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| Robby Krieger |
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Last year some of my favorite
music-related moments of the year took place at The Simi Valley Cajun &
Blues Music Festival (like seeing Leon Russell sit in with Booker T for “Green
Onions,” and an absolutely joyous set by Dwayne Dopsie), and so I’d been
excited for weeks now about this year’s festival. The lineup of bands for
Saturday was particularly exciting, as it included Lazy Lester, The Yardbirds
and Robby Krieger, as well as Dwayne Dopsie And The Zydeco Hellraisers (though
they’d be doing a set on Sunday too). Basically, I had planned on spending the
entire day at the blues stage. There are two stages, you see, one dedicated to
the blues and one to Cajun and zydeco. I was determined to get there in time for Kelly’s
Lot, who kicked off the day just after noon. I love this band, and missed their
set last year because they likewise were the first band of the day and, well, I
think I was still asleep. This time I managed to get there a few minutes before
they started and learned that lead singer Kelly Zirbes is going to be putting
out a new album soon on vinyl. So there was good news even before the music
started.
Kelly’s Lot kicked off their
set with “Hush Up,” the lead-off track from
Don’t
Give My Blues Away, which is the song that gave that CD its title.
Basically every member of the band got a chance to shine on this song, with
particularly good work on trumpet, keys and saxophone. They did some other
songs from that album, including “Taking Time” and “Reason For The Blues” (both
of which – as well as “Hush Up” – were also on
Live In Brussels). In introducing “Reason For The
Blues,” Kelly said, “
This song is about a
toxic relationship that you just can’t get enough of.” That song featured
nice stuff from Dave Welch on horn, and by Perry Roberton on guitar. And of
course they did some material from their excellent new album,
Bittersweet, including “Mr. Chairman”
and “Rise Above.” Before “Rise Above,” Kelly Zirbes joked briefly about singing
Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You.”
It was a damn good set to get
the day in motion, but after Kelly’s Lot was done, it was announced from the
stage that Gregg Allman had died. It was known that he’d had health problems of
late, but the news still came as a surprise, as death almost always does. That
might have been around the time I had my first drink of the day. It was also
the first time I spoke with Lazy Lester, who was kind enough to take a photo
with me (later I had a short conversation with him about music, particularly
about the song that was playing over the sound system at that moment between
acts). When he was introduced, he was called “this young man.” And indeed when I said to my friend, “I hope I
have as much as energy when I’m his age,” he answered, “I don’t have that much
energy now.” Lazy Lester’s set was certainly one of the day’s highlights. Not
only can the man still sing a great tune and play the hell out of a harmonica
(and also play guitar), but he has a good sense of humor. Responding to the
audience’s enthusiastic applause early in his set, he said, “I can’t see you, but I know you’re there.”
And he joked about someone telling him he was covering a Kinks song, when of
course it was the other way around. The song in question is “I’m A Lover, Not A
Fighter,” which Lazy Lester recorded in 1958 and released as a single. Someone
in the audience called out, asking him how old he is. Lester replied: “I’m not old. I’ve been around a long time.”
He then told the crowd he’ll be 84 next month. The Bayou Brothers, who were
backing him, were clearly elated, and so was I, and so was much of the crowd. I
loved his version of “Sing Me Back Home,” on which he played guitar. He was
joined by a washboard player for the second half of his set, and ended the set
with “Jambalaya,” Lazy Lester delivering some absolutely fantastic stuff on
harmonica. “Don’t ask me when I’m coming
back because I haven’t left yet,” he told the crowd at the end of his set.
We had about fifteen minutes
before The Yardbirds were scheduled to go on (and yes, this festival sticks very
closely to its schedule), so my friend and I used the time to have some edibles
and then head over to the Cajun stage to check out Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
& The Golden Eagles. Good stuff, but
we only had enough time to catch part of a great jam before having to head back
to the blues stage for The Yardbirds. As for The Yardbirds, there is only one
original member left – Jim McCarty on drums and backing vocals. But then again,
this was always a band that was changing its lineup. Even its most famous
members – Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page – were each in the band for
only a few years. And only one of them (Eric Clapton) was an original member.
And the current lineup sounds great. They opened their set with “Heart Full Of
Soul,” a hit for the band in 1965. And the set was basically a greatest hits
kind of thing, including “Shapes Of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down.” Jim
McCarty sang lead on “Back Where I Started.” They ended the set with “For Your
Love” straight into “Happenings Ten Years Ago” straight into “Dazed And
Confused” (the last being a song that The Yardbirds had performed before Led
Zeppelin did it, and featuring some great work on harmonica). The set also
included a good drum solo. The encore was “Train Kept A-Rollin’” with the drums
leading from that straight into “I’m A Man.” And the band really jammed during
the encore.
It wasn’t until after The
Yardbirds’ set that I realized the drugs had kicked in. It was a body thing at
first, my legs becoming a bit gooey and not entirely to be trusted. But they
did get me back to the front of the stage in time for Robby Krieger’s set.
Robby started with a little tribute to Gregg Allman before going into a set of
Doors material, with his son Waylon taking lead vocal duties. They kicked it
off with “Break On Through,” followed by “Back Door Man” straight into “Five To
One.” Unlike The Doors, this band had a bass player, giving the songs a
different feel (of course, The Doors did employ bass players on some of their
studio recordings). They also did “Moonlight Drive,” which is one of my
favorite Doors songs, and followed it with “Wild Child.” Waylon Krieger then
encouraged the crowd to come closer to the stage. The way the place was set up,
which was different from previous years, there was a fenced-off area near the
front for folks with some kind of special tickets called “Super Tickets,” which
cost a lot more. You had to have bought one of those passes in order to get in.
My friend and I had backstage and media passes, and even we were turned away
from that area. The problem was that not everyone who had tickets to that area
was present, so there were several empty chairs in the front, with large groups
of people behind that and to the sides. And so, during “Who Do You Love,”
several people accepted Waylon’s invitation to enter that area. That led to
some trouble with the security folks, who then tried to remove all those people.
Waylon apologized and said everyone had to go back, and eventually they
did. I had mixed feelings about it, of course. The band did a nice long version
of “When The Music’s Over.” Actually, by then I was seriously stoned, so I have
no idea how long the song really was.
Robby Krieger did the band
introductions, and then a horn section joined the band for “The Changeling,”
which included a playful nod to “Chain Of Fools” and a bit of “Sunshine Of Your
Love” at the end. They followed that with “Touch Me” and then “Roadhouse Blues.”
During “Roadhouse Blues,” some security folks gathered near me, putting some
plan into action – “You take stage right,” and so on – so something was about
to go down and I was made privy to the plan, making me wonder if I should warn folks. But moments later I had forgotten
all about it, as the band went into “20th Century Fox,” and I have to say that
Waylon sounded just exactly right on this. When I looked away from the stage, I
could sense the magic. Then looking back dispelled it, as he seems so young. He
then asked for requests before the band went into “Light My Fire,” during which
I was developing a mighty thirst. The band jammed on this song, as you’d
expect, with the horn section delivering some wonderful stuff. That led
straight into an instrumental version of “Eleanor Rigby” and then on into an
instrumental version of “My Favorite Things” (a surprise, to be sure), before
going back into “Light My Fire,” with bass and drum solos. That was how the set ended; there was no
encore.
Dwayne Dopsie And The Zydeco
Hellraisers were a highlight of last year’s festival, and so I was excited to
see them again. On this day they were playing on the blues stage (though
actually they had also done a set earlier in the day on the Cajun stage), and
they tailored their set accordingly, opening with “Born Under A Bad Sign,”
though without Dwayne. Dwayne came on stage partway through the following tune,
an instrumental. What they were doing was good, but I was itching for a zydeco
fix, and as several people last year had told me not to miss Doug Kershaw (I
did, in fact, miss him last year), my friend and I decided to walk over to the
other stage and catch a bit of his set. There was a problem with feedback,
which Doug immediately turned into a joke. Between songs there, we could hear
the music coming from the blues stage, and ended up going back there to catch
the very end of Dwayne’s set. Actually, he was going to do one more song, but
word came from the park people that they needed to shut down, and so that was
that. It was certainly an anti-climactic ending to the day, as the music sort
of fizzled out, but with promises of a good tomorrow coming from Dwayne Dopsie
before he left the stage.
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