Live Performance Reviews
Page 21
Vero Beach Blues Festival
Vero Beach Fairgrounds
Feb 25 & 26, 2023
By Peter "Blewzzman" Lauro © March 2023
I very regularly attend a handful of blues festivals in different cities throughout the state of Florida. Without fail, at pretty much all of those events I can count on running into many of my blues friends from all over the country. Yes, these high-quality festivals have that kind of drawing power. With that said, although that did not happen at this event, you can mark my words that it's just a matter of a very short time before that changes. The Vero Beach Blues Festival will soon become a "Destination Festival". It has to - and here is why.
Let me start with the amazing lineup which featured everything from excellent local acts to: International Blues Challenge winners; Rising Star Award winners; Blues Music Award winners; and yes, even a Grammy Award winner. By featuring six acts on Saturday and four on Sunday (allowing for an early evening ending) even the way these acts were scheduled was a home run. Saturday's featured artists were: Gitlo Lee; The Blues Crusaders; Joe "Survival" Caruso; Annika Chambers & Paul DesLauriers; Selwyn Birchwood; and "The Mississippi Blues Child" - Mr. Sipp; while Sunday's were: Ben Flournoy; JP Soars & The Red Hots; The Gabe Stillman Band; and the legendary "Real Deal" bluesman - John Primer. Is that not a group you'd travel to Florida to see? Of Course it is.....especially in Febrrrruary.
Now let me tell you about the cost of admission. As you'd expect, the price of an event like this has to be something like $30 for Saturday, $20 for Sunday or $40 for both days, right? Wrong! Very Wrong! The fee to attend the Vero Beach Blues Festival was only $5.00 per day, I repeat.....five dollars per day. How that happens is part of the organizer's genius - which I'll get to later - and another part of it is due to generous sponsorship, with the main one - Dave Golden Law Offices - passing out thousands of free koozies.
As far as the Vero Beach Fairgrounds go, I doubt you could put any number of people on the property that would make it uncomfortable. This, of course, makes it an excellent venue for a festival. In addition to the wide-open lawn space for chairs and blankets, there was a very spacious VIP tent and a very large "BIG Blues Lounge Tent" that seated up to 650 (more if you brought a chair) and featured a huge full liquor bar.
Another fabulous part of this event, and most likely the big part of keeping the entrance fee so low, is that the arts & crafts vending event which coincided with the festival event was as grand as the festival itself. Unlike other blues festivals that offer vending space to a small group of merchants as a side show, the folks at Latitude-88, Inc. are professional arts and crafts event organizers and they signed up 180, yes, one-hundred-and-eighty vendors. The win/win with this is that the many who attended strictly for the arts and crafts were now exposed to some killer blues music and the fans attending for the music were exposed to a killer shopping experience. Interestingly, back in my vending days, I sold at several of this promoter's shows. As a result of that, I saw about twenty-five vendor friends that I hadn't seen in a few years and every one of them was quite happy with sales. BTW, I've attended "food festivals" that did not have the quantity and the quality of the food being offered here.
With this just being the second annual Vero Beach Blues Festival, it appears to me that this organization has indeed hit the ground running. Should you want to start making early plans to attend the third annual, it's going to be on Saturday and Sunday, February 24 & 25, 2024. If you do come in from out of the area - and you certainly should - consider making a week of it. Vero Beach, FL - a beautiful city with gorgeous beaches and a quaint downtown with good eateries and boutique shops - has a whole lot to offer.
For more information on this event just go to www.verobluesfest.com. That's where you'll be able to find out everything about retail and food vending opportunities, local lodging, next year's lineup, contact info, and a whole lot more. Just remember, wherever you go and whomever you speak with, please tell them their friend the Blewzzman sent you.
Wow, where do I start? Or did I already, with wow? Yep, that works...wow! wow! WOW! WOW! That is the perfect word to describe my feelings about this concert - which, BTW, was my very first Mavericks experience - another perfect word.
Although I've been hearing about The Mavericks for what seems like forever, somehow, I just never became a follower. In my defense, the reason for that is probably the fact that for the last forty-five or more years, I have been a total blues snob and have rarely gone to anything but blues shows. As a matter of fact, during some of my many visits to Nashville, I actually did see some of the bands' members sitting in with other bands, but they were always blues bands. The latest of those events was back in November when I saw the band's sax player - Max Abrams - sitting in with the McKinley James Band, at the "5 Spot". That same night, I met Mike Reynolds, the band's manager and Rudy Newman, the band's road manager. Once the conversation turned to The Mavericks upcoming Ft. Lauderdale gig, me going was a no-brainer.
Okay, so the show starts, and it took not much longer than the first song for the full house to be on their feet dancing and singing-a-long. Oddly enough, by the third song - this virgin who did not know one Mavericks' song, was singing-a-long as well. With many of their songs having lots of very catchy chorus lines, getting wrapped up in them came naturally. By the way, that opening song was titled "We'll Just Keep Rolling Along", and after close to thirty-five years, that's not just a song, it's a slogan.
Before I go any further, let me tell you the names of those I'll be adorning with praise. The nucleus, and I believe founders, of the Mavericks are: Raul Malo on lead vocals and guitar; Paul Deakin on drums; Jerry Dale McFadden on keyboards, vocals and non-stop dancing; and Eddie Perez on lead guitar and vocals; with the rest of the nine-piece band being: Ed Friedland on bass; Max Abrams on saxophone and percussion; Julio Diaz on trumpet and percussion; Lorenzo Molina on percussion, trumpet and trombone; Percy Cardona on accordion.
One of the nights many highlights for me was hearing The Mavericks rendition of "Blue Moon". Now I know the song is a standard that goes back to the thirties, but as a thirteen-year-old, it was The Marcels who introduced it to me back in 1961. That said, this was nothing like the "bomb-a-bomb bomb, ding-a-ding ding, dang-a dang dang, dit-da dit-da dit," doo wop version of "Blue Moon" I grew up listening to. Nope, what it was was one of the sexiest versions of the song I, and probably the rest of the audience, had ever heard. The fact that, unlike during most of the other songs, you could hear a pin drop while everyone listened to Raul sing and play his heart out on acoustic guitar, was a testament to that.
Strangely enough, another magical moment was when midway through the show the band did several songs in Spanish. The lead in Raul gave was that they were songs off of the band's newest album - "En Español" - which was recorded all in Spanish. Despite the fact that I did not understand one word off of one song, during that thirty-minute segment I loved every word of every song. Inasmuch as it was happening from the beginning of the show, it was at this point that I realized this bunch of maestros had won me over. BTW, since Raul also mentioned that "En Español" was just about 850 copies away from a major milestone, I'd like to be one of the first to say "Congratulations on your first gold record".....which it must be by now.
There was a point in the show where I leaned over to the Blewzzlady and said "This has got to be the closing number". For the life of me I have no idea of its title and in actuality, that doesn't matter. It was a lengthy number that while steadily increasing with intensity, was highlighted by everyone being individually featured. As it came time to feature Percy, Max, Julio, and Lorenzo on accordion, saxophone, trumpet and trombone, they each did so by coming front stage and staying there till the songs end. At that point, what was taking place on the stage could only be described as an instrumental orgy. Again, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!
As it turned out, I was happily wrong because this was not the closing number. The band went on to play another song or two totaling two solid hours, of a solid performance of what I've heard people call pop/rock, folk, Americana, neo-traditionalist country, country, contemporary country, country-rock, progressive country, new traditionalist, retro-rock - and depending on where you go to look, many other 'things'. From what I heard, I'll just call it something like The Miami Sound Machine going to The Grand Ol' Opry then to the School of Rock.
So, with the show now over, everyone in the capacity crowd of nearly 1200 were on their feet wanting to hear "More! More! More!" And, as I doubt the Mavericks ever will, they did not disappoint. After that, there was no more sitting as the packed house stood, danced and sang their way through encore of what are apparently two of The Mavericks iconic songs: "As Long As There's Loving Tonight" and "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down".
During the night the word "cult" came to my mind several times, and as I wondered if The Mavericks were one, I couldn't help but think that this sold-out crowd would most likely unanimously say yes. If indeed they are, will someone please pass me the Kool-Aid?
If, like me, you are someone who needs to find out more about The Mavericks, you can check them out at - www.themavericksband.com - and like their Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/TheMavericksMusic/. Remember, wherever you go and whomever you speak with, please tell them their friend the Blewzzman sent you.
On a side not, there's a good chance that this night may not have happened if not for a very special friend who rolls out the red carpet and takes me under her wing every time I go to Nashville - Gina Hughes, I love and thank you.
