Famous Daves Blues Fest

On Saturday June 12 I went to Peavey Plaza in downtown to go the 6th annual Famous Dave’s BBQ & Blues Festival to see Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and guitar shorty.It had been raining the whole day but it did not rain during the concert which was a good thing. The cool thing was that Pinetop Perkins was 96 years old and it was his 97th birthday so they brought a cake on stage and we all sang happy birthday it was lots of fun. Then after the show I went to get autographs from the blues legends. There was a line to see Perkins. when I got there he signed a pamphlet I picked up from the Minnesota Blues Foundation. Then I saw Sumlin off to the side and I asked him to sign and he did. I told what an honor it was to meet him and then I thanked him and left. Then about 5 minutes later I went over to Willie "Big Eyes" to get his autograph I said to him that it was an honor to meet him and he signed the pamphlet. Then I went back to ware my mom was sitting so I could get ready for the next act which was Guitar Shorty. Shorty came out on stage and then played for a little bit. Then he came down off the stage and walked through the crowd well playing and I followed him for a little bit with my mom's blackberry. I picked up one his guitar picks that I found on the ground. Then he went back on stage and he played a cover of Jimmi Hendrix's classic song Hey Joe which was good. Then after that we went home.

IOWA Arts fest. The Sonnydogs

On Saturday June 5th I went down to Iowa City to the Iowa arts fest to slide guitar great Sonny Landreth perform live. While I was there I got to see Minneapolis band The Honeydogs who are pictured above. On top is guitarist Brain Hanson and in the middle is the leader of the band Adam Levy. I had seen Levy before at a park near my house but the show was canceled part way through due to tornado sirens and lighting. This time the show was postponed for about 10 to 15 minutes due to a heavy down pore. Then they kept on playing. I had not really heard much of there music before but I liked the show. After the show I went over and got a Cd signed by Adam Levy and he and my mom talked about last summer's show.
Then I made my way up to the front of the stage so I could get a good view of Sonny and also get some good pictures. Landreth’s picture is on the bottom. Sonny played lots of songs from his most recent album From the Reach that features Dr. John, Eirc Clapton, Jimmy Buffet and Dire Straits guitar player Mark Knopfler and many others. Since I have that album on my I pod I knew most of the songs he played. One of the songs he played was a song he wrote about New Orleans after the hurricane called Blue Tarp Blues since he is from Louisiana. At the end of the show I wanted to get a picture with him. Finally I did but when I looked at it later it was blurry I was really pissed. But the concert was fantastic.