Byron Bay Blues & Roots - April 2009

Mud and boots - the two most used words of our trip up north for the annual Byron Bay Blues & Roots festival, a five day exploration of blues, soul, funk, reggae, hip hop, pop, rock and folk. The rain had been coming done well before we arrived and carried on until our last day up the coast. Despite the weather we still managed to clock in regular beach action, 26 odd bands and a good 35 hours of live music.

The five days of music start blurring together after a while. For every fantastic band we caught there were two or three we were missing. For every great headliner there were equally impressive acts holding fort at the smaller stages dotted around the fields. I have a feeling that acts like Ben Harper, Michael Franti, John Butler et al are really there to provide enough commercial appeal to fund the other hundreds of smaller acts ripping it up during the week. It's the well curated nature of the festival that gives it its charm - there are no bad acts and often the greatest joy comes from straying from the familiar to check out the unknown, but fantastic, groups doing their thing.

Some bands fell flat - Ben Harper being the key one. As the main drawcard for the festival there were high expectations for his funk-reggae, folkie, bluesy soul tearing music. However this time he was touring his Relentless 7 band - an almost Skynyrd inspired bar band - a far cry from the funk jam seasons of the Innocent Criminals. Michael Franti also came up short, but only in comparison to the efforts of other bands at the festival, in his own right he is great, but lacked the energy of previous shows. The crowds kept us away from most of the other headliners, with the weather being what it was it just wasn't worth the effort to try and see them.

The Blind Boys of Alabama (left) and Kasey Chambers & Shame Nicholson (right) were two early winners. The Blind Boys have been around for some 60 years, belting out gospel/soul tunes around the world. They have seen a recent revival with interest from Ben Harper and Tom Waits coupled with a Grammy or two. Their sound is deep and powerful. The fact that they are blind shouldn't really come into it but somehow it added weight to the tragedy of their words and music - as though they have lived the hardship they were singing. Kasey Chambers on the other hand arrived with good spirits, family and a bagful of rollicking country tunes. Chambers has been a mainstay at the festival for years (playing 9 out of the 20 festivals), and was happy to get stuck into her father Bill (on the left of the photo), her husband Shane (on the right) and brother Nash (handling the sound). There is a time and a place for feel good country music sets - and this was one of them.

The Indigenous Tent was another winner. Contemporary Indigenous music makes progress in fits and starts. Even though there is a constant flow of fantastic of artists coming through it takes the efforts of people like Yothu Yindi, the Warumpi Band, Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter and, more recently, Geoffrey Gurrumal Yunipingu to bring mainstream attention to what is going on. This festival was a chance to drop by the Indigenous Tent and chill. Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter gave a relaxed family performance, talking about their love, their thoughts on the earth and basically how to get along. Touching and engaging. Gurrumal, as part of the Saltwater Band, made an appearance as well.

The Bamboos from Melbourne rip up classy deep funk (left) and mud (right)

C.W. Stoneking bought his 1920s New Orleans talking blues/funeral jazz thing. Not everyone's cup of tea. C.W. hails from Victoria, and immediately catches the ears with his odd American/outback Australian accent - telling fantastic stories of his daring escapes from cannibals in Africa, voodoo curses in New Orleans and the time he was tried before an animal court for punching a talking lion in the mouth. I can't get enough of this guy, his stories are as creative as they come, a real treasure for Australian music. Seasick Steve followed in a similar vein - hobo slide blues. Seasick Steve has a highlight of last year's festival and this year he returned with a hero's welcome. Seasick plays a range of modified junk guitars through a battered amp, in between his barn storming slide blues he told stories of his times living in chicken coups and behind florists.

   

Another highlight was the Drive-By Truckers from Alabama, USA. The guys played four times over the course of the five day festival, twice as themselves and twice supporting organ legend Booker T. Their sound was straight up Southern Rock. This was their first trip to Australia and they took the opportunity to dig deep into their eight album back catalogue. As a band they seemed genuinely happy to be there - closing off the festival, tucked away on a third level stage, playing to a tiny 200 people collection of soaked punters.

 

And that was that - another year, another Blues Fest. The weather finally broke the morning we packed to leave, bringing clean blue skies, warm seas and the greenest of green fields.

 

Byron Bay Blues & Roots Festival 2009 (what we managed to catch):

DAY ONE: Blind Boys of Alabama, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, Michael Franti, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. DAY TWO: Ayo, Dan Auerbach, Fishbone, Tim Finn, Saltwater Band. DAY THREE: C.W. Stoneking, Seasick Steve, Archie Roach, Watussi, Tinariwen, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7. DAY FOUR: Tim Finn, Son Venemo, Drive-By Truckers, The Bamboos. DAY FIVE: Matt Divett Band, Xavier Rudd, Missy Higgins, Special Beat, Easy Star All-Stars, Drive-By Truckers.