Rockland Has The Blues

Rockland Has The Blues

By: David Mills

ROCKLAND, ME - On Saturday & Sunday the North Atlantic Blues Festival took place in Rockland's Public Landing marking it their 18th annual. Large crowds gathered both days to hear music from Nellie Tiger Travis to Robert Cray. We will run down who performed on Saturday and Sunday with their background leading up to the history of the North Atlantic Blues Festival.

On Saturday crowds started coming in by the numbers to hear music from Nellie "Tiger" Travis, Eddy 'The Chief' Clearwater, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, Billy Branch & the Sons of Blues, Magic Slim & the Teardrops and Brooks Family Blues Dynasty ending the day. All the musicians did a great job with having the crowd going by dancing and just having a wonderful day despite the hot conditions. In between acts Dave Gross & Gina Sicilia performed music for the crowd.

Nellie "Tiger" Travis couldn’t be more destined to sing the blues. She was born deep in the delta of Mississippi in the early 60’s. As in most small towns, the church was a main focal point and Nellie grew up singing gospel music. Since then, Nellie has come a long way and in November 2009 was crowned the New Queen Of The Blues for Chicago by Bluesman Purvis Spann who also bestowed that honor on Ms. KoKo Taylor the original Queen. KoKo was a mentor and friend to Nellie, and when she passed in early 2009, Nellie used her talented songwriting skills to write and record a tribute song to her friend Ms. KoKo Taylor titled KoKo Queen Of The Blues.

Nellie Travis has headlined at the Chicago Blues Festival and performed at numerous Festivals and clubs around the world places such as Japan, Greece, Italy, Germany, Brazil, as well as her hometown of Mississippi. She has shared the stage with such greats as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Glady’s Knight, Ronnie Baker Brooks to name a few. She has been influenced by many powerful performers such as Big Mama Thornton, KoKo Taylor (of course) and Etta James. The nickname "Tiger" was born after Nellie came to Chicago. She and a cousin were hanging out at B.L.U.E.S on Halsted brainstorming about what to call her. Nellie wanted the nickname "Angel", but her cousin quickly rejected that and came up with "Tiger" which aptly describes her feline-like, intense vocal style as well as her feisty, independent personality. In addition to being an outstanding singer and songwriter, Nellie is an accomplished actress. She has performed in plays "The Lust Of A Man" and "I was There When The Blues Was Red Hot".

Nellie has won several awards and many Nominations.

You can find more information on Nellie at www.nellietravis.com.

The following is history of Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater.

During the 1950s, Chicago's West Side was a breeding ground for some of the world's greatest bluesmen. Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Freddie King and others ruled the clubs. With his fierce guitar playing, soulful and emotive vocals and wild stage shows, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater easily belongs on this list. A Chicago legend, Clearwater is an intense, flamboyant blues-rocking showman. He's equally comfortable playing the deepest, most heartfelt blues or rocking, good-time party music. DownBeat said, "Left-hander Eddy Clearwater is a forceful six-stringer...He lays down some gritty West Side shuffles and belly-grinding slow blues that highlight his raw chops, soulful vocals, and earthy, humorous lyrics."

Between his slashing left-handed guitar work, his room-filling vocals, his self-defined "rock-a-blues" style (a forceful mix of blues, rock, rockabilly, country and gospel), his boundless energy and even his signature Indian headdress, Clearwater is among the very finest practitioners of the West Side blues working today. The blues world recognized his talent by giving him the Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues – Male Artist of the Year in 2001. His last release, 2003's Rock ‘N' Roll City, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Now he's back with his very first Alligator CD, the aptly titled WEST SIDE STRUT.

WEST SIDE STRUT, produced by young hotshot guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of the legendary bluesman Lonnie Brooks), is an energized mix of West Side blues and old school rock injected with a tough, up-to-the-minute contemporary edge. Featuring some of Eddy's hottest playing ever recorded, the CD burns with his stinging guitar and rough-and-ready vocals. Guests include Eddy's old friends Lonnie Brooks, Jimmy Johnson, Billy Branch and Otis Clay as well as Ronnie Baker Brooks himself, playing some scintillating guitar parts. The 12 songs (including seven songs either written or co-written by Eddy) lean from straight-ahead blues and humorous rockers to plaintive, emotion-packed ballads. All are brought to vivid life by Eddy's ferocious and unflinching guitar playing, his power-packed vocals and unlimited energy, hard-earned by his years of experience. GuitarOne said Clearwater takes his listeners on "an inspired trip to that rollicking crossroads where the blues and rock collide."

Born Edward Harrington (a cousin of late harpist Carey Bell Harrington) on January 10, 1935 in Macon, Mississippi, Eddy and his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama in 1948. With music from blues to gospel to country & western surrounding him from an early age, Eddy taught himself to play guitar (left-handed and upside down), and began performing with various gospel groups, including the legendary Five Blind Boys of Alabama. After moving to Chicago in 1950, Eddy stayed with an uncle and took a job as a dishwasher, saving as much as he could from his $37 a week salary. His first music jobs were with gospel groups playing in local churches. Quickly though, through his uncle's contacts, he met many of Chicago's blues stars. Eddy fell deeper under the spell of the blues, and under the wing of blues star Magic Sam, who would become one of Eddy's closest friends and teachers.

By 1953, as Guitar Eddy, he was making a strong name for himself, working the South and West Side bars regularly. He met and befriended everyone from Sunnyland Slim to Earl Hooker, picking up licks and lessons along the way. After hearing Chuck Berry in 1957, Eddy added that rock and roll element to his already searing blues style, creating a unique sound that defines him to this day. He recorded his first single, Hill Billy Blues, in 1958 for his uncle's Atomic H label under the name Clear Waters. His manager at the time, drummer Jump Jackson, came up with the name as a play on Muddy Waters.

After a successful appearance on a Chicago television show called Bandstand Matinee in 1959, Clearwater recorded another 45 for Atomic H, I Don't Know Why, and he started receiving more and more local radio airplay with singles for LaSalle, Federal, Versa and his own Cleartone label. The name Clear Waters morphed into Eddy Clearwater, and Eddy rarely was in need of a place to play. He worked the local circuit steadily throughout the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s, finding success among the North Side college crowd who responded to his individual brand of blues, his rock and roll spirit and his high energy stage show.

Twice during the 1970s he toured Europe (the first time with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells) and even appeared on BBC television in England. His first full-length LP, 1980's The Chief, was the initial release on Chicago's Rooster Blues label. Wearing a full Indian headdress on the cover (an homage to his Cherokee blood), The Chief, as he was now known, reached the largest audience of his career. Recording numerous albums for various labels during the 1980s and 1990s, Eddy's star continued to rise. He received piles of positive press and was nominated for seven Blues Music Awards. His 2003 CD Rock ‘N' Roll City paired him up with the surf-rocking Mexican wrestling-masked group, Los Straitjackets. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award and earned Eddy a multitude of new fans.

Now, with WEST SIDE STRUT, Eddy has made the very best album of his life. Between the untamed guitar work, the tough and gruff vocals and the strength of the songs, the old-school yet contemporary WEST SIDE STRUT will lead Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater to the very top of the blues world and beyond. Clearwater loves to perform and can usually be found tearing it up somewhere around the world on any given night. He's played everywhere from Russia, Turkey, and Romania to Brazil and Alaska. He'll hit the road hard in support of the CD, strutting his slicing guitar licks, his rock-fueled blues, rockabilly, country and gospel gumbo and his uninhibited live show to fans ready for a taste of the real West Side Chicago blues, played by a master at the very peak of his abilities.

You can find and read more information at www.eddyclearwater.com.

History on Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials.

From smoking slide guitar boogies to raw-boned Chicago shuffles to the deepest slow blues,

guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Lil’ Ed Williams is an awe-inspiring master bluesman. He and his blistering, road-tested band, The Blues Imperials—guitarist Mike Garrett, bassist James “Pookie” Young, drummer Kelly Littleton—are celebrating 20 amazing years together. Live, Lil’ Ed And The Blues Imperials simply can’t be beat as Ed breaks out the deepest back-bends, the highest toe-walks, and the most authentic electric slide-guitar blues being played today. Not since the heyday of Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers has a Chicago blues band made such a consistently joyous, rollicking noise.

Lil’ Ed boasts a direct bloodline to blues history—his uncle and musical mentor was the great Chicago slide guitarist, songwriter and recording artist J.B. Hutto. According to The Chicago Tribune, “Williams represents one of the few remaining authentic links to the raucous, pure Chicago blues.” The Associated Press agrees, stating, “Williams fills Chicago’s biggest shoes with more life and heat than anyone on stage today.” Adding to the legend is Ed’s storybook rise, taking him from working in a car wash to entertaining thousands of fans all over the world. In 2006 he made multiple appearances on Late Night With Conan O’Brien (including a hilarious film with Lil’ Ed teaching Conan how to play the blues) culminating with Lil’ Ed on stage jamming with O’Brien in front of a television audience in the millions.

On their new Alligator album, Full Tilt, Lil’ Ed’s romping, sizzling guitar and rough-hewn vocals, Young’s thumping bass, Garrett’s feral rhythm guitar and Littleton’s unpredictable, rock-solid drumming produce a modern blues firestorm steeped in tradition. Produced by Williams and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, Full Tilt captures all of Lil’ Ed And The Blues Imperials’ legendary live energy on disc. From foot-stomping boogies to emotionally charged slow blues to rocked-out celebrations, Full Tilt is a party-inducing delight. The addition of horn players Eddie McKinley and David Basinger and pianist/organist Johnny Iguana on a few songs adds even more punch and power to the proceedings.

Born in Chicago on April 8, 1955, Ed grew up surrounded by the blues. He was playing guitar, then drums and bass, by the time he was 12. Ed and his half-brother Pookie received lessons and support from their blues-playing uncle, J.B. Hutto. “J.B. taught me everything I know,” says Ed. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without him.” Ed and Pookie spent their teen years making music together, and in 1975 formed the first incarnation of The Blues Imperials. They played their first gig at a West Side club called Big Duke’s Blue Flame, splitting the $6 take four ways. Over the next few years, the group played every club in the neighborhood, but they still needed day jobs to pay the bills. Ed worked 10 hours a day as a buffer at the Red Carpet Car Wash. Pookie drove a school bus. Night after night they played their roaring brand of blues in tiny clubs, and eventually the word reached Alligator president Bruce Iglauer.

At the time, Iglauer was looking for local talent for The New Bluebloods, an anthology of some of Chicago’s younger blues musicians. “Ed and his band had a good reputation,” recalls Iglauer. “I had only seen them live once or twice. I knew Ed was a hot slide player, but I had no idea what he and the band were really capable of. I just knew that their music reminded me of Hound Dog Taylor and J.B. Hutto, two of my favorite musicians. It seemed like having a band this rough and ready would be a nice change of pace for the anthology, so I asked them to come down to the studio and cut a couple of songs. I never expected what happened.”

What happened is not supposed to happen. Not in real life anyway. The band—never having been in a recording studio before—treated the studio like a club, playing live to Iglauer, the engineer, and all the people on the other side of the control room glass. After Ed recorded just two songs, the Alligator staffers in the control room were on their feet begging for more. Two songs later, with Ed doing his toe-walks and back bends, even the engineer was dancing. Iglauer offered the band a full album contract on the spot. The end result of the session was 30 songs cut in three hours with no overdubs and no second takes. Twelve of those songs became the band’s debut album, Roughhousin’, released in September of 1986.

The national press reacted with overwhelming amazement. Feature stories ran in Spin, Musician, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune and dozens of other publications. The Village Voice declared, “Roughhousin’ just may be the blues album of the year.” Quickly, the band went from playing local bars to clubs, concert stages and festivals coast to coast, giving national audiences their first taste of the band’s propulsive boogie blues and wild stage show. The band played The Long Beach Blues Festival, The San Francisco Blues Festival, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and many others before heading off to Europe, Canada and Japan. Spurred on by the band’s rowdy performances, a legion of fanatical fans, proudly calling themselves “Ed Heads,” eagerly spread the word.

Lil’ Ed And The Blues Imperials’ next two releases, 1989’s Chicken, Gravy & Biscuits and 1992’s What You See Is What You Get, brought them to more people than ever before. They toured Australia, then went back to Europe before joining The Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Tour. That tour teamed them with blues greats Koko Taylor, Elvin Bishop, Lonnie Brooks and Katie Webster at sold-out concert halls and showcase clubs. Highlights of the tour are captured on the 2-CD set, The Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Tour. Night after night, Ed’s set was a barn-burner. The New York Times raved, “Raw-boned, old-fashioned Chicago blues has a new young master—Lil’ Ed Williams.”

After years on the road, the stress of touring and recording began to take its toll. Ed broke up the band and, for the first time, truly put his life together. While off the road, he recorded two albums for Earwig Records: a collaboration with his old friend (and original Blues Imperials guitarist) Dave Weld and an album with Chicago vocalist/bassist Willie Kent. After getting his life in order and defeating his personal demons, Lil’ Ed reformed The Blues Imperials in 1998, to the great delight of blues fans everywhere. They returned home to Alligator and released Get Wild! in 1999 and Heads Up! in 2002 to widespread enthusiasm. The Village Voice exclaimed, “These Chicago racket masters give a good name to crazed sloppiness. They’re about going too far and pulling it back just in time.”

2006’s Rattleshake brought Ed and company to their largest audience. Die-hard Ed Head Conan O’Brien brought the band before millions of television viewers on two separate occasions. While in Chicago, O’Brien filmed a comedy sketch with Ed and then invited the whole band back to New York to perform on the show. In addition to their television exposure, Lil’ Ed And The Blues Imperials performed at the Doheny Blues Festival, The Sacramento Heritage Festival, The Thunder Bay Blues Festival, The Mid-Atlantic Blues Festival, The Pocono Blues Festival, The Mississippi Valley Blues Festival and many others. In June 2008 Ed hit the main stage at the Chicago Blues Festival, performing in front of 100,000 screaming fans, as he whipped the overflowing crowd into a blues-induced frenzy.

The Washington Post describes Williams’ music as “contagious wildness.” The Philadelphia Inquirer expresses it as “raucous and hugely entertaining.” But no matter how you describe it, Lil’ Ed’s seriously inspired music will take you on a fast trip from your chair to your feet. Now, with Full Tilt and a schedule that will take the band on another non-stop tour across the country and across the ocean, Lil’ Ed And The Blues Imperials will continue to rip, roar, rock, roll, bend and fully tilt into the hearts, minds, souls and dancing shoes of Ed Heads all around the world.

You can find more information about them at www.alligator.com/artists/bio.cfm?ArtistID=013.

Billy Branch has followed a very non-traditional path to the blues. Unlike many blues artists, he isn't from the South. Billy was born in Chicago in 1951 and was raised in Los Angeles. He first picked up a harmonica at the age of ten and immediately began to play simple tunes.

Billy returned to Chicago in the summer of '69 and graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in political science. It was during these years that he was introduced to the Blues. He soon became immersed in the local blues scene. He spent a great deal of time at legendary blues clubs such as: Queen Beeâ€™s and Theresa's Lounge; he learned from such stalwart harmonica players like: Big Walter Horton, James Cotton, Junior Wells and Carey Bell.

You can read more about Billy at www.billybranch.com.

Magic Slim (born Morris Holt, August 7, 1937, Grenada, Mississippi) is an American blues singer and guitarist.

More history about Magic Slim can be viewed at www.magicslimblues.com.

Brooks Family Blues Dynasty family history of Lonnie, Ronnie and Wayne Brooks.

Lonnie has been writing, recording and touring for nearly six decades. He learned to play in his native Louisiana, and then on his journey north he cut a string of Gulf Coast hits including “Family Rules,’’ “The Crawl,’’ and “Roll, Roll, Roll.’’ Once he landed in Chicago, his home for more than 50 years, he hooked up with Alligator Records and released “Two Headed Man,’’ which quickly became famous for the “Voodoo Blues’’ sound that is now his trademark. Even more ground-breaking of his 15 total records is his Grammy-nominated album “Bayou Lightning.’’ He’s appeared on television shows ranging from “Hee Haw’’ to “The Late Show with David Letterman.’’ And he’s been on the silver screen, most recently in “The Express’’ starring Dennis Quaid and also in “Blues Brothers 2000’’ with Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman. But he is perhaps best known for his showmanship at his live shows, at one-time playing upwards of 300 dates a year at everywhere from the San Francisco Blues Fest to the Montreux Jazz Festival to Holland’s the North Sea Jazz Fest. He’s been Eric Clapton’s onstage guest at Buddy Guy’s Legends club in Chicago and will play for tens of thousands as the headliner – his fifth time -- at the Chicago Blues Fest this June.

Ronnie Baker Brooks first picked up a guitar as a toddler, played on stage at the age of 9, and joined his dad’s band right out of high school. So when he released his debut album, “Golddigger,’’ in 1998, much of the blues world was already familiar with his immense talents. But Golddigger showed he was a force on his own, earning a WC Handy Award nomination for Best New Blues Artist. He hasn’t looked back, and now the Ronnie Baker Brooks Blues band headlines shows around the country and world. After his third release, “The Torch,’’ Ronnie noted how he is moving blues into the future. “I grew up among the best of the best,’’ Ronnie says. “Every time I play, I feel like I’ve got to do it with the authenticity and passion that I saw in guys like Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and my father. But I also have to put my twist on it. None of those guys repeated what came before them.’’ Brooks’ twist involves enlivening blues-rock with deep soul and funk rhythms. Working with Minneapolis producer Jellybean Johnson, a veteran collaborator of Prince and Janet Jackson, Brooks takes roots sounds and transforms them into something that spans the ages.

You can read more about them at http://www.brooksfamilyblues.com/.

The performers on Sunday that performed during the Blues Festival are the following.

Trampled Under Foot Siblings Danielle, Kris and Nick Schnebelen grew up with the Blues. Their parents, Bob and Lisa, were active in the thriving Kansas City Blues scene, playing in local bands and competing in the Kansas City Blues Challenge. Bob and Lisa’s band didn’t make it to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis — but their kids did. When TUF arrived in Memphis for the 2008 IBC they were followed by huge, wildly enthusiastic throngs of hometown supporters, eager to cheer for their favorite musical family. And when TUF took First Place in the competition and Nick won the Albert King award for best guitarist, it was a sweet victory for the Schnebelen family and for Kansas City itself. TUF has been on a roll ever since, becoming popular repeat headliners at clubs, festivals and cruises around the world and releasing CDs and a DVD on their own label.

Trampled Under Foot’s brand new CD, Wrong Side of the Blues was produced by Tony Braunagel, and features guest appearances by Mike Finnigan, Kim Wilson, and engineer/guitarist Johnny Lee Schell. It also features one of their dad’s songs, and backup vocals by their mom. In the future, when people speak of the great Blues dynasties, musical families who breathed the same musical air and produced the highest form of the art, chances are they’ll refer to the Allmans, the Dickinsons, the Burnsides, the Brookses, the Neals… and the Schnebelens.

More information can be read at www.tufkc.com.

James Armstrong information and history can be found at jarmblues.com/. Also, performing on Sunday were Toni Lynn Washington, who did a great job, Eric Bibb and Robert Cray. Their information can be viewed at www.myspace.com/thetonilynnwashingtonband, www.ericbibb.com/ and www.robertcray.com/.

The tribute for this year's North Atlantic Blues Festival was "Chicago Blues". Paul Benjamin and others involved did a great job this year. It looks like thousands of people turned out for the 18th annual North Atlantic Blues Festival.

Information on the blues festival can be viewed at www.northatlanticbluesfestival.com/.

Please enjoy photographs for this year's event below.