Line-up: Walter Trout, Tommy Castro & the Painkillers, Ian Siegal meets Johnny Mastro, The Seatsniffers, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Quinn Sullivan, Andrew Duncanson, La Perra Blanco, Shawn Pittman, Tad Robinson, GA-20, Les Greene & The Swayzees, The Gerry Hundt Trio, Trickbag, Rob Heron & the Tea Pad Orchestra, Leif de Leeuw Band, Big Dave & the Dutchmen, The Freaky Buds, The Lowdown Saints, Doghouse Sam & his Magnatones, Jo Harman, Doctor Velvet, Truck Stop Cutie.
The most frequently heard topic: the weather. No one had forgotten the heavy rain of last year. Everyone still remembered the long lead time, which amounted to two hours.
Waiting, driving meters, waiting, driving meters to the festival site. The help of tractors from local farmers to help cars on their way.
How different it was at the 38th edition. Only very nice weather on Friday, some rain and cooling on Saturday, you could just sit outside until late.
But anyway, Blues and Roots, that’s what we went for. We’ll leave the weather to the KNMI.
Put Your Red Shoes and Dance the Moulin Blues. The text on the (once again very nice) posters of this year. And indeed, sitting still was certainly not an option.
WALTER TROUT
But first to the ‘winner’ of this episode: Walter Trout and his band. For the fifth time at the festival, the first time was in 1991 (!!). What a man, what a musician.
Especially impressive how he told a packed tent about what John Mayall meant to him and then commemorated Mayall in a beautiful version of Say Goodbye To The Blues. But his introduction to Courage In The Dark was also one.
Fortunately, a man who has an eye for what is happening around us in a crazy world and wishes everyone some extra courage, guts and daring. Trout was candid about the battle he had to fight when his life was hanging by a thread. He did that so openly and sincerely and told it all with a healthy dose of humor and self-mockery.
The emotions he also showed when he went into a guitar duel with his son Jon. Clearly a proud father (and an equally proud son). Very nice to be able to experience. And of course he had a great band with bassist John Avila, Michael Leasure on drums and Richard T. Bear on keys.
It’s typical of him that somewhere halfway through a song in which he pulled out all the stops he felt 25, at the end he felt 95 and had to catch his breath. Trout closed nicely with Going Down, the Freddie King classic.
REGULAR OFFENDERS
The Özdemirs. In 2023 they were at Moulin Blues. In 2025 they were not in the line-up, but they were there. Father Erkan Özdemir (bass) together with his sons Kenan (guitar) and Levent (drums).
They formed the backing band for: Andrew Duncanson on Friday, Tad Robinson and Shawn Pitman on Saturday. So they were really busy, Kenan a little less so, with Shawn Pittman he didn’t have to join.
The Ciggaar brothers, Darryl (drums) and Dusty (bass) were also busy. On Saturday together with Big Dave & The Dutchmen and a few hours later they made sure that Ian Siegal and Johnny Mastro came into their own.
DIVERSITY in the PROGRAMMING
The programmers of Moulin Blues had done their job well again. Lovers of the various movements in blues and roots music all got their money’s worth:
SOULFULL
The kick-off on Friday afternoon was for Andrew Duncanson. He very recently released his first solo album (California Trap) and was assisted on Friday by co-producer Michael Peloquin on keys. Duncanson already has a considerable career. Especially for many years as singer and guitarist of the Kilborn Alley Bluesband. His style can be described as soul blues/americana.
That his debut had not gone unnoticed by everyone was evident, as the big tent was already quite full on Friday afternoon. Duncanson and band (horns, the Özdemirs and keyboards) were in good shape. He played many songs from his album. Live he reached the level of California Trap with apparent ease. Singing easily, playing his guitar smoothly and with twinkling eyes he enjoyed himself and we enjoyed ourselves.
BLUES and BLUESROCK
The blues/blues rock lovers got their money’s worth for two days. GA-20 was the first to perform for this group. Bluesmagazine colleague Jos Verhagen, unfortunately unable to attend Moulin Blues, was curious to see how GA-20 would fare in its new line-up. After all, only guitarist Matt Stubbs was left of the ‘old’ line-up.
It was quickly clear, Jos can rest assured: the band has not suffered. Cody Nilsen as singer/guitarist and drummer Joshua Kiggans played the roof off. As usual, GA-20 plays a mix of their own songs and songs from the rich, mainly Chicago blues, archive. Hound Dog Taylor, Sonny Boy Williamson etc. all came by.
Quinn Sullivan was there early. He is 26 and his first album was released when he was twelve (!!). Picked up by Buddy Guy, he took his first steps on the blues path. He had to get going. That was partly thanks to the Spanish fury La Perra Blanco who had turned the place upside down for him. But in the end he did just fine. Especially when the tempo increased after a few slow blues numbers, we witnessed that Sullivan is a very good singer/guitarist. We will hear a lot more of that.
Tommy Castro and his Painkillers closed the Friday. Castro knows the ropes, who once again conjured up beautiful sounds from his guitar, supported by his experienced band.
Blues lovers had to be there early on Saturday.
Big Dave & The Dutchmen kicked off at twelve o’clock. Who??, yes, that one: top musicians. Big Dave (Reniers) has a big name in Belgium, mainly thanks to The Electric Kings. His Dutchmen: Mischa den Haring (guitar), Roel Spanjer (keyboards), Dusty (bass/guitar) and Darryl Ciggaar (drums) also have a lot of experience.
It was a great performance, songs from their recently released self-titled album, some classics (Spanjer did the traditional Mathilde for example). A super tight accompaniment, den Haring and Spanjer who went all out and Big Dave who sang, played the harmonica and happily introduced the songs. Absolutely great.
A little later the same bass/drum combination, now with guitarist Nick Croes, was on stage to support Ian Siegal and Johnny Mastro at their show, Siegal and Mastro already have some Moulin Blues experience and apart from that also a lot of experience.
It was enjoyable, almost their entire ‘Easy Tiger’ album was performed bubbling. Raw, smoky, swampy, growling and buzzing. Siegal called attention to the death the previous day of Joe Louis Walker, whom he named as a great example and mentor for him. He was clearly affected by it, too bad that part of the audience barely reacted to it. An encore was unfortunately not in it.
After that raw blues, Shawn Pittman was on stage with two-thirds of the Özdemirs. Good wine … etc. What a mastery of the guitar. A bit of a shame that Kenan Özdemir didn’t play along, as was the case on the recent tour and album My Journey. Pittman can really do a lot, but with Kenan there would probably have been a bit more dynamic. But a great performance
We’ve already talked about Walter Trout’s show.
Between the blues guns Siegal/Mastro and Pittman, Leif de Leeuw performed with his band. It’s well known that Leif has moved from blues rock to Southern Rock/Americana, mainly inspired by the Allman Brothers. Extensively spun-out numbers, nice guitar duels with Sem Jansen. Jessica as one of the highlights. It went down like a treat.
So, that was the blues. Then we had two more party numbers:
PARTY IN THE TENT
La Perra Blanco, Spain. Alba Blanco (29) vocals and guitar, supported by ‘Guille’ double bass, Jesus drums and the name of the keyboardist and saxophone player escapes me.
Last year in the Moulin Blues café, now in the big tent. What a wonderfully crazy person, what energy, what a pounding on her guitar. What a show.
This is a band that comes into its own live. Apparently a large group of spectators remembered her from last year. When presenter Wouter Celis (aka Doghouse Sam) asked who was there last year, many hands went up in the air. Fortunately, Celis let us know that the Spanish for party is fiesta, and fiesta it was. They were also reinforced by the next party number Les Greene with a Little Richard number.
That Les Greene is made of elastic, even if you’re not a fan of their repertoire, it’s unbelievable what stunts he does while singing, somersaults, splits, flying across the stage.
Not a second of rest, into the audience, getting everyone around him to sit down quietly. His Swayzees are hardly inferior to him, especially the saxophonist was in good shape. Drummer Precious had a birthday and gets a cake with candles and a balloon from Alba Blanco.
Sitting still was not an option with these two bands, who threw rockabilly, rock-‘n’-roll, hillbilly etc. into the mixer. You name it, they gave it.
MOULIN BLUES CAFE
But we’re not there yet: the Moulin Blues Café: That was a long party, surprisingly nice bands. If this is to be the gateway to a performance in the big tent, Wouter Celis, aka Doghouse Sam, deserves the promotion with his Magnatones.
But it already started with a surprisingly good performance by Jo Harman, not with a trio, but with everything. Good voice, sometimes rocking nicely and hard. Great. And because Trickbag had gone wrong somewhere along the way, they also played a second set.
This Scandinavian company plus a Spaniard had to make do with one performance, which went smoothly, and the somewhat special form of humor of pale-faced Tomi Leino gave it an extra touch. We saw Tomi again on Saturday with The Lowdown Saints.
There is nothing more English than Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra, the name, the outfits, the tongue-in-cheek humor, dry. Rockabilly, country, rock-‘n’-roll, that is how the organization described this company and that was it. Fun, swinging, once again standing still was not an option.
The last Friday was Doghouse Sam and the Magnotones. The Moulin Blues Cafe was packed, the music was loud and good and they are also a very nice company that makes great music. Nobody left early to go to Tommy Castro. Compliments.
One Belgian closed the Friday, the next opened the Saturday: Truck Stop Cutie from Antwerp. At first I thought they had brought ex-Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle, it turned out to be Johnny Trash. They played two sets full of country and Americana, they had a lot of fun and despite the early hour the spark ignited. Party again.
Doctor Velvet from Amsterdam was seen a bit shorter, sometimes you need to eat something. It sounded good and looked great too. We will definitely hear more of them.
The French Freaky Buds got two sets. Damn, what a great band. Raw blues, Lester Butler, good interaction, especially by frontman singer/guitarist Max Genouel. Remember that name. You can find their album Hard Days, Fuzzy Nights on Spotify.
Missed Gerry Hundt Trio, find a good spot in the big tent for the Walter Trout show. After Walter Trout we went to The Lowdown Saints from Sweden/Finland. They confirmed what was already clear during the entire festival: good bands, lots of blues and often good contact between artist and audience due to the more intimate environment of the big tent.
And then I was done. Compliments to the organization, the volunteers, the toilet ladies, the food tent staff who quickly provided us with food. And to all the artists, it was a great festival.
ORGANISATION SATISFIED
The organisation itself was also satisfied with this edition. Jac Mazereeuw of the organising foundation: ‘As an organisation, we are very satisfied with this edition. And we are not alone in this. This was confirmed by the many compliments from both visitors and artists.
We are therefore proud that almost 6000 visitors found our Moulin Blues festival.’ Moulin Blues had a VIP arrangement on Friday for the first time this year, especially for companies. Mazereeuw about this: ‘The VIP arrangement was a success and will certainly be offered again next year, hopefully with even more enthusiasts for this.’
A target group that Moulin Blues likes to see is the youth. They could make use of an extra discount on the entrance fee. ‘More than a hundred young people made use of this. In addition, among the many volunteers there were many young people who committed themselves in this way to make our festival a success. In order to be future-proof, we really need the youth, and we succeeded in doing so,’ says Mazereeuw.
