LIVE REVIEW: Blues Under the Bridge

(This is an overview of Blues Under the Bridge as a whole. Photos and blurbs about each act will follow in separate postings).

It’s about 10:15 pm Saturday night and I’m sitting in the green room with Amy Whitesell of A Music Company, Inc. – the promoter who helped organize Blues Under the Bridge.  Outside,  headliner blues harp legend Charlie Musselwhite is absolutely *wailing* away with his band to a packed house of over 2500 people.

“The house” in this case is the parking lot under the Colorado Avenue bridge in the Depot Arts District including areas owned by the Trestle Building in which the green room is located, and by Chuck Murphy of Murphy Constructors who owns all the land north of the Smokebrush Gallery.

Whitesell is much more relaxed now than when I first saw her 8 hours earlier running around coordinating last minute details and handling the “fire drills” that always seem to happen just before an event like this about to start.

This is the 4th year Blues Under the Bridge has been held, and after last year’s two day event and loss of a major financial sponsor, it didn’t seem like the blues festival would be able to continue without some serious additional help and financial resources. But, Whitesell told me, this has evolved into what’s considered by many as such a great community event that this year several organizations jumped in to help make the festival happen.

Laura Hibbitts of the Pikes Peak Blues Community with blues legend Charlie Musselwhite just prior to his show at Blues Under The BridgeWhitesell shared with me how people like Laura Long of Bristol Brewing stepped in to help with obtaining the licenses required for the festival. Chris Miller from Whole Foods Market stepped up to donate catering for the musicians green room and to help with soft drinks and water for the whole event and fed the volunteer staff of about 80 people it takes to manage Blues Under the Bridge the day of the event. Jason Miller who is an executive chef with Whole Foods was on hand personally working the green room lending his culinary expertise to make sure the musicians were well taken care of.  Major funding was also provided by the Colorado Springs Downtown Development Authority.

Michelle Franks of the Residence Inn by Marriot on Academy saw to it that musicians in the event had a place to stay while in town. Event organizer KRCC – specifically Jeff Bieri – helped promote and manage the event with Whitesell and Long and several of the KRCC deejays were on hand to help MC.   The Colorado Springs Independent was a huge media sponsor helping to promote the event and included a pull-out section in the Indy.

Add to this the silent auction with donations by many organizations and vendors that had booths, and this really was quite the community undertaking.

Six acts comprised the one-day  blues festival this year which ran from 3:00-11:00 pm.

The Colorado Springs Conservatory Band made up of alumni and students played first starting at about 3:15pm Saturday and they got the initial but growing crowd into the mood. They were followed by Tempa and the Tantrums which increased the energy and the vibe considerably (and the crowd kept growing).

Former local Spring’s blues harp artist Dave Therault and band took the stage next and were joined by local blues singer Joanne Taylor. (The show started great and kept getting better and better). Roots blues musician Corey Harris was up next playing a solo set of acoustic guitar and dobro originals and covers.

The understated Candye Kane (said with tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek) – the toughest girl alive – took to the stage after Harris and after an initial lead in and jam by her band. Guitar player Laura Chavez was unreal. (More about this and all the other acts in later postings).

The crowd, believe it or not continued to swell as late arrival still paid full fare to get in to watch Kane who was followed up by the growling harp playing and blues singing Charlie Musselwhite who played on until just about 11:00pm.

This was an amazing event with a wonderful bunch of fans attending, great organization and underwriting, and a great day to be part of.