The Blues is alright in Ottawa

Keb Mo'
Last night was the opening night of the Ottawa Bluesfest. While most of the crowd was hitting the non-blues scene with TV on the Radio and The Tragically Hip I opted for the pure blues theme with Keb Mo' and blues legend Taj Mahal. I would have loved to see some of the other acts like Cassandra Wilson and The Blind Boys of Alabama but they were unfortunately running at the same time. As it turned out the crowd was much too thick to be shuffling around from stage to stage anyhow.


Taj Mahal breaks out the banjo

In the end there were no regrets as Taj put on a very entertaining set complete with two encores. Taj had the crowd on its feet with classics like, "Fishin' Blues", "Corrina", and "Paint my Mailbox Blue" but it was with lines like, "Gonna give it to yer sister, yer cousin, yer auntie, and yer big legged gramma too" that he really got the crowd roaring. Had to believe the man is 66 years old.

By the end of the set I was still able to wiggle my way over to catch the last few song from The Hip. It was nice to see Gordie back in the nation's capital.

I'm already looking forward to The Black Crowes and Robert Randolph. Too bad I'm going to miss Primus and Widespread Panic not to mention Steely Dan and James Taylor. Oh yeah, I can't forget my man Snoop Dogg...