2023-06-20 11:33:03
Lausanne, Switzerland, June 2 and 3, 2023.
Back from a trip to Crississippi, land of “deep and dirty blues”, slide guitars and one woman bands, for a 13th edition rich in emotions.
Village festival, country picnic, family reunion, weekend with friends, it’s a bit like Blues Rules. The organizers have indeed succeeded over time in reconciling a surprisingly good-natured atmosphere, the ages, origins or nationalities of the spectators having no importance, and a demanding musical program centered on the original blues of Mississippi. The site is welcoming with food trucks, record stores, local beers and wines, a small interset stage, and comfortable with garden furniture, deck chairs, benches and picnic tables. The majority of the loyal public is not necessarily very connoisseur of the subtleties of the program while greatly appreciating the performances of the groups and artists offered.
This year, the (virtual) godmother of the event is none other than Jessie Mae Hemphill, the North Mississippi Hill Country singer-guitarist who died in 2006. As always, the line-up features African-American artists and groups from the hills of the northern Mississippi, often adding to the line-up European groups influenced by this musical genre and paying homage to the founders (Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside and therefore Hemphill). With 16 artists or groups over two days, it started at 6 p.m. and ended between 1 and 2 a.m.! Let’s take a look back at the most striking sets of these two intense days.
Only European date this Friday for a new duo, the devil Molly Genesinger and slide guitarist from Missouri, is associated with the Californian angelica Sarah Rogo, singer and slide guitarist. The two accomplices offer a Mississippi blues mixed with roots gospel and Indian raga which turns out to be seductive. Molly Rogo, for her first visit to Europe, asserts herself as a singer to follow.
Sarah Rogo et Molly Gene Sarah Rogo
A little later, the Belgian guitarist There was Ghaliawell known to the French public, and who has been performing since 2020 as a one woman band, confirms that the years spent traveling the southern United States have contributed to making her an irresistible artist in concert, vocally impressive and instrumentally fierce.
There was Ghalia
Then comes the surprise of the day, in this exclusively female Friday poster, with Natalia M. King. We remember the rebellious artist who in the early 2000s offered a tough alternative rock and we find her today as a high-class blues singer and guitarist. The revolt is more subtle, its blues is matured for a long time and all the more intense. Very well accompanied by French musicians, she is the sensation of the day, to be seen once more in Paris perhaps soon.
Natalia M. King
Comes the end of this first evening, and with nightfall it is time to switch to the atmosphere of today’s Mississippi juke-joints with first Peggy Hemphill alias Lady TruckerThen Johnny B. and his partner Queen Iretta Sanders. Excellent impression especially with Lady Trucker, pillar, with her husband the drummer Artemas Lesueur (one of the mentors of Cedric Burnside), of the contemporary regional scene, which makes the public dance with her lascivious blues and her second degree lyrics. It should be noted that in addition to her husband on drums, she is accompanied by Janky on guitar and two members of the Belgian group Well Well Well who do their job superbly and who can be found the next followingnoon on the interset scene.
Lady Trucker
Johnie B. et Queen Iretta Sanders
Saturday is a big day since it is programmed exclusively for Europe Mr. Bobby Rush, but also later in the evening Memphissippi Sounds, the blues rap duo made up of Cameron Kimbrough and Yella P, which we told you regarding in our number 245. Along with Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush is quite simply one of the last living legends of the blues. The native of Louisiana, who turns 90 in November, does not fail to remind us that he rubbed shoulders in the fifties with Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. He made the trip just accompanied by one of his dancers and singers, called MizzLove, and it is therefore a largely acoustic set, guitar and harmonica, that he will offer for almost an hour.
Bobby Rush – MizzLove (Official Music Video) Bobby Rush – Memphis (Official Music Video)
No offense to the sorrowful spirits who were waiting for a “full band” show with its irresistible dancing side and all its assumed excesses, his solo performance allowed us to discover a perhaps more true and moving aspect of the artist, close from his roots and happy to share his true blues with a grateful audience. Covers of classics linked with vocal improvisations where folklore, true stories and lyrics of other songs are mixed, it’s not even that Bobby Rush masters his subject, it’s that he is quite simply in his element, free and relaxed. A real lesson in original deep blues.
The last half hour will see his MizzLove join him on stage as well as all the members of Well Well Well for a finale where Rush does the expected show, rolling his hips, challenging the public and praising the “physical” merits of his dancer! A special mention for Lord Bernardo, the Belgian harmonica player, absolutely breathtaking in his exchanges with the boss who also pushes him to breathe more and more, happy with this quality support.
Memphissippi Sounds will then be one of the last two bands of the evening and of the festival, their fresh and powerful synthesis of Hill Country blues, Memphis soul and contemporary hip-hop still retains the last spectators a little, then the sweet Lausanne night definitely absorbs the starters. . Appointment is made for next year!
Text : Eric Heintz
Photos © Severine Gonzalez – cvrin prod
Thomas Lecuyer, Stringybark McDowell, Vincent Delsupexhe
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#Blues #Rules #Crissier #Festival