Arts & Life

Bettie Mae Fikes had the audience in the palm of her hand during her performances at the festival. Photo by Abbye Brenner.

UPPER LAKE – The two sets performed by Bettie Mae Fikes on the night of Thursday, July 19, during the inaugural Blue Wing Blues Festival were preceded and augmented by the Levi Lloyd Band whose members were identified in part one of this article.

Although Rob Watson of James Brown's Soul Generals was advertised as the band leader, a last-minute gig for the Soul Generals in Italy required Rob to call on Levi LLoyd and his crew to provide instrumentation for Ms. Bettie. Ironically, Ron Perry, the bass player, gave Rob Watson his first gig and mentored him early on in his career.

Sound man D. Wills was a great crowd warmer with his dancing and singing antics on "It's Your Thing." Levi Lloyd's rendition of Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man" was dedicated to festival organizer Bernie Butcher.

From the opening chords of the great ballad "Soul Serenade," on through "Let The Good Times Roll," a medley combining T-Bone Walker's, "Stormy Monday" and B.B. King's "Nobody Loves Me But My Mama," was Bettie Mae improvising, testifying and singing the blues at its finest, despite struggling with allergies during her first set.

Remarkably, her voice was stronger during the second set and those in attendance marveled at the ease in which Fikes improved upon excellence. She truly had us like putty in her palm. She summed her expertise by commenting, "Though I love jazz, pop and country, the blues and gospel are what get me through this experience called life." Kudos to Lake County resident Mike Magbie for guesting on harmonica on "You Got Me Running."

Look out for Bettie's next CD, currently being recorded in Lake County.

Summer Of Love Legend Mike Wilhelm and Lake Blues All-Stars featuring Jim Williams and Jon Hopkins were an early crowd favorite on Thursday night. Their set included Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain" and B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby."

Hopkins, the "Barrister of Bass," did a fine rendition of Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man," playing bass and harmonica simultaneously.

A female vocalist named Neon guested on "The Thrill is Gone" and "I'm Tore Down." When not singing she worked the crowd admirably and did great percussion work.

Jim Williams put the great Mike Wilhelm's career in perspective by mentioning that Wilhelm was Jerry Garcia's favorite guitar player. Wilhelm interjected that he was playing though an amp that he bought from Garcia. (On a side note, both Mike Wilhelm and Betty Mae Fikes were pictured in recent issues of Rolling Stone Magazine.)

Wilhelm displayed great virtuosity and chops in his note selection during his solos. The band closed with "Red House' and "Further On Up The Road" to a great ovation by the crowd. Great set!

Though this writer has seen Twice As Good on two other occasions, the way they played Friday night was simply uncut, blistering, high energy blues power. It seemed like a different band. Celebrating the release of their new CD, Live At Pala Casino 2007, Rich and Paul Steward, Bruce Hodge and Chris Ho really gave it everything they had.

From the new CD, they started off with "T-Bone Shuffle.” From his first duck walking guitar solo, Paul was on fire. They did Jimmy Reed. They did Albert King. From the 1920s they reprised Big Maceo Merriweather. Paul played keyboards, blew saxophone and harmonica, sometimes intermittently within the same song.

They did Elmore James. They did the self-penned "Rancheria" from their first CD. They did Santana, Solomon Burke, Bobby Bland, Ray Charles, Santo & Johnny, Big Joe Turner and a little "Mustang Sally" too.

Their aunt danced nonstop on stage. It was her 400th show with her nephews!

The crowd was enthralled and adoring. It had to be seen to be believed.

This writer has heard a rumor that Paul Steward sat in with the critically acclaimed Robert Randolph & The Family Band recently and outplayed Robert Randolph. Mind you, it's a rumor. But I believe it was the great Jimi Hendrix who sang, anythang is possible, with the power of soul!

Unfortunately, this writer was unable to attend Saturday's closing act at the festival, Blues Express recording artist, the great Frankie Lee. From all reports I've heard, Lee put on an incredible show, which included Claudette King daughter of King Of The Blues, B.B. King.

I guess Butcher will just have to have them back sooner rather than later. Blues, blues and more blues in Lake County. What a concept!

Thurman Watts writes about music for Lake County News.

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Paul Steward of Twice As Good with Robert Randolph of the Family Band. Photo courtesy of Paul Steward.

Details: Written by: Lake County News Reports; Published: 25 July 2007

Barry Brenner. Photo by Abbye Brenner.

UPPER LAKE – The inaugural Blue Wing Blues Festival has successfully joined the ranks of high brow Northern California music events.

Held from Wednesday, July 18, through Saturday, July 21, the event was the brainchild of maverick entrepreneur, Bernie Butcher, whose business savvy enabled him to draw some major talent to the small but mighty town of Upper Lake.

The event was sponsored by a hybrid coalition of business and private entities: KNTI Radio, The Tallman Hotel/Blue Wing Saloon, Remax Realty, and Dale and Jillian Billester.

Opening each night was Barry "Big B" Brenner, born and bred in that bastion of urban blues, Chicago's south side. Brenner is skilled in several sub genre's of the blues. These include Piedmont Rags, Texas Stomp, Atlanta Style and the good ol' Delta Slide. These styles were popularized from the 1920s forward by such iconic legends as Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly), Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Boy Fuller and this writer's favorite, Blind Willie McTell.

Brenner's Thursday night set went something like this. On "Highway 61" he utilized expert slide guitar fingerings on his National Steel guitar. For "Midnight Special," his axe of choice was the difficult 12 string guitar. When Big B played Jimmy Reed's "Bright Lights" he broke out his 1933 National Steel Trovedor much to the delight of the guitar aficionados in attendance.

Brenner performed "San Francisco Bay Blues" as an up-tempo number and made his 12 string sing like an African banjo in conjunction with a blue banshee. I ain't lyin'!

Other numbers performed by Brenner included "Dust My Broom" written by Elmore James and "Silver Streak" written by Brenner's son. He closed with an original composition, "Steppin' Up & Go," a rouser which set the stage for the Blues Diva of Lake County, Miss Bettie Mae Fikes.

Brenner currently resides in L.A. and hopefully won't be a stranger to these Konocti Shores. For more information on Barry Brenner, visit www.bigBBrenner.com.

Closing the opening evening's festivities was Bay Area Legend Freddie Hughes. Hughes is famous for his hit, recorded in the late 60s, entitled "Send My Baby Back." The single has sold approximately 950,000 thousand units worldwide and as a result Hughes is hugely famous in Europe.

Ditto Upper Lake on Wednesday night. Hughes had the crowd in the cross hairs of his blues gun as he and the Rich Kirch Blues Band cranked out a virtual history of rhythms and blues.

Culling tracks from his soon to be released CD, Absolutue Hughes, Freddie performed such hits as "Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You," "Last Two Dollars," "Love Land" and "Broke And Hungry."

His signature song, "Send My Baby Back," was the blues love ballad that brought the lovers in the house to the dance floor.

Rich Kirch is a fixture on the blues scene, most famously through his 13-year association with John Lee Hooker. Kirch has recorded and toured with many greats including Jimmy Dawkins, Jimmy Rodgers, Pinetop Perkins, Greg Allman, Jorma Koukonen, Billy Cox, Junior Wells and Hubert Sumlin.

The Rich Kirch Band consists of Rich Kirch, guitar; Michael Skinner, drums; and Ron Perry on bass.

The headliner on Thursday night was the great Bettie Mae Fikes. Though no longer residing in Lake County, Fikes continues to be our Blues Diva. Alas, now though, we must share her with the world. Blues patrons who frequented the now-defunct Konocti Blues Cafe know what I'm talking about.

A veteran of the Civil Rights movement, Fikes recently lent her chops to the recording of Mavis Staples' latest release, a reworking of those Civil Rights anthems and freedom songs that advanced the cause of the civil liberties that somehow are not paramount to the current administration of executive government. Hmm. Can the blues wax political? Anyway, Staples' new album, on which Bettie Mae contributes, is entitled “We'll Never Turn Back.

The band that backed Fikes included the talented guitarist Levi Lloyd, the great Andre Williams on drums, Ron Perry on bass and Carl Mureco on keyboards.

Tomorrow, Thurman Watts explores more of the great music brought to Upper Lake during the Blue Wing Blues Festival.

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