Chicago singer Shemekia Copeland provided many captivating moments at Blues on the Fox festival.
Shemekia Copeland shows off her son at Blues on the Fox festival.
By ERIC SCHELKOPF
Despite some weather hiccups, the 21st annual Blues on the Fox festival in Aurora on June 16 and 17 provided many lasting memories. The weekend started off on a soaring note with two goddesses of the Chicago music scene - blues belter Shemekia Copeland and the legendary Mavis Staples.
Copeland is rightly called the Queen of the Blues these days, although she rejects the title, arguing that it should stay with the late Koko Taylor.
Although she took the stage with a cold, she shook it off in commanding fashion, tearing through songs such as "Pie in the Sky" along with delivering a passionate version of her father Johnny Copeland's signature song, "Ghetto Child."
The legendary Mavis Staples performed with a joyful exuberance that lifted the crowd at Blues on the Fox.
As fiery as her performance was, it couldn't match the one delivered by Staples, whose energy belies the fact that she is about to turn 78. She brought fresh energy to The Staples Singers' classics like "Respect Yourself" and "I'll Take You There" along with conveying a joyful exuberance that lifted the crowd.
Chicago musicians again ruled the day during the second day of Blues on the Fox as Guy King brought his soulful blues to the stage, provided some electrifying guitar licks alongside his band's tight horn section.
Unfortunately, an approaching storm cut Elvin Bishop's set short, but Bishop and his band made the most of their abbreviated time on stage. Bishop also has a Chicago connection as he was schooled in the Chicago blues while attending the University of Chicago.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist/songwriter Elvin Bishop performed on the second day of Blues on the Fox.
Bishop and his band played with the looseness of a group of people just hanging out to jam together. Because of their limited time on stage, they could only choose a few crowd favorites, such as the song "Got To Be New Orleans" and his hit single "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," brought to new life by the uplifting vocals of Willy Jordan.
Blues on the Fox has become a cultural treasure in the Chicagoland area. And hopefully those who came out to this year's festival treasured the musical gifts that were provided.
By ERIC SCHELKOPF One probably wouldn't think that someone born and raised in a small rural town in Israel would be schooled in the blues.
Guy King has been a growing force on the Chicago blues scene. He served as the lead guitarist and band leader inWillie Kent’s band for six years, until Kent’s passing in 2006 and then started a solo career.
King will perform as part of the Blues on the Fox festival on June 16 and 17 at RiverEdge Park, 360 N. Broadway, Aurora.
Gates open at 6 p.m. At 7 p.m. June 16, three-time Grammy nominee and international blues favorite Shemekia Copeland will take the stage, followed by Chicago’s own living legend, Mavis Staples, at 9 p.m.
Gates open at 2 p.m. for the second day of Blues on the Fox on June 17. "The Voice" veteran Nicholas David will take the stage at 3 p.m. He replaces Devon Allman, who has stepped away from touring in the wake of the passing of his father Gregg Allman. King will perform at 5 p.m., followed by Blues Hall of Famer, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy nominee Elvin Bishop at 7 p.m. and Jonny Lang at 9 p.m.
Tickets are $20 each per day. Children 12 and under are admitted free to Blues on the Fox, but must be accompanied by an adult 18 years or older. For tickets and information, visit RiverEdgeAurora.com, call the RiverEdge box office, 630-896-6666, or stop by in person at RiverEdge’s satellite box office, the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays.
The RiverEdge box office will also be open on-site both days for day of sales, beginning at noon. All tickets are general admission. Ticket fees are not included.
I had the chance to talk to King about the upcoming show.
Q - You are part of the bill at Blues on the Fox. As far as playing at a festival versus playing in a club, which do you prefer? Or do you like both experiences?
I like both, I have to admit. I think everyone that came up playing the regular way, the normal way or the old school way, played more in clubs in the beginning.
It's a great intimate feeling, [compared] to when you play a larger venue, like a theater or a hall or an outdoor stage. It's a different type of feeling, but I try to convey that intimacy that I experience playing at clubs with a larger outdoor audience.
Q - You do kind of have an unusual back story. You came from Israel, so do people ask you about your background and how you fell into the blues?
Yes, I get that asked a lot. I understand that it's not traditional, that it's a different story than your common one. I understand that. I respect that.
I was exposed to a lot of things on the radio. I remember hearing Michael Jackson and David Bowie. I was playing clarinet at a very young age, so I was exposed to classical music and big band.
And I picked up the guitar mostly by ear when I was 13 years old. Through my brother, I was exposed to musicians like Eric Clapton, which lead me to Stevie Ray Vaughan.
In Israel, it was very difficult to get a blues album back then. Like when I came here, I feel very fortunate that I was able to go to a store and pick up a T-Bone Walker album.
Q - Are the blues catching on in Israel?
I don't know. I don't know. The truth is, I haven't performed there much. I came here at a younger age.
I think there's more exposure now to the blues, and more knowledge than when I was growing up there. It's not to the point where it's being played nightly in the club.
Q - It's been a good year for you. Your latest album, "Truth," which was released in February 2016, is getting rave reviews, and was nominated for a 2017 Blues Music Award in the category of "best emerging artist album." You've been around for a while. Does it feel strange to be called an emerging artist?
A few people have asked me the same thing. But I understand how it goes. Sometimes the definition of emerging artist is not like this new artist. Maybe I was not traveling stateside that much, even when I was playing with Willie Kent. We were really performing a lot more in Chicago, and doing a few hit and run shows elsewhere in the United States.
Most of our travel was overseas, so I understand why I went unnoticed maybe a little bit. But I was very glad to receive this nomination. It's great to know that the album "Truth" did very well.
I'm still performing material from it, and I'm looking forward to performing it at Blues on the Fox as well. It was a great year, and I'm looking forward to hopefully an even better one.
Q - What were your goals for "Truth" and do you think you accomplished them?
I think we achieved what I wanted to do. Really, the goal was pretty simple - to stay focused around the feeling of the music and the way I sound and feel it right now.
Right now, meaning when we recorded it. I think the album reflects who I was then. So I was able to get my message across.
Most of the things I had done before were for my own independent label, and "Truth" was done for Delmark, so I hoped that we'd get more notoriety and more people noticing what I do, which it did, so we achieved that.
I kind of wanted them to know some of what I do, kind of like, 'Hello, I'm Guy King.' It's like a business card.
Q - Of course, "Truth" was your first album for Chicago's Delmark Records. Are you pleased that it made such an impact, seeing it was your first album for Delmark?
Yeah, very much, very much. I'm very glad of that. I was happy with the sonic quality of it. And then when people started responding to it, then of course I was happy about it.
Q - I've had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Marie Young and I was wondering how you hooked up with her for the duet on "Truth."
Sarah is now my wife and the mother of our firstborn. We got married April 2, so it's fresh.
Even before that, we were already spending time together. I knew that Sarah was a wonderful vocalist and a great singer.
We talked, and she said she would love to sing background with my background singers on the album. And then I asked Sarah what she would think about doing a duet, to kind of break up [the album] a little bit and add a female voice.
She said it would be a pleasure and an honor. We were looking for a number, and I wrote this tune - "My Happiness" - originally for me to sing. We tried, at first with an acoustic guitar, just her and I, and it sounded great.
I came up with the arrangements for the horns, and it was quick and natural.
Q - So are you guys going to collaborate more, now that you are married?
Time will tell. We will probably, but there's no date as far as an album or any duet or any performance yet, but we do enjoy each other's work a lot and do enjoy performing together.
No promises, but I think I speak for the both of us when I say we would love to do more together.
Q - A person can't call you a strict blues player, because you kind of weave in and out of blues and jazz and big band as well. But it seems like you are comfortable in all those genres and it seems like you are trying to bring all those genres together.
The way I look at music is maybe a little bit different than as you say, "purists." When I play the blues, I think I play as bluesy as anybody who plays blues. My influences are probably some of the most wonderful blues players that ever lived - I'm talking about B.B. King, Albert King, Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, T-Bone Walker or many others that I can name.
I listen to a lot of them and I appreciate and admire a lot of their work. Being self-taught mostly, I call them my teachers. But I also understood early on that the feeling of the music is what makes music great.
That feeling can be a part of what people call jazz, or a ballad, or standards or rhythm and blues. I'm always going to play bluesy because I believe in it.
It's a deep feeling, and I try to bring it to everything I sing or play. This is my goal.
Q - Of course, you were Willie Kent's lead guitarist and band leader for six years. As far as what you learned from him, what were the big lessons that he taught you?
He taught me a lot of stuff. We were playing a lot of blues, what people would call blues, but even Willie would throw in a rhythm and blues number, a soul number or some ballad.
He taught me that the feeling of the music is what gets the message across. I saw that on a nightly basis. He delivered. He sang with conviction and meant what he said and said what he meant on stage on a nightly basis.
I had to play my best behind him to try to keep up. I would like to think that I'm giving my listeners and my fans the same piece of my heart and my feelings when I perform.
On its latest EP, "The Arbor Sessions," Chicago band bluefront takes listeners on an emotional ride.
bluefront will perform at 11:30 a.m. June 10 at the Old Town Art Fair at the Old Town Triangle Association Building, 1763 N. Park Ave., Chicago. More information is available at www.oldtownartfair.org.
I had the chance to talk to bluefront frontman Alan Zreczny about the band:
Q - Is there a meaning behind the band's name? How did the band come together? What do you think each member brings to the table?
Yes.
bluefront comes from this store in Ann Arbor Michigan that basically
sold doritos, snickers bars, toothpaste and kegs of beer. Many, many
kegs of beer.
When I was thinking of a band name, my sister told me to
think about a great time in my life and asked me to remind her what
street my friends and I lived on in college. Arbor Street didn’t seem
like a good idea, to say the least, but then I thought of the Blue
Front.
No one knew where Arbor Street was, but everyone knew where we
lived when we would say - two doors down from the Blue Front. So I just
made it one word, all lowercase and here we are.
I
met Jason Steele probably 12 years ago when looking for a new jazz/theory teacher. As I started writing and performing, I was set to
open for one of his bands when he asked if I wanted him to play on a few
tunes.
He did, we loved how it sounded and then it
just kept going from there. We met Nick Kabat through the same person
who introduced me to Jason.
We should really name the band after our
mutual friend.
Jason
and Nick are amazing musicians. They bring everything that fills in
the spaces of the songs and make them into something I could never have
imagined.
Listening to them is my favorite part of playing together.
Q - How
do you juggle being a musician with running your family business, Audio
Consultants? I know the business started in 1967. Did being around the
business influence your decision at all to get into the music business?
I
guess I just do what I have to do to get things done, nothing conscious
really. Music is important to my parents and they made sure we had a
music education/lessons, even when my sister and I were not
that interested.
Being around the business taught
me about listening to music and since music was always around our
house, in some form or another, probably had something to do with it.
Q - You
previously were a corporate finance lawyer. How did you transition into
being a musician? Are you glad that you made the switch?
I
always felt I should be writing and playing music, even when pulling
all nighters trying to close deals, so it was always there. Very glad
to have left that behind.
Q - What do you think of the Chicago music scene and how do you see yourself fitting into it?
I
like that I have met people I never would have met in my old life. Not
only that, but there seems to be, for the most part, a true feeling of
support and camaraderie.
I just hope I do my part in that.
Q - What does the rest of the year hold for bluefront? What are the long term goals for the band?
Hopefully to get more and more interesting gigs, add a bass player and record.
Chicago musician Andy Pratt's love for musicians like Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits are on full display on his debut album, "Horizon Disrupted."
In support of the new album, Pratt and his trio will perform a free show at 9 p.m. May 24 at the Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont Ave., Chicago.
I had the chance to talk to Pratt about the new album, which was engineered by well-known producer Steve Albini. Q - Great talking to you. In sitting down to make "Horizon Disrupted," what were your goals and do you think you accomplished them?
My most basic goal with "Horizon" was to document a collection of songs
that I had been writing over the past five years. My next goal was to
hear these songs arranged for a string quartet along with a standard
guitar/vocals, bass, and drums trio. Ultimately, I wanted to have all of
the above properly recorded. Not only do I feel that I accomplished
these goals, but I also could not be happier with how the album turned
out.
Q - Is there a meaning behind the album's title?
Yes and no. I like to think that the meaning can be different and
personal to each listener.
For one person, it could be about lost or
unrequited love. For another, it could be about missed chances, stifled
progress or just a pause.
And while this album was not conceived as a
political vehicle, it could reflect the current climate that our country
is in. "Horizon Disrupted" also relates to the title track which on the
surface is about how disappointing it is that there is not a good
sunset, or really any sunset across Lake Michigan in Chicago…but there
is a reward…if you're a morning person.
Q - How did you hook up with Steve Albini and what do you think he brought to the project?
In January of 2016 I emailed Electrical Audio, the studio that Steve
built and owns, and told the studio manager about the project with
strings that I was working on. He said that Steve was interested in
engineering the record. My ensemble and I went into the studio in July
of the same year and spent four days there. Steve brought his very
special thing to the project. He has a way of capturing the best of the
natural/organic aspects of a voice or instrument. He knows exactly what
microphones to use, he's quick, and he doesn't like to waste time. He
records exclusively to analog tape…there wasn't a computer that was ever
used during the session. There were two days of tracking followed
immediately by two days of mixing. Every performance was tracked
simultaneously/live with the string quartet in the studio. The mixing
process involved a lot of quick decision making. And by the end of the
four days, I had a mixed album. Steve helped create a warmth,
atmosphere, and truth that I don't believe I could have found with many
of his contemporaries.
Q - It seems that Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits are strong influences in your music. How would you say they have influenced you?
With both of them, I really love how they tell stories through their
music. They both are poets, respect melody, and utilize the spoken word. To be honest, I've spent a little more time with Waits's music. I
admire and am fascinated by the different stages his music went through
from the '70s until now. In terms of his vocals, I love that he isn't
afraid to try different voices and effects. I also admire the theatrical
angle that he adds to his shows. I'm trying to add some more of that
to my performances…not to copy his work, but to find my own way of doing
things.
Q - Of course, there is another Andy Pratt who is best known for his song
"Avenging Annie." Do you have to constantly explain to people that you
are not "that" Andy Pratt? Or do you see it as another way to introduce
people to your music?
This is always kind of a funny topic. He actually befriended me on
Myspace about 10 years ago or so. He was very kind in his introduction
and recognized we were both musicians with the same name. There has been
a time or two where someone would show up to one of my shows thinking
that the other Andy was going to be there. And venues/show listings have
used his picture for promotion by accident before. But usually most
people know that we are separate artists. I do like to mention to people
on the phone or via email that my message/call is not from the Boston
Andy Pratt of '70s rock fame. So, it is a nice icebreaker.
Q - What do you think of the Chicago music scene and how do you think you fit into it?
Chicago has a fantastic music scene. The city is filled with great
musicians and honest/cool people. There are venues to play and musicians
are treated well. The second part of this question is a bit more
tricky. My roots and training are in jazz. Most nights of the week I'll
be playing and/or singing the songs of Cole Porter, George Gershwin,
Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, etc…American Songbook material.
While a
lot of these artists and songs have influenced my own writing both
lyrically and harmonically, the music I've documented on "Horizon" is a
different thing. This music doesn't really fit at a club such as The
Jazz Showcase or Andy's Jazz Club. It really works better at other types
of venues. So, I'm still figuring out exactly where I fit in the scene.
I want to push my own music as far as it will go and keep moving
forward, but it's also important to me to maintain my jazz background.
