This week marks the 40^th anniversary for the Chicago Blues Festival, the world’s largest free blues festival.  The event spans four days from June 6^th-June 9^th, and befitting a happening of such prominence, it will showcase the finest of talent from across the spectrum of the music. 

While there will be a kick-off show at the recently-renovated southside Ramova Theatre with Shemekia Copeland and Ronnie Baker Brooks, the festival will take place at various stages in the city’s crown jewel, Millenium Park.  The three stages, Rosa’s Lounge, Visit Mississippi Juke Joint, and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, will host upwards of 250 performers over the festival’s run, with the variety of acts surely bringing something to the table for all blues fans.

2024’s highlights include the Centennial Tribute To Jimmy Rogers with Kim Wilson, Rogers’ son Jimmy D. Lane, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Bob Margolin, Felton Crews, Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, and Sebastian Lane, Lil’ Jimmy Reed with Ben Levin, Melvin Taylor, the Centennial Tribute to Dinah Washington with Dee Alexander, Kristin Atkins, Bruce Henry, Melody Angel, Charles Heath IV, Elizabeth Faye Butler, Miguel de la Cerna, and Jeremiah Hunt, Jamiah “Dirty Deacon” Rogers and the Dirty Church Band, Al Spears & The Hurricane Project, the Omar Coleman Westside Soul show, Jonathan Ellison  & The RAS Blues Band, the Cash Box Kings, the Centennial Tribute To Otis Spann with Roosevelt Purifoy, Johnny Iguana, Oscar Wilson, Billy Flynn, Bob Stroger, Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, Rie “Miss Lee” Kanehira, and Sumito “Ariyo” Ariyoshi, and Buddy Guy.  Of course, there are so many other artists who also will no doubt provide memorable moments via their performances to wanting blues audiences.

Of course, in the lead-up to the festival itself, across Chicago there will be blues shows at various venues that will whet the already-high anticipation that the festival brings grow even more.  Having started on Monday the 3^rd of June, blues artists such as The Mike Wheeler Band, Sheryl Youngblood, Nick Alexander, Melody Angel, Demetria Taylor, Carlise Guy, Johnny Burgin, Billy Flynn, Pete Benson, Oscar Wilson, Rob Stone, Martin Lang, Joey J. Saye, Toronzo Cannon, the Nick Moss Band, Shorty Mack, Mizz Peaches, Gerry Hundt, Joe Pratt & Source One Band, and Little Harvey & Chi-Town Blues, among so many others, will strengthen the expectation for the festival, let alone what will also be going on in Chicago’s various blues clubs after the festival closes down at night.

No wonder more than 500,000 blues fans call Chicago home during festival week!

My memories of the festival are so varied as to, at times, be a blur.  I’ve witnessed some truly amazing performances over the years, and been struck by pure awe by the giants of the music I have been fortunate to see and hear.  I’d like to highlight a few this week in honor of the festival and the artists, leaving any personal interaction with them aside (that’s another whole article), focusing solely on the shows themselves.  So, in no particular order, here’s a few of my favorite Chicago Blues Festival remembrances.

When the Petrillo Bandshell in Grant Park was the evening main stage for the festival, it was where the headliners played.  The outdoor amphitheater had seating for roughly 5,000 people, and the wide expanse of lawn behind the seating stretching all the way to Lake Shore Drive had the capacity to accommodate tens of thousands more individuals.  In 1988 during one evening of the festival, the Petrillo Bandshell hosted as headliners Hank Ballard the Midnighters, Etta James, and Albert King.  Ballard and company really brought their “A game,” including a crack band, with the Midnighters nattily attired in their bright red suits, with Ballard himself decked-out in a brilliantly white suit with accompanying red outfit accents; it set him apart as the star.  It was as if time had stopped in the 1950s, as Ballard and his unit turned back the hands of time with all their signature hits, presenting them perfectly choreographed, of course. 

Etta James was unbelievable.  She was the Grande dame, if you will, oh-so-resplendent in a shimmering gold top, perfectly coiffed, and enthusiastically welcomed in the city where she once recorded hit after hit, especially “At Last,” a tune on this night that was greeted with a deafening roar from her admiring fans. 

And then there was Albert King.  King had last played the festival in 1986, and his performance was the one I most eagerly anticipated.  I was virtually drained from the high-water performances of Ballard and James, and when King took the stage in his salmon-colored coat, black trousers, and complementary black pocket square I remained in my seat as he plunged into his show after a thunderous welcome from the sizeable crowd.  But when King kicked into his signature song, “Born Under A Bad Sign,” I did something I don’t believe I had ever done before or since; without thought I jumped to my feet, threw my arms in the air, and screamed indecipherably.  That’s how excited and moved I was at hearing King’s signature tune, and that act defined my behavior for the rest of his performance.  The thrill of Ballard’s, James’, and King’s R&B and blues art on that special night remains one of my all-time best collective memories of the festival.

In 1991 on a dazzlingly sunny afternoon at the Crossroads Stage, a dais that found Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan as its backdrops, the audience was especially eager for the next act.  It was a true honor to have the legendary Johnny Shines on the stage’s afternoon bill, and anticipation was running extraordinarily high.  Looking around, I was struck by how many of the blues’ press members had assembled to take in Shines’ performance, and I was similarly struck by the numbers of blues artists who had made their way to the site to witness Shines.  Shines had experienced a stroke in 1980 which had impacted his left fretting hand, and by this point he had aligned himself with Keny DuChaine (coming together in 1989), a blues guitarist and singer who revered Shines and his music. 

No one knew what to expect from Shines, because at this point, he was 76 years of age and, as said, he had suffered a stroke.  Shines’s band took the stage, and I could not hide my excitement about seeing Shines, especially back in a city that he once called home.  Appropriate for a bluesman of his stature, suddenly there Shines was, and as clear as if it was just yesterday, I could see his dignity and grace as he made his way to his seated position at the front of his band.  He was dressed immaculately in a dark, crisply pressed suit, blue dress shirt with a blue, black, grey, and white tie, mirror-polished shoes, elegant gold jewelry, and red Gibson guitar awaiting him.  It was as regal an introduction as could be possible for a true living legend of the blues, and as the crowd went wild, a wide smile appeared across Shines’ face.  He appeared to be genuinely moved by the audience’s welcome.

With his Fender amplifiers directly behind him, Shines and his group launched into their set, and my breath was virtually erased when I heard that declamatory, carefully enunciating voice, one that to this day I still firmly believe is one of the best, if not the best, the blues has ever enjoyed.  I sat in complete rapt attention across the whole of Shines’ set, almost entirely in disbelief that he was still walking among us and creating blues of such timeless quality.  I will never, ever forget that astounding afternoon taking in Shines’ blues majesty.

In June, 1995, I had staked-out my position on the lawn in front of the Back Porch Stage in Chicago’s Grant Park as I was not going to be denied witnessing that mysterious, droning, rhythmically pulsing brand of blues known North Mississippi Hill Country Blues.  I had been turned-on to the one-chord, driving, and insistent music of the likes of Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, and R.L. Burnside some time back at that point, but to this juncture I had not heard it “live,” and to say that I was on pins and needles is an understatement.  And by the size of the collected crowd, I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.  The area just beyond the fenced area at the front of the stage where the photographers mass was packed, and at the sides of the stage many folks gathered to watch R.L. Burnside hold his blues music court.

As the sun beat down, suddenly the performers took their places on stage.  There was noted bluesman Big Jack Johnson (he of the famed Delta blues band, The Jelly Roll Kings) acting as the bass player this day, with blues slide guitarist and trusted Burnside associate Kenny Brown, and Cedric Burnside (R.L.’s grandson) behind the drum kit.  And there in a black t-shirt, jeans, and a black and white ballcap was R.L. 

With all the casualness as if to be thinking, “What’s all the fuss about?” R.L. provided spoken asides to a few folks he saw in the crowd, with that broad beaming smile on his face seeming to infer an “Aw, shucks!” demeanor, and almost as if by accident he and his blues co-conspirators launched with ease into that hypnotic North Mississippi Hill Country brand of blues.  Immediately I could feel the collective breath of the crowd taken away, and once it returned, sun-soaked bodies began to weave and sway to the music.  Some arose and danced as if they were compelled to do so.  And right there in the middle of it all was R.L., still smiling broadly for ear-to-ear as his mesmerizing blues pounded the senses, at volume, in a North Mississippi juke joint of his own construction in a downtown Chicago park.  His slide guitar slashed and gnarled the senses, and his vocals told stories of deep mysteries and occurrences.  R.L. grinned the entire time, his left shoulder twitching in time, his left leg rising and falling to the beat, all the while glancing to and fro at his bandmates and the entirety of the audience.  It was unlike any blues I had ever encountered.  It remains so vivid to me all these years later.

The city of Chicago is to be highly praised for keeping its signature annual blues festival one of its key Summer events.  Over the years, so many of the greats have taken the stages there and made astounding musical memories for a great many people.  I have so very many.  I hope that the three I have referenced convey that, and that the millions of people who have attended the festival since its inception in 1984 similarly carry joyous remembrances with them, as well.