| Johnny Winter, Walter Trout and The Radicals, and Andrew Goldring @ The Snowbird Blues Festival 7/29/06 |
| The Snowbird Rock 'n Blues Festival is a fun little event that we have attended the last couple of years. Last year we were fortunate enough to see Buddy Guy headline on his birthday. We also discovered a local Blues band at last years show, The Legendary Porch Pounders, that really impressed us. As the name implies, this festival is held at the famous ski resort area of Snowbird, Utah. We are fortunate enough to have a time-share condo unit at Snowbird's Cliff Lodge, so the past couple of years we have booked some time at our condo to coincide with the Blues Festival. It's worked out beautifully. Last year we were joined by our friends Kurt and Ann Becker, and this year we invited my brother Brian and his wife Nicole. The condo is about a 2 minute walk from the concert venue, so it's easy to eat some dinner and have a couple of drinks at the condo and then make your way to the show at your leisure. We also have made it a habit to take an unofficial intermission from the show at some point, return back to the condo and have a couple more drinks before getting back in time for the headliner. I should also mention that this requires purchasing the outrageously overpriced "Primer Seating" tickets. In fact, the tickets to this show in general are far more expensive than they should be, and has had a visible affect on attendance. One of the main reasons I wanted to make sure and see the show this year was to see (and have Tee, my brother, and Nicole see) an amazing talent from right here in Salt Lake who was one of the opening acts. His name is Andrew Goldring. He is only 12 years old (looks about 10) and is a truly gifted blues guitarist. I first learned of him through, coincidentally enough, one of the guys from The Legendary Porch Pounders, "Bad" Brad. I ran into Brad at a BBQ event at Pat's BBQ. I mentioned having seen him at last years Snowbird Blues Festival and asked if he would be playing again at this year's show. He said that he wasn't, but that I should check out Andrew Goldring who would be playing. A couple of months later (about 2 weeks before the festival) I again attended an event at Pat's BBQ with the kids. Pat had arranged a lineup of blues bands to play at the event and one of the artists was Andrew Goldring. He was amazing! It was hard to believe that the music emanating from that guitar was coming from that skinny white kid! Wow! Even Henry got into it and danced his little pants off. Well, sure enough, when Andrew played his set to the crowd of a couple thousand people at Snowbird the reaction was just as I had predicted; jaws dropped, people adopted permanent grins, and the cheers were deafening. After Andrew's set Tee turned to me and said "I feel like we could go home now and I would be fully satisfied!" Her response, as well as the response of Brian, Nicole, and the rest of the crowd didn't surprise me in the least after having seen him at Pat's. The next act on the bill was a band I had never heard of before, Walter Trout and the Radicals. When they first took the stage we all kind of looked at each other with raised eyebrows. These guys were UGLY. I'm talking the ugliest bunch of guys I've ever seen assembled together. All of them had long, dirty hair. All had dirty t-shirts and jeans, and all were fat. I'm not exaggerating to say that they were literally hard to look at. Luckily their music was so impressive that I was almost able to ignore their looks completely after a couple of numbers. Walter Trout is a great musician, and by the end of the set I was feeling very fortunate to have had the chance to see him. He truly is a blues guitar virtuoso, and some of his original compositions proved he is an artist we a great ability to express a wonderful range of emotions through his instrument. After the Walter Trout set we took our break to return to the condo, passing up seeing whatever act was between Walter Trout and the night's headliner, Johnny Winter. We returned to our seats just as Johnny Winter took the stage. I have to say that I was a bit shocked upon first seeing him. He looked like a man 20 years older than he is (he's 62 and looked 82!). He looked skinny, gaunt, and had to sit in a chair the entire set. He never sang, but only played his guitar. He seemed in a good mood, sporting a gentle smile throughout the show, but even when he played his guitar he seemed somewhat weak and passive in his playing. It was a disappointment, especially after having had such a great headliner with Buddy Guy the year before. I hope the best for Johnny, but I wouldn't recommend paying a lot of money to see him. Overall is was a fun and satisfying show, and depending on ticket prices and what the lineup is we will look to go to next year's show. As a side note I should mention that the next day while swimming with the family (and the Mendenhall's) at the Cliff Lodge pool I ran into Walter Trout with his family. We talked for a minute and I made sure to tell him how impressed I had been with his performance the night before and that I hoped he would come back to Utah. "Rockn' the Blues" from the Deseret News 7/28/06 |