It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since I added material to my site. Last year was a mess in many ways, least of all was my status as an unemployed American thanks to Siemens out-sourcing our division to Manila. So after a year on unemployment and taking Microsoft, VMWare and Cisco courses I was back in the job market and spent most of my free time finding a job. Thankfully it worked out and I am again gainfully employed. I write about music as a hobby and as a way to feed my inner writer, keeping him alive and well. I did plenty of writing last year but I somehow never found the time to update my website. I survived the first and so far only Bluestock Festival. I say survived because hurricane Irene extended herself to the Catskills of New York State and practically washed away the town in which we were staying. Luckily our hotel was at a higher elevation than the rest of the town. We headed down the street Sunday morning to go home and found the bridge knocked out by a house and the main road under 4 feet of water. As we made our way east to the NY Thruway the road was washing away before us so we turned around and holed up at a storm shelter, played cards with some fellow stranded blues fans and after some recon we found a way to get home. It was a very long day. The day before was about 12 hours of continuous music at Bluestock as nearly every band scheduled to perform on Saturday and Sunday was crammed into the schedule on Saturday. Robert Cray and then Buddy Guy were first performers of the day and after their sets, they promptly got the Hell out of there. My article about the show can be found here: Bluestock
I actually spent a lot of time at Blues Festivals last year and had a great time. The festivals are a wonderful way to see an eclectic mix of blues styles all in one setting. I made it to Briggs Farm Blues Festival, Chenango Blues Festival, PA Blues Festival, and Blast Furnace Blues Festival. I wrote an article about the Festival experience for American Blues News and it can be found here: Festivals. There are tons of photos from the festivals that I posted on the American Blues News Facebook page so check them out. The Blast Furnace Blues Festival had an amazing backdrop since it was held in the shadow of the now abandoned Bethlehem Steel mill. The community is revitalizing the area and so far is doing a wonderful job. Pictures from Blast Furnace can be found here: Blast Furnace
Any way, it was a busy year and I did plenty of writing and reviewing, job hunting all the while. So, I’m back, for now, and hopefully for a while. I learned one thing doing blues reviews all this time: Although I can find positives in all kinds of blues, I don’t really like them all. I’m an electric guitar freak and my favorite blues are always going to have more to do with Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan than Mississippi John Hurt or Fred McDowell. When it comes to Blues I prefer to let it rock. I blame that on Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix…
