2015 Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues and Crawfish Festival
Spanish Landing Park
San Diego, CA
May 7.8.9.10, 2015
The Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues and Crawfish Festival is no one-trick-pony of a festival. It’s more like a piñata filled with dance candy from all over the world. We’re talking Cajun, zydeco, swing, honk tonk, Texas two-step, cha-cha, smoky blues, salsa, cumbia,and waltzes served up by mostly San Diego area bands that can shoot the lights out at every stage on which they perform. San Diegans I chatted with said every weekend is filled with dance venues where you can hear many of these bands plus other gems every weekend.
Spanish Landing Park, nestled between the shores of the West Basin of San Diego Bay and San Diego International Airport, is one of the most picture perfect festival venues on the map. The long grassy sliver on other days is sought out for romantic picnics, family outings, Frisbee flying, sun bathing, dog walking, or lollygagging. It’s a pretty busy place on weekends. This particular weekend, the organizers erect two huge pavilions and lay temporary dance floors underneath.
The largely volunteer group erects two smaller stages strategically placed in the middle of the park, each with a bouncy temporary dance floor. Sound from one stage never interferes with sound from another, quite a feat considering. And the sound systems are big bold steamer trunk sized boxes that pump far enough out into the crowd to get everybody tapping their feet. Stand next to one and you’re grateful you’re wearing ear protection. Bales of hay are set around the two big stages and the smaller Fountain Stage for weary dancers and casual listeners.
Approximately 36 acts at four stages perform today, Saturday May 9, from 11 am till 8 pm plus eight sessions at The Bayou Grove, a small patch of tree shaded park in which musicians talk about their craft and play samples to explain to listeners who sit on bales of hay a few feet away. Oh and a Cooking Tent Demo Stage in which on Saturday chefs demonstrate everything from how to make beignets to pralines, barbie shrimp, and build a muffaletta.
Fountain Stage: Casey Hensley 12:20 PM to 1:20 PM, blues/soul, a real gritty belter. "Who are your inspirations" I ask after the show. "Etta James, Robert Plant, Janis Joplin, Howlin' Wolf, Big Mama Thornton, Aretha Franklin, to name a few," she replies. This girl is big-time, big voice get down and dirty smoky blues, she lets it all hang out, fabulous dance opportunities.
Not yet 20 years old, this Oceanside, CA singer songwriter pours it on, songs range from R & B to soul to funky hip hoppy stylings, and rock roll. Time will tell how she takes her act on the road and grows her act in CA
Bourbon stage I:30 PM to 2:30 PM Robin Henkel with Billy Watson and Whitney Shay. Horns and harmonica swing, slinky and bumptious, gritty blues. Band leader says all the guys in the group play separately, on their own, or with other bands, this is one talented bunch of musicians. Didn't catch it on video but when Henkel unleashes a slide guitar lick, watch out,momma! San Diego is loaded with musicians like this, time and again I hear what a musical hotbed San Diego is on every weekend. Don't have it on video but when Robin (red cap) rips into a slide guitar riff, you are reminded of great bottleneck players of the past from Hendrix right on down.
ROBIN HENKEL VIDEO "I'M A WOMAN" SIZZLES
Agua Dulce - Fountain Stage 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM. Agua Dulce. salsa, cha-cha, merengue, propulsive get up and dance music. Latin, cumbia, funk, with vocals percussion, bass, trumpet, guitar,Afro Cuban latin poppy swingy happy with a bright sort of mariachi sound that brings out the sun in your soul and the sass in your ass.
Music that makes you want to shake what your maker gave you whether you know how to dance or not. Check out the dance floor and you see what I mean. The bandleader is a multi-instrument threat: the, trumpet, cowbell, the works. Everybody plays with gusto guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion, and this pretty much goes for every damn band on the program this year. The group plays tight arrangements just the right length for dancers. A big plus as far as I'm concerned. Unless for some really good reason, more than four minutes is just too damn long.
http://aguadulcemusic.com/about/
Gal Holiday and The Honky Tonk Revue. Happy marriage between country and honky tonk and rockabilly with Gal Holiday, née Vanessa Niemann, who unleashed her husky contralto into songs stamped with styling and delivery reminiscent of Patsy Cline and a few other iconic women who sing from the heart and not for the chart. For dancers, Gal Holiday delivers music that satisfies every urge to waltz swing or two step. We are listening to a non formulaic set list of heart breaky love or country blues, classic and the delivery is pure and musically solid and tight, down to the bone renditions that don’t clog the set with unnecessary solos, just enough of them to show that this crack band knows how deliver crisp incisive licks then give the song back to Niemann to send it right to your heart.
Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue. Great country, standard honky-tonk, excellent musicianship tight band, a long legged, punk rock type hairdo, righteous colorful tattoo up and down her left arm and Lord knows where else, this woman can see everything from Patsy Cline to Hank Williams' "You Win Again" which she describes as a swamp pop song, does it Louisiana justice. Plays honky-tonk, swing, two step, waltzes and for the hell of it ads in a cover of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice," my goodness.
http://galholiday.com/
GAL HOLIDAY VIDEO 2 LOVESICK BLUES
Goma plays music based on Chicha music of Peru influenced by cumbia, surf rock and Andean folk music. This is is one of the best things about Gator By The Bay, a festival not afraid to mine the genres played in San Diego that echo the river of cultures that flow through its music and social scene. https://www.reverbnation.com/goma9
Bourbon Stage 4:10 PM to 5:10 PM. Stoney B Blues, "raw blues" and that's the truth.
The man sings a 10 minute version of BB Kings "I'm a man" that pulls out every stop in the blues kingdom. His bandmates having a say all the way along and keyboard player taking two solos halfway to heaven. This is so damn mesmerizing a performance that many stand in awe, forgetting to dance just to take in the serious visceral experience of this man's cover of a legend and a legendary song. http://www.stoneybbluesmusician.com
STONEY B BLUES VIDEO 1 BIG TIME cover of Muddy Waters' "I'm A Man"
STONEY B BLUES VIDEO 2 "Chantilly Lace"
2:50 PM to 3:50 PM, Bourbon Stage, San Diego Cajun Playboys, French Cajun music.
5 PM to 6 PM, The Fountain Stage. The Stilettos, 50s jump blues and rockabilly. This group is in Canada, you'd never know it from there style and energy. Very high-voltage rockabilly, and take no prisoners style that raucously charges through one instrumentally powerful song after another. Four of them make one hell of a joyful noise. Tina Star, the young sassy drummer wearing black sleeveless top tank top that shows off her the tattoo on her upper left shoulder, short hair, red lipstick, dark eyebrows, stands as she plays her drum set and adds vocals, well. Then there is Tommy Price, the big bicep tattooed guitar player wearing sleeveless vest festoons with buttons and pins. Bass player, an Asian guy, tattooed forearms and great hands that beat on the standup bass and twirling around like it was a slinky partner on the dance floor. For sheer energy, this group takes today's prize. http://tommypriceandthestilettos.com/about.html
THE STILETTOS VIDEO 1 cover of "These Boots Were Made for Walkin'"
THE STILETTOS VIDEO 2 cover of Buddy Holly's "Oh, Boy"
6:10 PM to 7:10 PM fountain stage, Blue Largo, 40s and 50s swing. Another Latin influenced dance band that is lights out for dancers to swing, cha-cha, salsa, rumba, all done to a sunny Latin beat, from high-voltage to high-intensity slow drags and blues. Blue Largo has a big San Diego following since 1999 when guitar player Eric Liebermann and singer Alicia Aragon formed the band. They do great covers of Ruth Brown, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Nat King Cole. http://www.bluelargoblues.com/
At the Bourbon Street Stage, May 9, 2015 Kenny Rankins' first influences were gospel music which were his launch pad into the world of the Blues. Rankins relocated to San Diego in the 1990s where he now has a loyal following. When you’ve played with or opened for Etta James, B.B. King, Etta James, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown you’ve got credibility. The man is a born showman, could carry his act on his showmanship alone. He is a virtuoso as his fingers dance up and down the frets of his guitar which he can play sideways, upside down, and lord knows how many other ways (including with his teeth!). A Grammy award winner, his goofy showmanship can undercut the sheer virtuosity of his talent if you're not paying attention. http://fuzzyrankinsblues.com/
FUZZY RANKINS FABULOUSLY SHOWBOATS MVI 9565
FUZZY RANKINS Delights, Vamps, Bluesifies MVI 9571
8 PM Festival stage Sue Palmer, Queen of Boogie-Woogie, a huge (almost) all-female entourage that absolutely wrings out every last bit of energy that a huge crowd of dancers has left in the tank. They do not call this woman the queen of boogie-woogie for nothing. She puts her stamp on high-energy swing and boogie Woogie plus splendid stop the clock examples of slow drag and get close and personal dances that cause a a man and a woman to test their DNA by pressing their bodies together in dance. http://www.suepalmer.com/index.html
Regrettably no video!
About 15,000 people will roam through the park this weekend. Advance sale 3-day tickets online cost $95 for early birds, jump substantially after February opening sales. "Day of" tickets May 8, $35; May 9, $40; May 10, $40.
Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
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