Trois-Rivières en Blues

Now THIS is a Blues Festival

There are only two Blues festivals in North America that last more than 4 days, and both of them occur during roughly the same ten days, usually at the beginning of July. They are both in Canada, in locations that are only about 320 km apart, the Tremblant International Blues Festival in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, and the Ottawa Blues Festival in Ottawa, Ontario.

There is another Quebec based Blues Festival that some of my friends and I like to say is a compressed version of Tremblant, by being squeezed into four days, and which also books Blues only acts. As much as I like and enjoy Tremblant, the Trois-Rivières en Blues festival, started in 2009, has become my favorite Blues festival, mostly because of the caliber of the talent shown there and the memories I have of the five I have been to, but also because of the new venue the city constructed, and its surrounding park area.

2013

My first trip to this festival was in 2013, for their fifth edition, when I went there for only the last night of the by then 4 day festival held in this small city of around 135,000, usually on the third weekend of August. There was no entry fee for any of the shows, held on stages and in bars and restaurants in the downtown area. This was the first time I saw Ana Popovic, her show was what I went to see, and began a yearly tradition of seeing at least one act, and usually more, that is on "my want to see" list. And to be clear, just because an artist is no longer on that list, does not mean I stop going to their shows. I have seen Ana quite a few more times since.

2014

In 2014, the festival decided to charge a five dollar per day, or fifteen for the 4 days, entry fee. Given that there were dozens of acts to see over the weekend, this was still very good value. We went for only two days, but I got to see Tommy Castro and Otis Taylor, more "want to see" list entries crossed off. I also saw award winning Canadian Steve Strongman for the first time, when he, Paul DesLauriers, and Guy Belanger played a great set together.

This edition is also where I started to “discover” new talent I had not heard of before. The first of these acts was Whiskey Legs, a Quebec City based band named after a Tedeschi Trucks song, and according to the band, influenced by them as well. They played an acoustic set on a separate stage that was set up just for acoustic acts, and has since been eliminated from the festival unfortunately. A couple of years later, I got to see Whiskey Legs again when they opened for Taj Mahal at Place Des Arts.

On the way back to the hotel after the outdoor shows of the first day were finished, my wife said she was hungry, so we stopped in at one of the restaurants that had a live band. She had her meal, and I got to see Louis Janelle and his band for the first, but certainly not the last, time. A second “new act” during the same year.

2015

For 2015, the festival started using the newly built, state of the art, Amphitheatre Cogeco, a magnificent outdoor facility with a roof and 3300 comfortable, well-spaced seats, and great sight lines for everybody, plus a grass section in the back that can handle another 5500 with their lawn chairs. It is built at the confluence of two rivers (not three, as you would expect), the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence, and is surrounded by a beautiful park. This facility is now my favourite outdoor venue, although my experience has been limited to mostly Quebec and Ontario venues so far.

There were shows at the Amphitheatre for three nights, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All of the downtown stage shows became free again, and the Amphitheatre shows required buying a “passport” for the entire weekend. The cost of passports ranges from $36 for the General Admission section on the grass, to $99 for a seat in the front rows. Considering that it is good for three nights of always great entertainment, it is an incredible value.

The first night headliner of that weekend was ZZ Top, the second night was Edgar Winter, but again, we only went for the last day of the weekend. Not having a passport, I was able to buy tickets from somebody selling his passport tickets (you get one ticket for each night, so you can sell individual night tickets) because he was not interested in the acts that night. Too bad for him, but great for us, because it turned into one of the best musical nights in my life. The great John Nemeth opened, followed by Tinsley Elis, and then the evening was topped off with Keb Mo, who was in the middle of the tour that produced his live album, “That Hot Pink Blues Album”. All three of these artists were on my list at that point. This is the beginning of my current “three want to see list acts” streak each year at this festival. And this one was three at once, all on the same night!

For this edition of the festival, the Amphitheatre shows were moved to Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. This time, we went for the first three days, and left on the Sunday afternoon before everything was finished. We purchased seated tickets in advance for this, and were about 15 rows from the stage, on the left side of the Amphitheatre.

The first night we saw Angel Forrest opening for another artist I “discovered” here, Sugaray Rayford. What an amazing performer he is, and a great band. Have since seen him again at Tremblant, and will try to see him anytime he is in the area.

Once again, there were three acts on my list that I got to see, two on the second night together, Colin James (yes I know, took me long enough to see him), and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, after a great set from Southern Hospitality, featuring Victor Wainwright, Damon Fowler, and JP Soars. On the third night, before seeing local guitar hero Steve Hill and Steppenwolf, the third bucket list act was Mike Zito and the Wheel opening the evening. Plus, another “new act”, he had a special guest for a few songs, Alexis P. Sutter, who won the hearts of everybody there with her incredible voice. She, by the way, will be at Sutton en Blues this fall, and is worth going to see if you can.

I have two great memories from the 2016 festival, at least, that can be made public. One is the Steppenwolf show being a lot better than I thought it would be. The musicians were great, and they used the giant screen in the venue very well. When they played some of their old hits, they would have the original video of the song playing on the screen, and the band would play live in time with it. Pretty cool to see some of the original members on screen from back then, and performing live on the stage at the same time.

The second great memory is one of those spontaneous events that happens and you remember for a long time. They seem to happen frequently at Tremblant and Trois-Rivières. On the second night, the Justin Saladino Band was doing a gig that started at 23:00 at one of the bars downtown. The bass player and drummer (Matt Walker and Chris Peet) from the band Southern Hospitality, who had already opened the Amphitheatre shows earlier that night, showed up, and started to do sit-in jams with the band. Soon, everybody except Justin himself were playing musical chairs, and rotating around the drums and bass and sometimes a second guitar, or getting a break. They jammed nonstop until just before closing at 03:00, with Justin not taking a single break, except between songs. A spectacular way to finish off a night of great shows.

This is also the year I started to hear from friends that I miss some great shows by leaving early on Sunday. This particular year, because of a severe rainstorm that hit on the Sunday, the shows were moved inside, and a lot of folks left. That means for those that stayed, it turned into a closer experience. Acts I missed that night included Kim Churchill, Jack DeKeyzer, Sean Chambers, and Trampled Under Foot.

2017

For the 2017 edition, we again stayed for the first 3 days, and left late Sunday afternoon. We bought General Admission passports for the Amphitheatre shows, planning to spend the time with a bunch of our Blues Buddies that we see at these shows all the time, hanging out on the grass section.

Amphitheatre shows were once again Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with Thursday night featuring Montreal’s The Damn Truth opening for Styx, who now have Canada’s own Gowan doing the vocals and playing keyboards.

The “three list entries” streak was kept alive by seeing Mavis Staples and Walter Trout in the Amphitheatre Friday night, to start with. Mavis was superb, and had an extraordinary band with her, performing songs from her early recordings with her dads (Pops Staples) legendary Staples Singers, right on up to her most recent albums.

During the break between Mavis and Walter, my wife was given a pair of tickets for the seats during her trip to the facilities, just for that night, in the back right section. We gladly sat for the Walter Trout show, even though we were not much closer to the stage. Walter, who also had his son Jon playing with him, was great, and took time to talk about his recent health problems and his family between some of the songs. I am so happy to have finally seen him, and was pleasantly surprised by my wife telling me it was one of the better shows I had taken her to, ever.

That night in a bar after the shows, I saw a band from Chicago take the stage, Jamiah Rogers on guitar, his father on bass, and the drummer from another band playing later in the festival, Joanna Connor, also from Chicago. This young kid Jamiah is a great up and coming talent.

On Saturday and Sunday, there were free shows on the main stage downtown, starting at 12:30, and finishing around 18:30. Saturday was a bonanza of new discoveries for me.

First up, right out of the gate at 12:30, lap steel, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Heather Gillis, sometimes referred to as an “Allman Sister”. Heather has a band, but was solo for this, and was very impressive, as both a singer and guitarist. She is well connected with the Allman Brothers family of musicians, and it shows as influences in her playing. After her show, she came over to the Montreal Blues Society tent to sign CDs and meet folks, where I happened to be standing outside, and she came up to me and said “Hi! Like your shirt”. I was wearing one of my Duane Allman shirts. We talked music for a while, then and again later.

A bit later, we saw Jamiah Rogers and his band again, and then had a lot of fun talking baseball with them afterwards too, even debating which was better, the old Comiskey Park, or Wrigley Field. Chalk up another “new artist”. I found out later that he had already been to this festival a couple of years earlier, and I had missed him.

The last show on that stage before we would head off to the Amphitheatre was the son of Magic Slim, Shawn Holt with his band the Teardrops, and this became my third “new artist” of the day. This guy put on a show, even going out into the crowd in a relatively tightly packed area.

Night three featured the always great Danielle Nicole Band opening the Amphitheatre show for the artist that is my third “want to see” list entry of the edition, the still young, but now a veteran, Jonny Lang. Jonny gave a crowd pleasing set of a good mix of some old songs and new songs from his recent album.

After the Amphitheatre shows, we went to a bar where Gracie Curran & Her Highfalutin Band was playing, who became “new act” number four of the day! Great energy, and the atmosphere was pretty cool too, with some of the musicians from the day shows showing up, some to jam, some to socialize with us normal folk at the bar and tables.

The Sunday schedule had me working with the Montreal Blues Society during our solo/duo part of the “Quebec to Memphis” competition, where Trois-Rivières native Steve Hill won. After that, we left, and missed seeing what would have been two other acts that I have yet to see, and want to, Joanna Connor and Chris Duarte.

2018 ??

What is in store for 2018, the tenth edition of the festival? We have tickets in the front row of the Amphitheatre, which is a first for me, anywhere. The scheduled artists include Samantha Fish and George Thorogood to start the weekend, the former on my “to see” list, the latter on my “seen more than 5 times” list.

The second night at the Amphitheatre will have us seeing another of my “to see” acts, Roomful of Blues, opening for Canadian Randy Bachman.

The third night of the big shows features Canadian Juno award and Maple Blues Award winner Steve Strongman, followed by two fellows that are on my “to see” list individually, but they are doing something special together here. Ronnie Baker Brooks and Billy Branch are doing a show called “Chicago Plays the Stones”. This is a project that they did with other musicians, playing Rolling Stones songs in the style of the Chicago blues for an album. This should be special to watch and listen to. They will have other musicians with them, so it is not a duo.

The grand finale show for the venue on Saturday night is none other than 82 year old Buddy Guy, another of the entries on my “more than 5 times” list. An evening ending with some cool Chicago musicians sounds like a plan to me.

The daytime shows at the downtown stage on Saturday and Sunday, plus the new this year shows on that stage Thursday and Friday night, as well as the bar and restaurant shows look good too, featuring three other “to see” entries for me, Chris Cain, Backtrack Blues Band, and Mitch Woods. There will also be some great Canadian acts, Fuel Junkie, Harpdog Brown with special guest Sugar Brown, Justin Saladino, Dwayne Dixon, Dawn Tyler Watson, Ben Racine Band, Pat Loiselle, Dan Livingstone, Riot and the Blues Devils, Bill Believe, Bobby Smith, Mike Goudreau Band, Blues Jar, Jim Zeller, Deno Amodeo, Spencer Mackenzie, Mo Blues, andThe SoulSisters.

This time, we are staying until Monday, having rented a four bedroom AirBnB with some friends, about two blocks from the main downtown stage. Looks like it was a good decision too, as the closing lineup for Sunday looks outstanding, with Dawn Tyler Watson, Chris Cain, and Victor Wainwright all doing shows on the stage, then Ghost Town Blues Band doing the last show in a new place called the Memphis Cabaret not far from the stage. Fitting a band from Memphis will be playing there.

Looks like this will once again be my favorite event of the year, only need the weather to cooperate!