Blues in the Heart of London
The blues is an art form that is at the heart of essentially every single type of music that has been popular since the beginning of the twentieth century. It has been imitated, exploited, re shaped, chewed up, spit out, bastardized and beautifully transformed to inspire everything that we love and equally, everything that we hate about music today.
From Hip-Hop, R&B, Rock to the cheesiest, bubble gum, teeny bopper garbage that we hear on the radio, its roots or structure can often be found in the blues.
Because this genre is so profoundly influential on our culture, most of the acts we tend to see on the bill of any modern blues festival don’t seem in keeping with the Mississippi John Hurt archetype of an old man in the American South with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica.
London blues fans rejoiced this past weekend as the London Blues Festival kicked off on Sunday and gets into full swing all of this week with a full line up of day time and evening music acts taking place exclusively at the Royal Albert Hall.
Although the days and evenings are filled with well-known bands and solo artists such as Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders, Irish Jazz singer and guitarist Nigel Mooney, British R&B and Rock musician Mike Sanchez and many more, it is the evening headliners that will undoubtedly see people queuing up around the corner to Kensington Gardens.
Brooklyn Based Jazz and Soul Singer Gregory Porter headlines this evening (the 27th), followed by none other than the great Van Morrison on Tuesday night and a solo gig from the legendary Elvis Costello on Wednesday. Costello is joined that evening by English Rhythm and Blues musician Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames.
California Singer/songwriter Beth Hart kicks off Thursday evening along with acclaimed blues musician Robert Cray. lastly, on Halloween we see American Country/Rock singer Sheryl Crow round off the festival with critically acclaimed, alt/country trio Red Sky July.
In addition to the music, there are instrumental workshops for all ages, a Masterclass clinic and Jam Session and the ‘in conversation with’ series continuing this year with former Manfred Man singer Paul Jones as well as writer and broadcaster Robert Elms.
Tickets for the London Blues Festival are available through the Royal Albert Hall or the London Blues Festival websites.
The weather for Friday is set to be gorgeous but pack your umbrella for the queue just in case…
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