BLUES JUNCTION Productions - The Inland Empire Strikes Back

BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info@bluesjunctionproductions.com

The Inland Empire Strikes Back

On Saturday, October 6th, I attended the Riverside West Coast Blues Festival. It was an all-day event and an orgy of organic music, American style. As it turned out, it was also one of the darkest days in American history. I couldn’t keep that info away from my brain. But I tried…

I’ll have to admit that I grew up a news junkie. One of the things I have enjoyed through the years about attending blues festivals was that I could, for a couple of days, tune that stuff out. I could ignore the events of the day that were going on around the world and pull back from all of that unpleasantness. Let’s face it, the origins of the saying, ‘No news is good news’ goes back about 350 years or so now. That notion is pretty much in full effect, full time these days. In our hyper-connected world of anti-social media, it is harder and harder to keep the outside world at bay for a couple of hours, let alone for a couple of days.

Come to think of it this dumb-ass could have left his smart phone back at the hotel. That might have helped as practically everyone I know and care about was at the Riverside West Coast Blues Festival anyway. The ones that weren’t wouldn’t call or text me anyway, knowing that I wouldn’t miss this event on a dare.

The festival, now in it’s third year, continues to grow and hopefully can become a new fall tradition. As the symbolic shift from the abject cruelty of unchecked and unregulated capitalism to unapologetic fascism took place in broad daylight and right before our eyes with the senate’s confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh, we gathered to celebrate the quintessential American music. We listened, danced, we laughed, we cried, hugged one another and more or less took this latest blow to our humanity in stride. I suppose that the ultimate ‘F*ck you’ to Washington, was that in Riverside, an entire continent away from that cesspool of depravity on the Potomac, Californians, in all of our multi-cultural glory, gathered in Albert S. White Park and celebrated America’s most resilient export, our music.

Riverside is in a part of California that is universally referred to by residents of the Golden State as the ‘Inland Empire’, sometimes known as the I.E or simply by its area code… ‘the 909.’ How a place that is only just a little more than an hour’s drive from the Pacific Ocean could be known as being inland is just a case of provincialism. However, that aside, the use of the word ‘empire’ in this context is just plain ridiculous. Yet, I like Riverside for some reason. It has enough small-town charm and big city grit that it kind of suits me…in small doses. I feel the same way about the venue.

I could live without the used syringes laying around the perimeter of the park grounds and next to the temporary bathroom facilities that are located a couple of hundred yards away from the festival’s seating area. Given this, I felt kind of lucky that the only pricks I encountered all day came via an ambush by a cactus bush. The beautiful and historic cactus garden needed some maintenance as one of its inhabitants was flowing majestically on to the walk way, very near the artist’s entrance to the park. I thought maybe that it was my own clumsiness that caused me to have this unpleasant encounter with nature until I found out that others, including one of the festival’s headliners, also had engaged in an even worse run in with this plant.

It was great to see that the festival’s organizers did make some much needed improvement to the layout of the seating area as it relates to the beer and wine garden, bringing that area much closer to the stage. This created a more intimate setting for those who enjoy their blues music while hanging out in this lovely ‘embibatorium’ that could be called the Skylight Lounge. I’m guessing that the organizing committee will continue to make improvements to enhance the festival experience for their patrons, the artists and vendors who support this event.

Even the use of the park’s gazebo grew on me this year. Maybe it is not an ideal way to present live music, but it is charming nonetheless. Like the music presented on that stage, the gazebo is a reminder of a simpler time.

It was great to see Gram’s Mission BBQ and their food truck out at the festival. They are a local downtown Riverside, family run establishment which has been in business for 25 years.

Since it is an all-day event some kind of food service for the festival’s vegan customers would be an obvious enhancement to the festival experience that could be made. Remember, vegans get hungry too.

However, it is the food for the soul which is why we were there in the first place. The Riverside West Coast Blues Festival had plenty of that. Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, James Harman who was backed by the Mighty Mojo Prophets, The Junior Watson Trio which included drummer Johnny Minguez and bassist Bill Stuve, Kid Ramos and the 44s along with Riverside’s own Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers were just a few of the great artists that made this a very special day of music.

For me, it was a blast working with Charlie Lange at his Bluebeat Music record store slingin’ CDs and a little vinyl at the patrons of this festival. What a treat it was to interact with the great musicians who are also the best consumers of this music. That’s right, the best musicians have the biggest ears and much of what makes them so great in the first place lies in their love of this music. It was great to have a chance to visit with some of our readers face to face who came by the booth to say, ‘hey’ and pick up on some old noise.

As the festival was winding down a gentleman from Dana Point, California, a beach resort town in south Orange County engaged me in conversation. He commented to me and anyone else in ear shot, how much he loved this festival and its location at this downtown city park.

By this time the guitarist with Rick Estrin’s band the Nightcats, and hands down the best and busiest record producer in the blues field these days, Kid Andersen, had joined in on our discussion. He mentioned how much he and his band mates loved playing this festival. He reminded us that they played last year and went on to tell us that the band hoped to be invited back next year as well. He then turned to me and said, “You know Dave…the Inland Empire strikes back.”

Thanks to Theresa and Bob “Pacemaker” Newham and all of their volunteers for making sure the force was with us on this beautiful day of music.

- David Mac