Hugo Rampen, the former executive director of the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues music festival was contracted to put on two music festivals in Revelstoke starting next year. The Times Review sent Lindsay MacPhee to Roots ‘n Blues to see why that festival is such a hit.
By Lindsay MacPhee, Special to the Times Review
The rains cleared, the clouds broke and the music began. The Salmon Arm Roots and Blues festival was about to deliver an elevating mix of soul-filled roots and blues, reggae and rock and roll to thousands of festival patrons.
The main stage offered up acts like the sassy Mavis Staples and Alvin Youngblood Hart’s bluesy grooves. The always-entertaining Sheepdogs closed out Saturday and the electric Black Joe Lewis finished off the Sunday.
Other performances throughout the weekend included the beautiful harmonies of Oh My Darling, B.C.’s own Good For Grapes, Cannery Row, Josh Ritter, Souljazz Orchestra, and socially conscious hip hop performer Shad.
Supported by several side stages the Roots and Blues festival manages to organize its time and space well, showcasing workshop ‘jam sessions’ between different performers daily and repeat performances allowing festival goers to plan and see as much as possible.
The aptly titled workshop “If Blues Had a Baby and They Named it Rock and Roll’ delivered a memorable jam session between Ontario’s guitar great Bill Durst and San Francisco’s Stone Foxes’. The dynamic exchange between these two acts on stage was infectious and memorable.
The festival makes a good effort to promote not only Canadian talent, but also performers from all parts of the world. Jamaica’s Raging Fyah bared their soul twice to audiences, playing a groovy reggae set on electric guitar in the Boogie Bar-N Saturday evening, and then a more relaxed acoustic set on Sunday.
A healthy mix of costumes, feathers and lawn chairs, Roots and Blues has been offering outstanding talent, quality merchants and food vendors for 22 years and it shows. In discussion with artists and vendors, providing outstanding organization of details was a common theme, enabling vendors and artists to comfortably take care of what they do best. The merchants offer an array of beautiful jewelry, leather goods, clothing, pottery and more.
The festival draws in thousands of people from across the province every year. Ted and Diane Williams from Victoria have been coming to Roots and Blues almost every year for the past seven years. Diane, boasting about how much she looks forward to the festival says it’s her week of “pure, unadulterated fun,” with lots of new music discovery.
There is an overwhelmingly positive and happy atmosphere at Roots and Blues, and looking around you will see toddlers bouncing around on shoulders, and kids, face-painted and blowing bubbles, while a Jamaican reggae band delivers a healing dose of positive vibrations. People all around, young and old, with smiles on their faces and their hips swinging as everyone embraces their desire to enjoy the rhythms their heart moves to.
The Roots and Blues festival manages to bring many elements together to create a unique experience that is sure to please. Through effective planning and organization, supported by a mass of volunteer staff, music is delivered to the people in a laid back way, keeping both festival patrons and volunteers coming back year after year for more.
