Smiths Falls Has The Blues with Live At The Falls

We lost a popular blues festival this year and I was a little disappointed as I love my blues, but another festival rose to fill the void.

Live At The Falls in Smiths Falls, Ontario is under the same management as the already successful Kemptville Live Music Festival. They took the experience they’ve accumulated and applied it to this festival hitting the ground running. I think it was a great success. It was a ton of fun and the festival goers were treated to some amazing performances over the weekend.

The event was held at The Gallipeau Centre, just on the outskirts of Smiths Falls. The property is a multi-use property and provided an excellent facility to host the festival. In true Kemptville Live fashion, every detail was attended to. There was not a single thing forgotten, from the food and merchandise vendors, to the onsite facilities. There wasn’t a thing missing. This venue was a little more intimate in nature then Kemptville but still room to expand as needed in future years.

The music began on Friday afternoon with Joe MacDonald. The fans were enthusiastic from the start as another great blues festival was born. Joe and his band played an hour long set, touching on some old blues standards, some original music and even pulled out a little country for good measure.

Next up was another popular Ottawa based band, Three Times Lucky. These people are such fun to be around. It quickly becomes clear that they are friends, not just band mates. Leslie Rohonczy takes care of lead vocals along with saxophone and some percussion. Besides performing with Three Times Lucky, you might also know her from her own band, The Leslie Rohonczy Band. Three times Lucky delivered a fun set as always with their brand of blues. I love it when you see a band that genuinely has such a good time onstage.

Steve Marriner, Tony D and Matt Sobb are collectively known as MonkeyJunk. Together, the band have won 21 Maple Blues awards as well as three nominations for Junos, two of which they won. With a pedigree like that, it’s no wonder they have become a very popular band with their own unique brand of swamp R&B. MonkeyJunk are true pros in every sense of the word, onstage and off.  These guys go onstage and never let up. The power of the music is unbelievable, song after song, Matt Sobbs steady and powerful drumming drives the trio with Tony D’s spectacular guitar playing. The icing on the cake is Steve Marriner’s powerful, smooth vocals and world class harp playing. MonkeyJunk have taken from the masters and created their own unique sound. If you haven’t experienced them, you are missing out.

The second day began with rain for a large part of the morning, threatening to put a damper on the day. Just before the music was set to begin at 2:00, it stopped raining as if it was part of the schedule.  Angelique Francis opened the program on Saturday with her unique style. She plays a stand-up bass in her family band which includes two of her sisters and her father and Angelique is certainly not the only talent in that family to be sure. I have had the pleasure of seeing her perform many times and I think she just gets better all the time. Her voice can be big and powerful or it can be soft and melodic, but always beautiful.

The afternoon was filled with more of the great local bands that the Ottawa area should be proud of. Rocket Rachad and The Fat City 8, Blues and Company and Murray Kinsley and Wicked Grin all gave very solid performances. The Ottawa area has a very rich music scene Live at the Falls tapped into it heavily for this festival.

Being the anniversary weekend of Woodstock, I don’t think there could be a more fitting thing than to have Angel Forrest perform. Angel personifies the spirit of Woodstock better than anyone I know. Her voice is beyond description but let’s just say, if you are a Joplin fan, you will love Angel Forrest. It is no surprise she has been chosen as Maple Blues Female Vocalist of the Year six times! She was joined onstage by her husband Denis Columbus and Ricky Paquette, both playing acoustic guitars. More than likely you’ve not heard guitars played like these two can. The performance was especially good considering the trio had literally stepped off a plane, lost all luggage and guitars and travelled to the venue where they almost immediately took the stage. They had to play with  borrowed guitars to be able to perform for us. The show must go on, right? To sum up Angel’s performance in one word……amazing!

Headlining the event was Colin James. You can always count on Colin and his band to deliver a stellar performance and Saturday night was no exception. Any Canadian music fan knows some of the hits like 5 Long Years, Why’d You Lie or Just Came Back To Say Goodbye. The band is made up of seasoned players, each one extremely talented in their own right, making them one of the best bands in the Canadian blues scene. They delivered a great set including all the favourites the fans have loved for 30 plus years. Saturday night was Colin’s 55^th birthday and the enthusiastic crowd sang Happy Birthday to him early in the set. We are lucky here in Canada to have some of the best music in the world and Colin James is certainly among Canada’s elite.

The Live at the Falls festival was in my estimation a success. Blues music is a genre that enjoys a strong following and the atmosphere is one of friendliness and fun. It is a place where old friends catch up and new friends are made. Go see a blues festival if you haven’t done so yet, you will come away feeling glad you did.

 

For more information, check out these websites.

Joe MacDonald

Three Times Lucky

MonkeyJunk

Tom Lavin & The Legendary Powder Blues

Angelique Francis

Rocket Rachad & The Fat City 8

Blues & Company

Wicked Grin

Angel Forrest

Colin James