Sam Kassirer, I believe.



I left before the end of his show because I wanted to get a good spot for Martha Wainright's set, which came with the added benefit of a hot set from Tony D (who also plays the ADCN Stage Sunday at 4:45 p.m). Here's Tony - "I want to be B.B. King when I grow up."



Saxophonist Zeek Gross was in excellent form.



Most of the band (sorry, Matt Sobb once again gets the short end of the drum stick); Sean Burke on bass.



After that, it was Martha Wainright's turn. I confess, part of what made her latest CD one of my favourites of the year was its luscious 1970s production - not something easily replicated on stage. That said, I was more than satisfied. Her voice is great live - so cutting and "real."



Incredibly enough, keyboardist Tom Mennier and drummer Tony Mason are not brothers.



Bassist Brad Albetta - also responsible for some of the guitar and much of the production on her album.



You can just make out backing vocalist Lily Lankin at right.



She was originally scheduled to play an earlier slot - the Bluesfest folks certainly did the right thing by bumping her up to headlining status. I also enjoyed her covers of Cole Porter and Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song, even if the latter has been aired a few times too often.

Shocking Blue

Wednesday's Bluesfest schedule ended with not a whimper but a bang as a thunderstorm moved in about 9 p.m. and forced various performers to pull the plug part way through their sets. I did manage to catch C.R. Avery, who sounded really excellent, Garrett Mason, part of The String Cheese Incident (the third stupidest name in musical history, after The Rainbow Butt Monkeys and Phil Collins) and Dutch Mason.
The Prime Minister of the Blues sounded in good voice, though due to poor health he performs in a wheelchair. The String Cheese Incident were somewhat tantalizing, but I couldn't really pass up an opportunity to see Mason since future performances are, shall we say, likely to be scarce.
Son Garrett's sharp suit belied a dirtier-than-his years blues sound. C.R. Avery 's human beatbox schtick had a cool hard rock edge live, thanks in part to Ottawa's Brian Simms on guitar (if memory serves, I caught him last playing bass with Janice Hall).
It's a shame to miss John Mayall, but such is life.
And now, a few pictures from David Gogo's Tuesday show.

Gogo goes wah-wah.



And is joined on stage by local blues guy Tony D; the lady is Becky Abbott.



For some reason a disproportionate number of my pictures from this show were of Abbott instead of Gogo. Funny, that. This was also the first time I used my new 210 mm telephoto lens. Next time: More flash.