Vredenburg has a long tradition of blues festivals. Older blues lovers will certainly remember the blues relay from the 90s. The Blues Relay in Vredenburg was known for bringing many legendary, older blues artists from the US to the Netherlands.
The festival was a unique opportunity to see blues musicians who otherwise rarely or never performed in Europe. Unfortunately, this festival stopped in 2004.
The tradition of organizing a blues festival has fortunately been continued in recent years. First in a somewhat smaller format with 2 stages, but this year again in the beautiful large hall and 3 adjacent stages in the large complex.
This year too, there is a nice mix of Dutch and foreign acts. With Kai Strauss Blues Revue, JJ Thames, Big Monti Amundson and new kid on the block Sean “Mack” McDonald on the main stage.
Sean “Mack” McDonald is another one of the “young blood”. What a lot of new young, mainly American talent we have at the moment. This 23-year-old “Mack” McDonald also has his own style. Too bad he relies a lot on his saxophone player Sylvain Tejerizo, and Roel Spanjers also got plenty of time to solo.
These solos were often too long, Sean prefers to play his own solos. This and his many chats between the songs take the speed out of the show. The songs themselves are fantastic and I will definitely follow him, because his slow blues was fantastic.
“Big” Monti Amundson was just the opposite. Uptempo and only a break for a change to his slide guitar. His Dutch backing band consisting of Bart Kamp on bass and Jody van Ooijen on drums accompanied him tightly.
Despite the fact that Amundson, who currently lives in Nashville, does not often come to Europe anymore, his fans have not forgotten him. Several people literally heard him sing along. With songs like “Cruel is your name” and “Female Dictionary” you can hear why he was called the new Stevie Ray Vaughan at the time. But Big Monti is more than that.
Great slide guitar with “Broke down car” as an example and of course the “sadest song about breakfast” Continental breakfast. Hopefully it won’t be long before he comes to the Netherlands again.
Kai Strauss had reunited his Blues Revue for this festival with special guests Sax Gordon and singer Robbin Kapsalis. In contrast to the other shows on the main stage, this show lasted 1.5 hours.
The start was a real Strauss show, great guitar solos with a smooth Hammond from Paul Jobson and the horns every now and then. The atmosphere changed completely with the entrance of Sax Gordon. Not for the better for me, but the audience went completely with the party, so this blues purist shouldn’t complain.
When Robbin Kapsalis entered the blues, the blues continued. Wonderful Chicago blues with its unique bass line. Kapsalis was clearly enjoying herself. Lots of hands to the audience and even the audience on top of the stands got involved.
What a power this woman gives and how the audience soaks it up. It is a pity that the number of guitar solos by Strauss when his guests play is less. A combination would do the show good for the real blues lover.
JJ Thames was not very well known in the Netherlands 2 years ago, but her performances in November 2023, including at Roots in Berghem and at the festival in Hoogeveen, were so good that she will be allowed to close the day in Utrecht.
What a charisma this woman has. She winds the audience (many of whom had already gone home) around her finger. From the start with “Bright light big city” to the end with Whipping post and I’d Rather Go Blind, the show is captivating.
A nice mix of covers and original songs with excellent accompaniment by the Luca Giordano band.
In addition to the main stage, there were 3 smaller stages. Each band is allowed to perform twice for half an hour during the breaks in the main hall. The first small stage was the Rabo open stage. This stage is often used as a free stage for the city of Utrecht.
When we entered, Paul Benjaman had just started. This singer guitarist from Tulsa, Oklahoma plays raw blues and the wonderful Tulsa lay-back sound that we know from JJ Cale. An unknown to me but certainly someone to see more often. Later, the Dutch La Ratte would perform on this stage.
This band remains wonderful to listen to. Their own garage sound with perhaps one of the best young guitarists in the Netherlands, Harm van Essen.
The other two stages were difficult to find, but relying on the music helps. Despite her young age, Emily Hill has already been in the finals of the Dutch blues challenge twice. I thought she was very good there last October.
In this setting with only guitar and keyboards, it didn’t quite come into its own. It was a bit subdued and didn’t seem to fill the space. The second concert in this space was for Nienke Dingemans, but she unfortunately had to cancel due to illness.
Good replacements were found in Ian Siegal and Richard van Bergen. Siegal’s voice immediately filled the space and you could see the audience enjoying it. A great mix of own songs like “Hand in hand” and covers like “Hoodoo man blues”. And of course Richard got to sing a song.
Because you have to make choices, I visited the third stage in restaurant Danel. Arlan Feiles has a beautiful warm voice. But I am not a fan of this type of piano blues. Fortunately tastes differ because enough people enjoyed his songs.
Skipped Big Dave and Roel Spanjers because of the stress of making choices. But we will probably see them more often.
