BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info
Rich Sherman and his Omega Events are on the cusp of pulling back the curtain on the 21st Anniversary edition of their Doheny Blues Festival. This year Rich and his Omega Events are embarking on a new beginning, as the venue for this huge two-day event is moving up Pacific Coast Highway a bit to Sea Terrace Park. In this interview we discuss where he has been and this exciting new chapter in the ongoing history of the Doheny Blues Festival.
David Mac (DM): Let’s talk about how this all started.
Rich Sherman (RS): The first blues festival in Dana Point was called the Orange County Blues Festival. At that time, I was working for someone else. We were just a bunch of guys who had just graduated from college.
DM: Let’s back up a second. Where did you go to college?
RS: San Diego State...we had a Cal State Fullerton and a UCLA grad in the mix as well. I was an economics major and I was studying sports marketing. My buddy asked me if I wanted to book some music. I had already done a bunch of booking in college, booking nightclubs in San Diego, and I love music so it was a good fit for me.
DM: What type of music?
RS: Back in those days it was mostly alternative rock. We did a spring break thing out at Lake Havasu. That was back in 1993. It was around this time I met Mark Liddell and three other businessmen in Dana Point. They said that they wanted to do a blues festival.
DM: It is my recollection that Mark was already booking blues bands at this time in Dana Point at the old Heritage Brewing Company. Good bands too, I might add.
Let’s update our readers on the other Omega Event Festivals that they can look forward to experiencing this year.
RS: Russian River Blues is just a few weeks after Doheny, and we’ve got a really strong lineup for Northern California fans – Cray, Taj, Elvin Bishop and Eric Burdon, plus the Honeydrops, Kara Grainger and Chis Cain again. The venue is amazing…we love Guerneville. And we are celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Johnson’s Beach with a party on Saturday, June 9, with the Goo Goo Dolls and Shaggy, amongst others, and those bands have a few hits.
DM: I need to get up there one of these years.
RS: It’s pretty cool and yet a different experience from Doheny. There are 100 wineries within just a few miles of the venue. There is camping, if that’s your bag. We are right on the river and we just love it up there.
These events keep us pretty busy. We have an office with seven full time employees. We just have to make enough money to run good events and pay those salaries. It becomes kind of an annual cycle that I have to keep an eye on at all times. I have never had a job other than booking bands and throwing parties.
DM: Would it be a fair to say your first-born child, your baby, is the Doheny Blues Festival?
RS: Yeah, no question about it. It was our first big event. We really didn’t know what we were doing, but after the first year, we said, ‘OK, we can do this.’ When we first booked it, I had a pretty good general idea as to what the music was all about, but of course, like anything else, we had to study so that we could put together a lineup that people would want to see. As I look back on that first year, it was real stressful as we were so new at it, but at the same time it was a real rewarding experience as well. Our goal this year is to put things in place to get to year forty.
When we did the 40th anniversary of the Russian River Festival it dawned on me as to how rare that is. I started ‘Googling’ as to how many festivals are 50 years old or 45 years old and there just aren’t that many.
DM: When you resurfaced with your own company, Omega Events and your own brand, The Doheny Blues Festival in 1998, you came out of the shoot hard charging. It was something very special right out of the gate.
RS: I just wish I had more pictures of that first year. John Lee Hooker headlined on Saturday and on Sunday we had Jimmie Vaughan play a set, both with his current band and then with his old band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, who were also on the bill. They of course featured the other co-founder of that band Kim (Wilson), but also Orange County’s own Kid Ramos on guitar.
When Jimmie took the time and trouble to get up and play with Kim and Kid along with this particular version of the T-Birds that kind of set the tone for the future. It said, to me anyway, that we can make special things happen. Jimmie hadn’t been with the T-Birds for a very long time even back at that point.
DM: It’s very cool that both Jimmie and Kim are playing here in 2018. One of the bigger challenges for you I would think is to continue to put on a big blues festival in spite of the fact that many of the headline acts have retired or have passed away.
RS: That is very true. I’m not sure that when we started we ever envisioned the festival as having as much of a mix of styles as we do now. We have to remember where we are located, Orange County. That means we need variety and some crossover artists. It’s not easy. It took us ten years to get Bonnie Raitt. You can try all you want, but it’s hard to get some acts to say yes.
DM: As you might suspect with our audience, our readers, they express concerns about non-blues acts at a blues festival. I get letters to the editor every day often expressing sentiments, like ‘What is your take on Crosby Stills and Nash headlining a blues festival?’ I say these headliners insure that the acts that I love can get booked. I mean how many people in Orange County have ever even heard of the Finnish chromatic harp player Helge Talvquist who played a couple of years ago for instance.
RS: (laughs) Two...you and Jeff (Fleenor).
DM: (laughing) That was a rhetorical question Rich, but you are probably right now that I think about it.
RS: I hear those comments as well. When I hear comments like, ‘This isn’t a blues festival.’, I just don’t know how to respond to that anymore. It doesn’t interest me to even entertain that question. It will always be called the Doheny Blues Festival. The event will always be rooted in the blues.
But seriously, I rely on Jeff heavily to help me book this thing. We bring in what could be referred to as surprise acts that most people aren’t familiar with, but really enjoy. There are a lot of acts each and every year that aren’t going to sell a lot of tickets, but we feel should be on the bill. It really is a guessing game as to what will work.
DM: It really does have to be a tough balancing act keeping everybody happy, the general public and hard-core blues fans, like myself.
RS: It is, but if your readers Dave came out to this event they can always find plenty of blues. We also have to cater to folks who might not know some of these blues artists. We hope that they may show up to see a headliner, but along the way get turned onto an artist with whom they weren’t familiar.
DM: We couldn’t possibly cover all the very special moments that have happened at Doheny through the years, but are there any that you recall that were particularly special to you?
RS: The first time B.B. King played was very special. The Long Beach Blues Festival had been trying to get him and he hadn’t played there in a long time. We got him and that meant a lot to me and this festival. Let’s face it, B.B. King is the blues for most of the general public. I think by him signing on to play, it gave our festival some legitimacy.
Any time we could get Etta James was very special. Just getting her to the stage might be a challenge, but when she got in front of an audience it was magic. She was just so disarming, as well as a ball buster. One time I had both my hands on one of her ass cheeks and was literally pushing her onto the stage. There were others trying to push her up there as well. She was yelling ‘Push, push,’ like we were a team of horses.
There are just so many moments. I often am not able to enjoy many of these special performances as I’m working, but I do remember when Bonnie Raitt sang I Can’t Make You Love Me and a hush came over the huge audience, you could hear a pin drop. That’s such a heartbreaking song.
DM: It is...one of my favorites. Let me shift gears for a minute, do you have any idea how many customers come from out of state?
RS: We had customers last year that came from forty-six states and twelve countries. I get a sense that this has become a real destination festival where people make it a mini vacation or part of a larger California vacation. All the hotels in Dana Point sell out every year, so that makes it feel that we are on the map.
DM: Let’s talk about the people on your team who help to make Omega Events and the Doheny Blues Festival what it has become.
RS: Let me start with Ryan Cueva who is my Director of Operations and Sponsorship. We have been together fourteen years. He builds the venue much more than I do. He is my creative partner.
Then there is Pamela Forney; we have worked together for eighteen years. She runs everything on all three stages. She has a management style where she is at the top and everybody works for her and it's beautiful. It is very clear as to who does what. She makes sure that when the artists get to Doheny that they are treated right.
I should also mention Jeff Fleenor and Mark Liddell as well as Bubba Jackson. These three are my talent colleagues. We are constantly talking about what we think will work as far as the talent is concerned. Through the years I have relied on all their ideas and passions.
DM: You have a new venue that likely has some upside. As much as we grew fond of the old location, it likely presented some logistical problems that you grew used to through the years. How will the new venue improve the festival experience for your patrons?
RS: Sea Terrace Park is a gorgeous city venue that is similar in size to Doheny, so we were able to transfer the “bones” of the previous layout right over to the new park; three alternating stages, plenty of seating areas, room for vendors and bars…all the important stuff. And our goal was to create a more elevated experience at our new home, and we are taking steps in that direction this year.
DM: Let’s talk about your relationship with the City of Dana Point and how that has changed this year because of or perhaps as a result of the new venue.
RS: For 20 years, the Doheny Blues Festival was proudly located in Dana Point, but since it was technically held on state land, our contact with all of the city staff was somewhat limited. When the decision was made to relocate to Sea Terrace Park, we were amazed at the level of support from city staff, businesses and residents – it was an awesome show of support. Currently, Dana Point hosts a handful of music festivals, and we are proud to have ushered in this era of world-class events in town.
DM: As far as I’m concerned, this year’s line-up is one of the best you have had in years. While the line-up has many contrasting styles of music and artists at various points in their careers, is it fair to characterize the 2018 Doheny Blues Festival as a return to a more blues-oriented program?
RS: We definitely wanted to focus on great blues artists in 2018, because we felt that the traditional blues fans were the most likely to support a venue change. But at no time did we eliminate other genres or eliminate the idea to book a crossover act like Joe Walsh. The booking process usually takes 6-8 months, and we had 4-6 weeks to pull it all together, so it was an extreme challenge this year.
DM: You are welcome to talk about some of the acts that you brought in this year.
RS: Jimmie Vaughan had one of the best new releases of 2017, so he was one of our first calls, and the same can be said for Kim Wilson’s new record as well as Chris Cain and Curtis Salgado. All of these artists were important to us as we set the tone for the lineup. And, obviously, Buddy Guy – every time we work with Buddy is an honor and should never be taken for granted.
But the balance of acts is always what sets Doheny Blues apart from other festivals, so Beth Hart and Blues Traveler are important, as well as Anders Osborne and The California Honeydrops.
We wanted to bring back Knock-Out Greg, who was our very first “import act” – and I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Jeff Fleenor for his inspiration and assistance. Mark Liddell too, who assists with many of the regional bookings…it’s truly a team effort. I can’t forget the act that is blowing up right now which is Larkin Poe, the young sisters who have been covering blues and roots musicians on YouTube to great success, so we are thrilled to have them on The Backporch Stage on Saturday.
DM: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about the 2018 Doheny Blues Festival?
RS: First, we are grateful to everyone for buying tickets and supporting the Doheny Blues Festival at Sea Terrace Park. We know it might have been a leap of faith for some, so our goal as organizers is to create a better experience for those who buy general admission tickets or VIP and Gold passes. We’ve added some shade, selected some great food and craft beers, booked some killer musicians and hired a bunch of staff to assist with the experience. We may not get everything right this year, but we are sure going to give it a try.
DM: I’ll let you get back to work Rich I know this is your busy season (laughs)
RS: Yeah, I guess you can say that. See you out at the festival in a couple of weeks. Thanks for all your support.
Copyright 2022 BLUES JUNCTION Productions. All rights reserved.
BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info