Blues Fest musical lineup set

Font Size:

By David Burke | Thursday, May 15, 2008 |

While the IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival will provide musical fireworks in Davenport’s LeClaire Park, another Fourth of July event will move downriver to Centennial Park.

Riverboat Development Authority executive director Mary Ellen Chamberlin said during a news conference for the blues fest on Wednesday that the fifth annual “Red, White & Boom!” set for July 3 would move to the Davenport location.

July 3 is the opening of the 24th annual blues festival, which continues through Saturday, July 5.

The lineup this year includes a pair of queens — blues queen Koko Taylor and queen of the Southern blues, Denise LaSalle — as well as Elvin Bishop, the Holmes Brothers, Tinsley Ellis and Jimmy Thackery and the Drifters.

This year will also include a night devoted to the “Roots of the Blues,” featuring old time blues and “pre-blues” music, including banjos and a “diddley bow,” a singular wire used as percussion.

Featured in the tent on the opening night is the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group of players in their 20s who play the jug, fiddle, banjo and other “pre-blues” instruments.

“It’s the kind of music you’d fine in minstrel shows, things like that,” said Karen MacFarland, co-chair of the entertainment committee.

Chicago blues great Taylor was previously a festival headliner in 1988 and 1991.

Bishop, who played at the festival in 1999, hit the pop charts in 1977 with the song “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” He “has a long history in the blues, even though so many people know him from his pop record,” MacFarland said.

MacFarland said getting high-quality acts on stage takes work.

“It’s getting more difficult to book them with the budget we have, because people’s prices have gone up so much,” she said after the news conference. “It’s difficult to find headliners we can afford.”

The festival’s BlueSkool will feature participants in the River Music Experience’s Winter Blues Academy, including Davenport’s Logan and Kellen Myers, ages 11 and 7, who have headlined at the RME and will be featured this fall on “Good Morning America.”

Awards will be given to LaSalle and bluesman Billy Boy Arnold, as well as Mike and Nanci Livermore of Moline as outstanding volunteers.

There will be a few changes this year, including moving the ticket purchasing booth away from the main gate, cutting off advance ticket sales on June 30 and adding microbrews on tap on the festival grounds.

Flooding on the Mississippi River hit LeClaire Park earlier this month, but Mississippi Valley Blues Society president Ric Burris said there should be no sign of that at the festival.

“It looks pretty good,” he said. “I’ve got my fingers crossed and we’re hoping for the best.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.