If Chuck Ross had his way — and strictly speaking, he could — there would be little other than shuffling Chicago blues, Strat slingers and harp blowers on the Tampa Bay Blues Festival stage. The founder/producer of the fest is that hardcore about his blues.
"Even I might get tired after three days of that," Ross says with a robust laugh. "I will say this: If we could bring back [harmonica legend] Little Walter and Muddy Waters from the dead, and have them play all three days, I'd gladly do that."
Since establishing the event 12 years ago, the lineup has become increasingly diverse, but '06 marks a notable breakthrough in Ross' broadening definition of the blues. "Over the years, it's true that the festival tended to be dominated by the basic blues genre," Ross says. "This year, we made a concerted effort to provide a wider range. I have always felt that blues music is a very big tent under which you can fit many types of artists, but I do think we have to respect the history and traditions of the genre. If I were to put on a big rock show just to get another 10,000 people in [Vinoy] Park — we've never tried to do that. That would be selling out to us."
This year's Blues Fest expands its horizons with Mavis Staples, a woman who is both a gospel legend and has scored No. 1 pop hits with the Staples Singers; Indigenous, a Native-American band that mixes blues with modern rock; Taj Mahal, whose country blues is leavened with world music and myriad other styles; and several other acts with less than traditional takes on the blues.
What started out as a little-festival-that-could has built a burgeoning reputation, to the point that it's now a first-class offering on the international circuit. Ross says that about half of his advance ticket sales this year have come from out of state, and a good portion of that from outside the U.S.
Ross takes no salary for toiling away at his nonprofit venture, and "every penny goes right back into making a better event." Money is always a problem, but this year saw a new title sponsor, Signature Bank, step up and fill the void left by Sound Advice's departure a couple of years ago. "That has alleviated the strain of me going out and asking people and companies to give me 2,500 bucks a piece," he says. "I still do some of that, but I don't have to worry about it as much anymore."
Ross takes plenty of time away from his mediation law practice to organize Blues Fest, and when it finally arrives, he often looks so stressed on site that he's unable to dig the music. "I do enjoy the show more than I let on," he says with a laugh. "It may sound hokey, but when I see that park full of people listening to something that's not in the mainstream, that's my payday — and it's a good one."
Here's a schedule and overview of this year's Tampa Bay Blues Festival lineup:
FRIDAY, MAY 5
12:30 p.m., ANA POPOVIC Yugoslavian sex kitten as blues ace? Why not? Popovic's website has its share of provocative photos. (Ana looks especially good in tight leather pants). She's little more than a serviceable singer, and as a guitarist still owes far too much debt to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, but Popovic can definitely play some, and she'll certainly bring a fresh presence to the stage.
2:30 p.m., CURTIS SALGADO More soul man than blues artist, Salgado specializes in smoldering R&B, bridging tradition and modernism and combining elements of Al Green, Bobby Blue Bland and Delbert McClinton. The Portland, Ore.-based artist's resume includes work with Robert Cray, Roomful of Blues and Santana, and legend has it that Salgado inspired John Belushi to create the Blues Brothers after catching the singer's act while filming Animal House in the Northwest.
4:30 p.m., THE SIEGEL SCHWALL BAND As precocious college kids in the mid '60s, Corky Siegel and Dan Schwall wormed their way into the Chicago blues scene, playing with — and befriending the likes of — Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon. Forming their own combo, the Siegel Schwall Band became one of those lower-tier white blues acts that opened for bands such as the Jefferson Airplane, the Allman Brothers and Janis Joplin. The group split in '74, reunited in '87, and last year released its first new album in a few decades. Flash Forward is a spunky blues confection full of loopy novelty lyrics and whimsical vocals.
6:30 p.m., JOHN LEE HOOKER JR. Can a scion of a blues legend bring the same sort of hard knocks to his music as the old man? In the case of John Lee Hooker Jr., the answer is: and then some. He emerged in 2004 from a 25-year haze of drugs, jail and general hardship to release Blues with a Vengeance and was promptly rewarded with Grammy and W.C. Handy nominations. Hooker Jr. isn't tethered to the black-snake boogie of his late dad; instead he brings a wider range and raucous R&B energy to his party-stoking sound. He also has an ear for the contemporary, as evidenced in the song "Blues Ain't Nothing But a Pimp." Then again, he honors the father with "Boom Boom."
8:30 p.m., JOHNNY WINTER In the late '60s, when blues-rock captured the American pop consciousness, Johnny Winter was a contemporary of Hendrix, Clapton, Allman, et al. From the get-go, the Texas firebrand was the bluesiest of them all. With his raspy horn of a voice and a guitar style that spewed shards of sound, Winter scored pop crossover success in the early '70s. His battles with substance abuse are widely known, and his frightfully thin frame makes you want to go to a concession stand and buy him a half-slab of ribs. But at 62, Winter still sprays those notes, and he's a bona fide legend.
SATURDAY, MAY 6
11 a.m., WENDY & THE SOUL SHAKERS Wendy Rich is probably the Bay area's premiere blues belter. Long a fixture on the local scene, she also tours, both with her band — guitarist Steve "Red" Lasner, bassist Stevie "Backbone" Way and drummer Duane Plikunas — and as the frontwoman for Big Brother & the Holding Company. Rich has that Joplin-esque passion and lustiness.
12:30 p.m., OMAR & THE HOWLERS Singer/guitarist Omar Dykes was raised in small-town McComb, Miss., (birthplace of Bo Diddley), where he made his bones playing in black juke joints. He and his band have been based in Austin, Texas, for 30 years and play a rough-and-tumble blend of rural blues, boogie and primal rock 'n' roll.
2:30 p.m., INDIGENOUS There's a reason that this quartet of Nakota Sioux Indian kin, based in South Dakota, dubbed its website indigenousrocks.com. That's because the band emphasizes rock, playing a blues-infused take on modern rock that calls to mind a mix between Stone Temple Pilots and SRV. And through it all courses guitarist Mato Nanji's razory licks.
4:30 p.m., MAVIS STAPLES She was long the centerpiece of the venerated Staples clan, a family outfit that successfully balanced careers in gospel and secular music. Her dusky, consummately soulful voice drove "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do it Again" to No. 1 on the pop charts in the '70s. Mavis' most recent disc, 2004's Have a Little Faith, is a beguiling collection of spirituals, played with a contemporary spin and released on the blues-oriented Alligator label. She's the jewel of the entire bill.
6:30 p.m., ROBBEN FORD See sidebar.
8:30 p.m., JONNY LANG Jonny's back 'cause he tore it up during 2001's Tampa Bay Blues Fest. (Chuck Ross still talks about his set.) The one-time prodigy, who started his career at age 13 and notched a platinum album by 19, is a grizzled vet at 24. His singing has matured, his guitar work has expanded and he's become an accomplished songwriter, combining rock, R&B, blues and ballads. Lang has been knocked around some by the business and no longer seems bent on being a mainstream rock star. That just gives him more blues cred.
SUNDAY, MAY 7
1 p.m., BLUESTRAIN The California-based band — the core of which includes John Rack; his wife, Jocelyn Michelle (they met in Boca Raton); and Chris Johnson — mixes traditional blues and blues-rock, and includes in its songs instrumental passages from classic rock hits like "Mississippi Queen" and "Sunshine of Your Love." Bluestrain will be joined on this show by horn players from the local Zappa tribute band Bogus Pomp, along with Chuck Ross on harp.
2:30 p.m., DUWYANE BURNSIDE See sidebar.
4:30 p.m., TOMMY CASTRO BAND He's a bedrock act on a festival like this: The road-dog bluesman, Stratocaster in tow, laying down a blend of Chi-town shuffles, funk, boogie and smoldering slow blues. Raised in San Jose, Calif., Castro quickly ascended from playing in small San Francisco bars to opening for B.B. King to becoming a fixture on the blues circuit.
6:30 p.m., ROD PIAZZA & THE MIGHTY FLYERS By now, Piazza, a singer/harmonica savant, must be the most oft-booked act at the Tampa Bay Blues Fest. There's a reason. He takes a lively, swinging approach and emphasizes entertainment as much as shopworn blues orthodoxies. Adding to the mix is his keyboard-playing wife, Honey Alexander. Plus, the California-based Piazza is a monster harp player who raises the instrument well above its supposed limitations.
8:30 p.m., TAJ MAHAL He's one of the more eclectic artists in blues or any other idiom. Taj Mahal's career, dating back to the mid-'60s, has found him embracing country blues, jug-band music, Tin Pan Alley, full-on jazz, reggae/calypso, various African forms (he first visited the continent in '79) and just about anything else that strikes his fancy. Born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in 1942 in Harlem, he was raised in Springfield, Mass., a culturally curious young fellow. While attending UMass, he christened himself Taj Mahal, then migrated to Los Angeles, where he formed The Rising Sons with Ry Cooder. Taj, 63, has released dozens of well-received, often influential, albums since, and established a rep as an ebullient, charismatic performer.
This article appears in May 3-9, 2006.