Deep Blues Festival at Lake Elmo

Subject: Deep Blues Festival at Lake Elmo
From: Tweed
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 10:06 AM

Chris Johnson, who is a regular over at Calls Responses and Field Hollars, has his lineup complete for his second annual Deep Blues Festival. The St.Paul MN paper ran this story recently:


Turns Out Singing The Blues Makes Even More Folks Happy
By ROSS RAIHALA


Last summer, Chris Johnson founded the Deep Blues Festival because no one else was giving the music he loved enough attention.

Turns out Johnson's not the only one who digs deep blues, a catch-all term encompassing acts that take a more punk-inspired approach to the venerable genre. The festival was such a hit that not only is Johnson bringing it back for a sophomore outing but he's also expanding it.

Deep Blues is moving from a golf course across the border in Wisconsin to the Washington County Fairgrounds near Lake Elmo. And this year, it will include a whopping 45 bands over three days, July 18-20, as well as a film festival.

Scott H. Biram, Left Lane Cruiser and John Schooley will return from the first year and perform alongside International Blues Competition winner Richard Johnston, Th' Legendary Shack* Shakers, Bob Log III and the Black Diamond Heavies. It will be an international event this time, too, with acts from Canada (the Pack A.D.), the U.K. (Honkeyfinger and Mudlow) and Italy (Black Smokers) making the trip to Minnesota. And like last year, Johnson is encouraging bands to book other local club gigs while they're in the area - a rare move, as many festivals typically require exclusivity on the lineup.

Tickets will go on sale Thursday. For more details, see Deep BluesFestival which will also lead folks to the event's MySpace page with links to sample all 45 acts.

From Pioneer News

Aslo, Click here to view this year's Deep Blues Festival poster.

Tweed

Subject: RE: Deep Blues Festival at Lake Elmo
From: Tweed
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 11:01 AM

Just a refresh for more coverage before it's gone forever.

A word of caution to any folkys who might go to this thinking that it is a MJH type blues festival. These bands are mostly not MJH, and ain't exactly modernage either. They verge on punk/prewar/primitive traditional sorta blues and I believe it may take the genre to a less slick and formulaic direction than the way it has progressed lately with the S.O.S(same old shit)bluesrock that has reigned in blues bars for the last 20 or thirty years.

It'll be a fun, loud and outrageous weekend with a bunch of fun, loud and outrageous musicians.
Enough for now. I'll let this drift down a couple more times before it falls into the Mudcat Arms' sub-basement.

Tweed

Subject: RE: Deep Blues Festival at Lake Elmo
From: Tweed
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 09:45 AM

Got a press release on this Festival last nite. Here's some of it.


WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT DEEP BLUES ARTISTS:

"Richard Johnston.....continues to pick up international awards and
accolades in the media, carving a notch in his diddley-bow every time
another writer calls him 'the most promising young blues musician of
our time.'" Tara Nurin - American Magazine

"Scott H. Biram is definitely one of today's real rebel country
musician." --Hybrid Magazine

"...a harmonica player that I swear is the reincarnation of Slim Harpo
and his name is Col. J.D. Wilkes (Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers) and he
plays like no one else" -Andy Grigg, Real Blues Magazine

"Left Lane Cruiser hit the crowd like a shockwave... Mashed potatoes
and whiskey fuel this two-man frenzy of blues-driven noise. Slide
guitar, distorted vocals, a big-ass bass drum, all come together to
form one footstomping good time." - CDbaby.com

"Both on record and in live performance, Ted Drozdowski (Scissormen)
is a guitarist of spellbinding invention and intelligence. His slide
playing shears the skin off your bones, and he can unleash roaring
gales of sound. But lyricism and musicality lie at the heart of even
his wildest moments. I have never listened to him and not been
transported to a strange, beautiful place I'd never been before."-
Anthony DeCurtis, Executive Editor, Tracks, Contributing Editor,
Rolling Stone

"Fans of Fat Possum, the peerless primal modern blues and rock label
responsible for introducing the world to Junior Kimbrough and R.L.
Burnside among others, should take note of an excellent band making
Fat Possum-ready noise on the East Side, the Black Diamond Heavies."-
Nashville Rage

(Black-Eyed Snakes) "Primitive blues turned into evil boogie, heavy on
the distortion." - Douglas Wolk, Blender

"...Mercifully, Hillstomp is all undomesticated talent, not a stunt.
Johnson made those pickle buckets sing. Guitarist-vocalist Henry
Kammerer slapped his guitar like he mistook it for Big Mama Thornton's
ass...." - The Georgia Straight (review of first show in Canada)

"...Charlie Parr captures the intense sound of the folk music of
America's frozen north. His raw voice, lightning finger picking and
plaintive but wry songs have made him one of the most important
contemporary protagonists of the American folk tradition." - Bath
International Music Festival

"To truly understand the phenomenon that is Log, one must attend one
of his live shows, slightly surreal, must be seen-to-be-believed
experiences where Log plays the guitar like the salvation of his soul
depends on it, his face hidden under a requisite helmet. Log claims
the helmet serves the dual purposes of housing a mic for his vocals
("If I fall over I can still play guitar and sing," he explains) and
obscuring his face form the girl he's hiding from (It's like a
security barricade")." - Uptown

"(T-Model)Ford plays in the loose, "front porch" blues style of the
early 20th century. He performs seated, grinding out fuzzy guitar
riffs, stamping on the floor, and moaning words that defy formal
language." - Andrew Perry, Telegraph UK

Subject: RE: Deep Blues Festival at Lake Elmo
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 11:57 AM

Keep on refreshin', Tweed. July 18-20 is still a ways off! Maybe once a month or so will be about right.

I love the music of John Hurt, and maybe this will be the year I finally make it up to the MJH museum for their 4th-of-July festival.

But I also love me some electric blues, and I'm sure I'd enjoy most of those Deep Blues acts, maybe even all of 'em. Don't think I'll be traveling all the way from the bottom end of the Mississippi up to the top come July, but you never know.

Subject: RE: Deep Blues Festival at Lake Elmo
From: Tweed
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 04:50 PM

Thanks Poppa. I am gonna keep popping this thing up every now and then, as no doubt someone's very life and essential spirit will be completely changed if they read this thread and end up going to Lake Elmo. $45 bucks for 45 acts. That's only $1.00 per set, an amazing bargain in these inflated times!

Subject: RE: Deep Blues Festival at Lake Elmo
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Dec 08 - 07:20 PM

2009:

Our dates and venue for the 2009 Deep Blues Festival have been set.

The fest will be Wednesday July 15th through Sunday July 19th. The Weds evening show will be at the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis and the rest of the events will be at the Cabooze on the west bank.

Advance ticket sales are available now. Our budget for the bands is based on these presales, so please support the fest and help us bring in as many bands as possible. We'll announce the lineup in March.

Check our websites for additional information, paypal links to purchase tickets and updates.

www.deepbluesfestival.com

www.myspace.com/deepbluesfestival

Hope you'll join us.
Chris