Saturday was our last planned day at Blues Fest. Our plans were set. This would be my second day of waking without the help of a wet nose. Sascha normally starts wanting out between 6:00 and 6:30. That means prodding mom to get moving.
We got up early and headed down the street to Yolk for breakfast. Rich had found this little gem on Yelp. We had stopped in on Friday to check on peak times and found out we had better be in before 9:00. We got up early and headed down. Rich got an omelet and I had the berries and three different kinds of French toast. After some coffee, we felt ready for the day.
We headed back to the hotel to get ready. Our first choice for the day didn’t start until 11:30. That gave us plenty of time to relax and enjoy ourselves. I finished off my blog entry for Friday with the pictures I had taken. Then we headed out to join the crowds.
The streets were definitely empty in comparison to Thursday and Friday. We made one stop for more coffee. Rich hadn’t reached maximum capacity on the caffeine from the earlier breakfast coffee. After getting fortification, we continued down the Ave to the park.
Our first stop was to the Mississippi Juke Joint Stage. Rich had found that he definitely preferred the style of blues going on there. This was Delta blues. First on the agenda for the day was a panel discussion on Pinetop Perkins in honor of his 100th birthday. Now Pinetop wouldn’t technically be 100 until Monday the 10th, but this was the day to celebrate. Pinetop died in 2011 at the age of 97. He had wanted so much to live to be 100, but never made it. They promised him a party anyway.
The panel consisted of Pat Morgan, who worked with Pinetop for many years; Barrelhouse Chuck, a piano player who learned from Pinetop and worked with him on stage; and Kenny “BeadyEyes” Smith, whose father played with Pinetop and who grew up knowing the man. There were stories, Q&A, and then birthday cake with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” sung by the crowd.
I thought this was one of my favorite things of the day. We were laughing and hearing about Pinetop and seeing some older musicians. Bob Stroger, who played bass with Pinetop and Willie Smith in their last band, was on hand. He had just a Blues Music Award in May for his skills on the bass. He came up to the mike to give us a couple of stories. Some of things said can’t be repeated in polite company. Apparently, Pinetop loved the beautiful ladies.
As we waited for the next act to come on stage, we stretched our legs. This gave a chance to look around the crowd. It was still early and pretty tame at this point. Rich wondered off to find something to drink. Unfortunately, they were only selling Budweiser products on the grounds. We had noticed several people with better drink products. We figured they were sneaking them in somehow even though they were checking bags and coolers.
The Peterson Brothers took the stage next. This is a 16 year old and 14 year old brother group you would not believe. I have new guitar gods for my list. Glenn Jr. is a very young guitarist with a lot of talent. He plays lead. Alex is the bass player. Either one of these guys can do it well and over the top. I was just so impressed with their style, talent, and knowledge. You don’t normally think of bass players are guitar gods, but Alex could play that bass like no one else I’ve seen.
Sorry to go on and on, but they were so impressive and so young. I just can’t image where they will be in 20 years. If you ever hear of them around you, check it out. Hey, Rose, they are based in Austin and play the Contenintal Club. I know they’ll be in San Antonio for Juneteenth, but I’m not sure you will be.
Now we were getting hungry. We decided to step off the grounds and get a late lunch and early dinner at Berghoff’s. We packed up our stuff and our chairs and headed up to Adams Street again. Berghoff’s is a very old German restaurant that also brews their own beer. This would be an extra treat. I love their food and it would be a chance to enjoy the beer also. Normally, I am the DD so I don’t get to have a full pint to myself.
The lunch crowd was winding down and we ended up being in the place with only a few people. Rich ordered the Amber to start and I followed suit. We started out with a pretzel and dipping sauces. It was so soft on the inside and crispy brown on the outside. I decided on the jagerschnitzel with spatzel and red cabbage. Rich got the rahmschnitzel with mashed potatoes and red cabbage.
There were a couple of older gentlemen next to us. One of them commented on the pretzel and we started talking. He didn’t know you could order such a thing here. We talked about the beers and the food. They eventually left us after saying have a good day.
We ate to capacity. Rich ordered a heife weiz as his second beer. Had to enjoy here, because there was nothing this good once we returned to the Blues Fest. We relaxed and had a great dinner. But then it was getting time to return for the show we had been waiting for.
We arrived back at the Juke Joint Stage to find it was filling in. The next act was getting ready to start and we wanted to make sure we had a good place to see the stage for the last act. We arranged our chairs and took the necessary trips before the show.
Castro Coleman and his band got started. He was all showman. His would be a great club show for probably the younger set. As the show progressed, more and more people filtered in and tried to put chairs or just stand in the open spots. For those of us sitting down, sometimes that meant that our view was blocked. Seems like the sitting areas were not exempt from the inconsiderate who chose to stand in the way. At least there were no shouting matches or possible fights this night.
Castro finished his show and it was on to the Howlin Wolf tribute featuring Eddie Shaw and what turned out to be a cast of characters. That is both on and off the stage. Eddie Shaw worked with Howlin Wolf for the last 13 years before Wolf died in 1976. This act was to feature music and people who knew and loved Howlin Wolf over the years.
The Howlin Wolf Foundation board came on stage to talk about their efforts to remember Wolf and to advance Blues music through scholarship programs. They raffled off some items.
At one point, a young lady in the audience started to hassle Eddie on stage. He was shooting it back to her. At one point, he told her, “If I had known you were running the show, I’d kept my ass at home.” Needless to say, I believe the young lady had been drinking a little too much.
The entertainment wasn’t just on stage. At one point, a chick (and it applies here) with red, white, and pink hair came through the crowd toward me. When she got in front of me, she almost fell into my lap. I managed to put my hands up and help her back to her feet. She staggered a few more steps and stopped. She looked at the beer in her hand and then proceeded to pour it out. At first, I thought she had poured down the back of the chair of the guy in front of me. Luckily, she missed and it was just short of that. She then threw the bottle to the ground and exited stage right.
As the show progressed, a lot of younger kids began arriving at the stage. They were all pushing forward to the stage. It was an instant mosh pit. Most of them didn’t seem old enough to be drinking, but were pretty blasted by this time. A group of three girls decided to stand on the bench they had been sitting on. Pretty soon, a couple of girls came up to join them. One of the girls was not sober enough to even be standing on the ground. She couldn’t stay up on the bench. At one point, the grandmother on the bench behind them caught her from falling down on the ground. She managed to climb back up on the bench, but was facing in the wrong direction. They finally got her turned toward the stage, but they were holding her up. They made it through to the end of the show.
We finally left the Juke Joint Stage and headed back to the hotel. Dropping off our stuff and cleaning up a bit, we headed down to the bar and restaurant on the first floor. We noticed earlier in the day that the special was going to be $5 martinis. We figured a light snack and a drink would be good before we went off to sleep. There was chicken liver mousse with orange marmalade and toast points. We added the fromage plate. They worked excellent together. I got the Parkview martini, which was made with tequila. Most excellent. Rich got the French Manhattan with bourbon and then a Revolution Brewing Porter.
Then it was time to drift upstairs and put the lights out. Oh yeah, and we went to sleep. It was a one very full day.
