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1st Holland International Blues Festival: pics and clips

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ABBDutchFan
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I was unpleasantly surprised when this festival was sold out months in advance. Took me by surprise. When Jimmie Vaughan's performance was cancelled and replaced by the debut show of Supersonic Blues Machine i went on a mission to get a ticket and after 2 weeks on the prowl i finally succeeded. What a fab line-up:

Saturday 4 June 2016:

ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND

JJ GREY & MOFRO

SUPERSONIC BLUES MACHINE FT. BILLY GIBBONS, ROBBEN FORD & WALTER TROUT (holy crap!!!)

TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND

BONNIE RAITT

Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin

[Edited on 6/9/2016 by ABBDutchFan]

 
Posted : May 27, 2016 11:07 am
CanadianMule
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Did you get one for each of us too?

Looks like a great lineup. Have fun!

 
Posted : May 27, 2016 11:47 am
WarEagleRK
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Great lineup.

While I'm not particularly a fan of Walter Trout, but I am glad to see that he is healthy enough to be back on the road again.

 
Posted : May 27, 2016 12:42 pm
harvey
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Wow ... what a great line-up Roger ... that Supersonic Blues Machine sounds interesting ... look forward to your review!

 
Posted : May 27, 2016 1:26 pm
BrerRabbit
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No doubt, let us know how it goes!

 
Posted : May 27, 2016 2:06 pm
ABBDutchFan
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After a long journey for Dutch standards 😉 (aprox. 4 hours by train from the south of the Netherlands to the North) i arrived at the hotel in the afternoon. While drinking my first brewskie in the summer sun (after days of heavy rain and thunderstorms) i quickly found out that The Tedeschi Trucks Band was staying at our hotel. Or at least a couple of TTB members. Spotted Kofi, the backing vocalist and sax player a few tables away from us.
We took the short bus drive to the little and nice looking village (700 inhabitants) called Grolloo and found out that the beautiful looking festival grounds were right in the middle of the small rural village which expanded with 10.000 festival goers. Facilities and enormous tent and stage were top notch and looked brand new. I guess they put a lot of money in this first edition to be sure it would impress the festival goers. The main day (saturday) sold out weeks in advance (combi tickets as well) and a few days ago the friday finally sold out as well making the festival a big success. The incredible summer weather in the region helped as well while in the meantime other parts of the country and neighbouring countries where severly pounded by heavy rains, lightning strikes and subsequent floods. It was the first time i saw Robert Randolph & The Family Band live and was only partially impressed by their high energy performance and impressive showman's ship. Band was cool, songs diverse and Robert's steelguitar playing often was amazing but he could also still benefit from the "less is more" principle. Sometimes the playing was so loud and in your face it actually became a bit boring sometimes. JJ Grey & Mofro's performance wen very well with the crowd. A wild guess on my part but i think that many people in the crowd weren't familiar with this band. The crowd loved it. I have seen them 3 times before and i'm always impressed by the way JJ Grey and his band evolve through the years. One year he's mainly behind the keys, another year only singing, the other year focusing on his guitar playing and now adding a lot of harp playing. Only weeks prior to the festival Jimmie Vaughan cancelled (apparently because of the recent terrorist attacks in France and Belgium) and was replaced by Supersonic Blues Machine's debut live performance for which the festival organisers also succeeded in booking 3 amazing special guests: Walter Trout (gained weight again and was looking good and animated!!), Robben Ford and Billy F. Gibbons. I would rate the concert good but not spectacular. Better on paper than on stage. I personally was very impressed by the rock solid drumming of Kenny Aranoff but Lance Lopez and the other guitar player couldn't impress me. Seen hundreds of bluesrock players like this. Billy F. Gibbons's voice really is gone (but not his guitar chops!). The band's performance also suffered from the very tight time schedule. Probably there were made some agreements with the small village like a curfew which they were dedicated to keep. So with 3 guests there wasn't much time left in the 60 minute time schedule for a big jam to end their performance. I think they would have needed 90 minutes for a more balanced performance. The Tedeschi Trucks Band were simply amazing and got the biggest crowd response of the day. The crowd exploded after their songs came to an end. Some songs played were: Midnight In Harlem, Iddle Wind, Bound For Glory, I Pitty The Fool, Let Me Get By, The Letter. Show lasted approx. 70 - 75 minutes. All in all the 4 bands that already played were the reason for me i went to this festival. Saturday's headliner Bonnie Raitt didn't make a big impression on me 10 or 11 years ago so i wasn't expecting to much. But man was i wrong. She looked good and very animated. Very fine voice and sweet slide playing and had an excellent band. She also appeared relaxed and happy while 10 years ago she wasn't in a good mood. During song introductions she also made plenty of political statements about the current state of the USA and her fear that the next president could be Donald Trump. Her very fine and diverse performance even got better when she brought out the guests for her double encore: Kofi Burbridge, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. They played a beautiful rendition of "Angel From Montgomery" and i was delighted it was followed by another song: BB King's "Make A Move Too Soon". A great finale o fa wonderful day.

The first you tube clips are surfacing:

Bonnie Raitt & Susan Tedeschi @ Holland International Blues Festival 2016, Grolloo:
BB King's "Make A Move Too Soon":

Snippets from 4 Bonnie Raitt performances:

The Tedeschi Trucks Band playing "The Letter". Partial. The beginning is missing:

Bonnie Raitt & Band, with Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks playing "Angel From Montgomery":

Tedeschi Trucks Band - Midnight In Harlem:

Supersonic Blues Machine feat. Billy Gibbons - La Grange & jamming (bad sound):

[Edited on 6/6/2016 by ABBDutchFan]

 
Posted : June 6, 2016 10:02 am
heineken515
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Sounds and looks like a really cool festival !

In my mind, Susan T has been at times, a young Bonnie Raitt, so to see them onstage together must have been a treat.

Angel from Montgomery is one of my favorite songs, nice collaborative version here.

So did Supersonic Blues Machine only play cover tunes? Please tell us they did not just play ZZ Top tunes.

 
Posted : June 6, 2016 10:20 am
ABBDutchFan
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Sounds and looks like a really cool festival !

In my mind, Susan T has been at times, a young Bonnie Raitt, so to see them onstage together must have been a treat.

Angel from Montgomery is one of my favorite songs, nice collaborative version here.

So did Supersonic Blues Machine only play cover tunes? Please tell us they did not just play ZZ Top tunes.

Supersonic Blues Machine started of with a cover version of "Roadhouse Blues" on which Walter Trout immediately guested on guitar and blues harp (!) after which followed songs from their debut release "West of Flushing, South of Frisco" along with more covers. There was a BB King dedication after which Walter Trout did a lengthy version of his song "Say Goodbye To The Blues". I think Walter guested on 3 or 4 songs in total. later on Robben Ford guested on two songs and at the end of the set Billy Gibbons played "La Grange" and the song on which he contributed on their debut CD: "Running Whiskey". Among the songs they did without guests was Bobby Blue Bland's "Ain't No Love (In The Heart Of The City)" which was on that CD as well. But all in all i think they sounded like a competent cover band with a ace drummer who were lucky to have some high profile friends on stage but who also stole the show (Walter and Billy) unlike Robben who was not very inspired. I guess they all wanted to jam together at the end but that never happened due to time restrictions. It was nice to see all these guitar players on stage during on show but for me the biggest thrill from this show was seeing Walter Trout looking way less fragile as in recent years and playing on top of his skills again.

[Edited on 6/6/2016 by ABBDutchFan]

[Edited on 6/6/2016 by ABBDutchFan]

 
Posted : June 6, 2016 1:28 pm
ABBDutchFan
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Posted : June 9, 2016 8:45 am
heineken515
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Very nice photos.

 
Posted : June 9, 2016 9:14 am
sailingshoes55
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Great photos. Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed the shots of Bonnie Raitt with her brown Strat and bottleneck slide.

Bill

 
Posted : June 9, 2016 8:01 pm
harvey
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Great photos Roger!

 
Posted : June 10, 2016 8:41 am
ABBDutchFan
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A short but nicely edited "aftermovie" of the festival bands and vibe:

http://www.bluesmagazine.nl/holland-international-blues-festival-grolloo-2016-aftermovie-a-look-back/

 
Posted : June 19, 2016 1:26 am
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