Date: June 2 & 3, 2000

Eureka Springs Blues Festival Arkansas - 2000!

Most blues fans are pretty hip to the Eureka Springs Blues Festival; it's just got that kind of rep! It is a unique festival in that the entire town of Eureka Springs, nestled in the hills of the ozarks, becomes one giant festival. Bands are playing everywhere, from bars and clubs, to Hotel Banquet rooms, to the town's concert auditorium. This year the downtown roads were closed to traffic, and blues-shuttles moved fans from venue to venue, to their heart's delight. Most venues offered double bills, with both acts ending the evening with a healthy hour or two of jamming together.

We played both Friday and Saturday nights at the beautiful old Crescent Hotel, built in 1875. And we shared the evening with Arkansas' own; The Cate Brothers. Artists like Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs and Coco Montoya have often cited the Cate Brothers as being one of their favorite all time bands. Please add me to that list of fans! Twin brothers Ernie and Earl Cate from the band on keyboards and guitar, with Ernie on vocals, and write most of the band's material. These guys are no beginners and time has only ripened and refined their talents. Listening to Ernie sing, you can quickly tell where John Hiatt got a lot of his style, but where Hiatt has developed a quirky edge to his voice, Ernie sounds smooth and soulful. Earl is one of the most innovative and melodic blues players you'll ever hear. He has perfected a guitar tone that is both big and round, and soulfully biting! He plays an early 50's telecaster that is one of the sweetest babies I've ever gotten my hands on.

Though the Cates go back to early Woodstock days, and spent a lot of years on the road with The Band, and Levon Helm, they have continued to produce material that other artists record. Both Coco Montoya and Sherman Robertson recorded "Am I Losing You," and most recently, Roomful Of Blues recorded "There Goes The Neighborhood," which is also the title of their most recent disk.

And do these guys love to jam! Man, we played for hours both nights after our respective sets. Between Ernie, Earl and myself, and their fantastic sax player, Dave, one song would be pushed into a million different grooves and colors, everyone playing off each other's ideas, going into that "final frontier," where musicians love to go - the audience undulating with all the twists and turns - probably forgetting entirely what the song actually began as - until after what was possibly a half hour, we would finally return to a recognizable riff, and return to the song! I think we must have been the "Grateful Dead" of the Blues that weekend! God Bless the Cates!

The festival also features many other jamming situations for the fans to choose to see. Electric guitar geniuses Jimmy Thackery, Tab Benoit & Earl Cate played an "acoustic" jam for the folks, and Saturday afternoon they "divided the sexes" for two, separate, electric jams.

I was sure grateful to be a guitar-slinger when I found out who the other "women jammers" would be: Three of the best female voices in the blues: Maria Muldaur, Kelly Hunt, and Memphis' own, Reba Russell! Jimmy Thackery's boys filled the rhythm section chairs, and Kelly Hunt, of course played keyboards. We all took turns backing each other up and my favorite was when Kelly Hunt called off "Bring It On Home" and we all chimed in with harmony vocals on the chorus! I was left with fantasies of doing some future performances and maybe even recording with some of these women.

Well, I hope everybody out there is enjoying a wonderful summer of sun and blues festivals. For a peak at some photos snapped at the Eureka Festival, click on the "PIX" button to the left!