Blues in Chedigny 2007

It's been a while, eh? Still, better late than never, I suppose.

Thought I'd do a quick post following the trip Pete & I recently made to Chedigny, France, for the Blues Festival. This was the third occasion for me, but the first visit for Pete.

2007 was the 10th anniversary bash, so it was a bit special.
Well needless to say - but I'll say it anyway - an excellent time was had by all. As ever. And it was great to see our friends again - Jorg, Martine & Nicolas (resident in Chedigny) and Adrian and his daughter Milena, from Heidelberg.

Well, to give some idea of the atmosphere, here are a few pics; first, of the village itself (pop. usually ca. 300):

This is the church tower. The main stage (apex of which is just showing) is set right up against the church. An interesting melange!

And now for some action:

Here's Louisiana Red (seated) accompanied by my pal Jorg on fiddle. That was on the "side stage".

Later, on the main stage ....

This is the Mayor of Chedigny and his daughter (Virginie) formally opening proceedings.
Behind them is Big Joe Turner's "Memphis Blues Caravan". Left to right are:
Roby Edwards (tenor sax), Gulliver Allwood (alto sax), Dieter "Jack" Jagiela (guitar), Mar Todani (guitar - mostly hidden), the Mayor, Virginie, Joe Turner (Bass) and Lionel Haas (keyboards).

And here they are mid-number ...
















Shown here, from left to right, are: Gulliver Allwood (alto sax), Jack Jagiela & Mar Todani (guitars), Roby Edwards (tenor sax), Rick Jones (drums - just about visible) and Joe Turner (bass). Sorry it's so blurred, but they were really motoring! Other musicians present at various points included Christian Rannenberg on piano/keyboards.

The band was also fronted by several singers; for instance, Earl Green:

... Ernie ("EJ") Johnson:

(that's Kim Yarbrough on bass, incidentally, as Big Joe only plays during the opening few numbers) and Angela Brown:

Now back to the side stage ...

The Henrik Freischlader Band. Three lads based in Wuppertal, Germany. Three brilliant musicians : Henrik Freischlader (guitar/vocals), Dirk Sengotta (drums) and Oliver Schmellenkamp (bass). We were so impressed by them we allowed them to muscle in on one of our snaps!

From left to right: Nicolas, Jorg, Oliver, Dirk, Pete and Henrik. If you ever get the chance, do go and hear The HF Band - they're sure to blow you away!

Then there was Michael Roach:















He's an outstanding artist and scholar, who on this occasion performed solo, although he also has a band.

... and, once again on the main stage, Eddy ("The Chief") Clearwater with his band ...

I'm afraid we missed some of the acts, but fortunately there was a jam session on the Saturday night (Sunday morning actually) so they all sqeezed on-stage together:

And here are a couple of general views of the festival environs, to try to portray something of the ambience:

The above is looking in the general direction of the main stage, which is hidden by the building on the right and the booze tents!

Part of the grand-stand devant the main stage. Oh, and that's Gulliver Allwood wowing the crowd with his brilliant sax-playing.

Finally, Pete, Milena, Nicolas, Martine and Adrian with the crêpes tents in the background. Very important, following the saussice et frites!

The third night was devoted to Cuban music, which was also good. The festival had a totally different feel to it, however. No pics available from this I'm afraid, though. Our only real regret was that we never got on stage ourselves ... eh bien, c'est la vie.

L'année prochaine, peut-être ?