November 20, 2004 was a red-letter day here in O'do as the ORANGE BLOSSOM BLUES SOCIETY and promoter extraordinaire Jeff Willey pulled off the very first Orlando Blues Festival! The Fest was an outstanding success in every conceivable way, and here's a brief re-cap of this long-awaited and well-run event.
2:00 pm to 4:30 pm
The Three Opening Bands
The Revival Band got things off to a fine start at exactly 2 o'clock that balmy Saturday afternoon. This fine local band can usually be found hosting the Wednesday night jam at Cafe Annie and today, on the outdoor stage at Wall Street Plaza, they did NOT disappoint! Lead singer Ricky D tore into their funked-up version of the classic "St. James Infirmary" much to the delight of the fans who arrived in time to see the whole Fest. Tim Williams and harpist Brother Charles were on top of their musical game that day --as usual-- and the rhythm section, anchored by "Drummer Aly" laid down a fine and festive groove! If the crowd HAD needed a Revival, Rickey, Tim and the band would have been just the thang!
Burnin' Vernon and the Wild Blue Yonder took the stage at 2:55 sharp and picked up right where TRB had left off! Vern and his crew, which includes lead player David Vought, drummer Chuck Crawley and Brother Charles, tore through "Flip, Flop and Fly", "I Ain't Lyin'' and the original "Over Easy" with gusto! Vern's trumpet leads and signature vocal stylings wowed the crowd and provided a great warm-up for The Midnight Ramblers!
Rob Mola and the Ramblers mounted the stage and hit it hard at ten minutes to four! This Rockabilly band is a favorite of many Central Florida residents and they were sounding good that afternoon as the crowd on Wall Street began to swell. Rob and bassist Chuck Zayas take turns on the vocals and their ensemble is rounded out with pianist Terry Mooney, guitarist Josh Lanza and drummer Steve Plotnick. "Rock This House" was the opener, Little Walter's "Temperature" kicked it up a few degrees and their closer --an awesome medley of "Shake Your Boogie", "Roll 'em Pete" and "One O'clock Jump"-- really ripped the roof off! Well, it woulda if it hadn't been an outdoor venue! The Midnight Ramblers can really tear it up in that special zone where Rockabilly and the Blues slam together!
That's it for our first three O-do bands! Check out the next post where Red Eye Express, funkUs and The Smokin' Torps do Orlando and the O.B.B.S. damn proud!
4:45 to 7:15 pm
Red Eye Express, funkUs and The Smokin' Torps
At 4:45 on that evening, the sun was ready to turn in for the night! But the Fest at Wall Street Plaza was just gettin' started!
Singer and keyboardist Rob Horvatis had a turn with his cronies! Rob has played in many Central Florida bands over the years, including the Houseshakers, and his current group Red Eye Express is a very tight and memorable bunch of bluesicians. They kept the blues mob quite well entertained through their 45-minute turn, especially when Rob went cordless and honked his harp up one side of the Plaza and down the other! And the Express really delighted the throng with their a cappella and very soulful harmonies on "It's Alright!" Guitarist Jeff Korey, bassist Troy Hyre and drummer Mark Rhodes round out this well-rounded blues band! Rob and his comrades turned in a fine performance and created quite a "blues buzz" that evening!
When Dave "the Cat" Mann, Ron Betts and funkUs took the stage, the next 45-minutes became one long highlight! These guys can and will play and their delighted fans loved every moment of it! Their set list that night was pure gold and the crowd seemed to love every second of the "funk-fest"! Some of the real gems for this dog were "How Blue Can You Get", "Born Under a Bad Sign" and "Turn On Your Lovelight". And if you can't get B.B. King, Albert King and the Dead to show up for your event, just book funkUs and everything will be all right! Ron and Dave are as good as it gets around here and "Mojo" Jones and Adam Freeman are one really tight rhythm section too! They were all just funkin' amazing that night! ;-)
When 6:35 rolled around frontman and Fest organizer Jeff Willey took the stage with The Smokin' Torps and they did us proud, too! Jeff is a fine frontman and a really top-notch harp player and was in rare form at the Fest! As just about everyone knows, Clay Cole, Rob Horvatis, "Irish Steve" and "Sideshow" Bauman are the other torps in this smokin' line up and they were absolutely on fire at the Festival! They ripped through "Blues with a Feelin' ", and Cotton's "Boogie Thing" and got the crowd into a blues-induced frenzy! Jeff and his Torps are hard to beat here in O-town and they were at the top of their game that night.
After doing so much "grunt work" throughout the afternoon and evening, it was obvious that Jeff was glad to finally get up on the stage with a harp and a mic and really cut loose! This fella can truly do it all! And that weekend, he SURE DID! "All" and just a little bit more!
In the third and final post, we catch three more HOT Central Florida bands, Soul Cactus, the Shaun Rounds Blues Band and the Houseshaker Annual Reunion...
7:30 to a little after 10pm
Soul Cactus Review, The Shaun Rounds Blues Band, The Houseshakers Annual Reunion
The first six of the nine bands booked for the Fest played so well that it would be hard to imagine the night getting any better! But the three bands capping the evening off surely did not let the crowd down! And at 7:30 when Chris Raynor and Soul Cactus mounted the stage, the crowd was crammed into every last fissure of the Plaza. The hard-core bluesers who showed for this first-ever event were shoehorned into Wall Street from Orange Ave to Court Street and even spilled out into the Park that fronts the History Center! And every one of 'em were thumpin' and jumpin' to the sounds of Soul Cactus!
Soul Cactus has a well-deserved reputation playing it all and playing it better than anyone else around the Orlando area. With Chris coaxing every conceivable sound out of a harp or a trumpet and singing like no other frontman this dog has ever heard in these parts, you've got a strong foundation indeed. But then throw in Clay "Boneman" Watson on the trombone, Brian Mackie on sax and everyone's fave blueser Jim "Mad Dog" Mahoney and you've got a really special line-up. And Rob "Redeye" Horvatis, "Super Dave" Scitney on drums and Walt Turner on percussion give unequalled depth and texture to a group that is just not like any other around the metro area! They're as good as it gets, and this set by SCR was really over-the-top! Any night you can hear Chris on "Black Jack", "I Ain't Drunk" or belting out some Dixieland stylings on his horn is a good night! Soul Cactus covers Soul, Jazz and anything else you can think of in addition to the Blues and one can only hope they'll still be around for many years to come.
Shaun Rounds is another amazing musician and one who grew up right here in the Orlando area. Shaun and his band turned in a really tight set that night. He played a little bit of everything, but worked in several numbers made famous by the late and great Texas bluser, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Howlin' Wolf's "I'm Leaving You Woman" and "Let Me Love You Baby" were highlights for this dog! Shaun is the local boy who truly made good and I'm quite sure he'll continue to turn in very solid performances all over Florida and wherever he books himself to play! Shaun's sidemen in the SRBB are Walt Turner on bass, and Danny "Cowboy" Leach on drums. Orlando harpslinger Rick Plate also guested on harmonica.
The cherry on this really tasty blues sundae was the Houseshaker Annual Reunion! These guys aren't gigging regularly these days, but they sure sound as good as they ever did! "BIG Willey" and "Mad Dog" Mahoney were joined by Mark McCoy on bass, the ever-present Walt Turner and "Dr. Robbie Red Eye" on keys and all the usual suspects! By the time they closed the Fest with Sam Cooke's classic "Bring It On Home to Me", (aka "If You Ever Change Your Mind"), every last bluesfreak on Wall Street was in heaven! Or as close to heaven as a man with a blues-infused soul is ever likely to get!
Several notes about the "other-than-the-music" stuff:
The night was not only over-the-top musically speaking, but it gave the brand-new ORANGE BLOSSOM BLUES SOCIETY some invaluable exposure! The OBBS table was staffed very ably by Jae Gibbs-Futch, yours truly, Tim Williams and Jann "fnsmartgirl" and we were as busy as one-armed paper hangers throughout the entire afternoon and evening! Why, we could just barely leave the table long enough for some Bud and barbecue! But that's a good problem to have, to be sure! We're still following up with all the folks who checked in with us at this really amazing event!
The other thing is that it's energized the musicians and the fans alike! I've talked with Jeff, Tim, Mike, Jae and all of the rest about this on several occasions and the whole blues scene seems to have gotten a BIG shot in the arm from this one event! We not only had a great time back on November 20th, but everything from bookings to attendance at jams seems to be still trending upwards in the wake of our first annual Blues Fest! It's a really great thing, and I'm quite sure that the beneficial effects of this event will continue to be felt for some time to come!
Many thanks to everyone who had any role in putting this event together, but especially to Jeff Willey who did about 98% of the "heavy lifting!" This guy is a fine musician, an able promoter and PR guy and has quite a bit of business savvy, too! He's a HUGE asset to the OBBS and the Central Florida music community! Hats off to Jeff, Tim, Jae, the OBBS Board Members and all the musicians, techs and every last fan and supporter who made it out for this Fine Festival! Hey, the bartenders ROCKED too!
We don't really have to wait another year to do it again, do we?
--- Bulldog Ben, OBBS Board Member
