The fifth annual Pender Harbour Blues Festival brought local and outside talent together for its best year yet, each act as different as the blues can be. The House Band remained the same each night, the headliners dropped in, and although most had not played with each other before, it cooked.
Friday night at the Garden Bay Pub featured Juno-nominated Neil Harnett, an intense, working-it-hard bluesman, his voice, guitars and the House Band pushed to the limit. The House Band was Peter van Deursen on keyboards, Lisa Simons on bass and Don Powrie on drums. Harnett did a blistering version of Albert King's "Someday After Awhile" and his original "Into the Emptiness" was a perfect anthem of life's search for the way. The same night in Egmont's Backeddy Pub, Sheldon Bradley and Ruth McGillivray rocked, backed by locals Chris Andersen and Pat Haavisto. Native bluesman Murray Porter soloed at the Bud-a-Bing Saturday noon, oozing class and quiet joy. A regular on APTN's Rez Blues, Porter's gravely voice, lightening keyboard and soulful style captivated the audience. His cover of John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith in Me" brought goose bumps, his original love songs were reverent, and his songs of racism were biting. To a border guard: "Where's your white man's card? / Prove to me you ain't black! / Where's your white man's card? / Mister, get off my back." The ethereal James Rogers produced music that took one's breath away at the Garden Bay Pub Saturday night. Second set, a woman leaned over and said; "There's magic happening here." Exactly. The room was packed, and the House Band was on fire, stoked by Rogers' natural brilliance. Rogers' cover of Tom Lavin's, "Hear That Guitar Ring" was simply great, and his haunting love song "Tiffany" came from another world. A rollicking All Star Jam at the Garden Bay Pub Sunday afternoon offered every kind of blues - hot, cold, man-done-me-wrong, woman-gone-and-left-me - performed by a constantly changing cast of local, visiting and headliner musicians.
Sunday night, the festival's perfect "clean-up man," Oliver Conway, took the stage with his bad-boy blues, funky guitar, brilliant mouth harp and all or nothing voice. Rogers sat in on second guitar, and the magic continued. "Hey Little Schoolgirl" set a hard driving tone, and Conway's cover of John Hiatt's ballad "Feels Like Rain" exposed the vulnerability of loss. The House Band kicked out, Simons with a tender bass solo on "Feels Like Rain," Van Deursen wicked on "Hey Little Schoolgirl," and Powrie in the back holding it all together. Kudos to Ron Johnson, Mark Vance the volunteers and festival president Chris Andersen - the festival was a veritable feast, offering everything a blues lover could want.
