Shemekia Copeland & Eric Gales ignite the Mahindra Blues Stage!

The annual two-day Mahindra Blues Festival, in association with TOI, began in 2011 at Mehboob Studios in Mumbai and has become a pilgrimage for blues music lovers from all over the country. The festival, organised by ‘Hyperlink’, has not only grown in popularity but also has become a great promoter of home-grown blues talent. Although the festival through the years has had many repeat acts such as Buddy Guy, KebMo and Robert Randolf amongst a few others, they are always welcomed as great artists in the genre.

The audience at this year’s 14th edition, held on February 14 and 15 as usual, had a fair share of blues lovers, musicians and aficionados from all over India, including the excellent blues guitarist from Kolkata, Arinjoy Sarkar. He jammed on the first evening in the opening act with Matt Schofield, a three-time British blues guitarist of the year winner, with his three-piece band on one track. Schofield had also performed at the first edition of the festival and was at his best. His organist, Jonny Henderson, on the Hammond organ, gave some brilliant solos playing bass lines using his left hand reminiscent of Ray Manzarek of ‘The Doors’.

The next act was The Altered Five Blues Band from Milwaukee, which included a deep-throated vocalist, Jeff Taylor, as their star performer. The supporting band were very talented as well and their tight act included their songs ‘Gotta earn it’ and ‘Great minds drink alike’. The headline act of the first day was vocalist Shemekia Copeland, who has eight Grammy nominations, performing for the third time at the festival. Having a dynamic vocal range that transitions between various styles, including traditional blues, rock, soul, Americana and gospel, she rocked the audience performing her favourite songs with her band that had three guitarists alternating between lead and rhythm. Apart from standout renditions of ‘Ain’t got time for hate’ and ‘Great rain’, her rendition of Solomon Burke’s ‘I feel a sin coming on’ gave full rein to her powerful vocals.

The second evening began with the Mumbai-based blues band Backstratblues, formed by guitarist and composer Warren Mendonsa, who was also the first Indian band to perform at the festival in 2011. The high point was Warren’s excellent solo on ‘The Loner’, an instrumental covered by the late blues guitarist Gary Moore. The next act was by DK Harrell, a 27-year-old blues guitarist from Louisiana. His soulful and stinging guitar style and persona brought out nostalgic memories of BB King. With a backing brass section of trumpet and saxophone, the high points on his set were his compositions ‘What real men do’ and ‘Honey ain’t so sweet, where in the latter he got the audience singing along.

Finally, it was the headlining act of the festival by virtuoso blues-rock guitarist Eric Gales, who brought the house down with his emotively brilliant high-speed licks. Hailed as a child prodigy and having 19 albums under his belt, Gales received two Grammy awards this month for his contributions to the soundtrack of the film ‘Sinners’ that has also been heavily nominated in the forthcoming Oscars. The high points in his repertoire were the track ‘You don’t know the Blues’ from his album ‘Crown’ and the instrumental ‘New Beginnings’, which featured a duet with rhythm guitarist Trevor McKay and the latter giving an emotive solo.

As per the tradition of the festival, all the main performers got together to do an ‘All Star Jam’ at the end, which culminated in an excellent version of BB King’s ‘The Thrill is Gone’, a song that practically most blues musicians have covered and is considered one of the finest blues classics.