Boston’s on the Beach 2011 Red, White, & Blues Festival

For the second time we scheduled a trip to South Florida to coincide with Boston’s on the Beach Red, White, & Blues Festival held over the July 4th weekend in Delray Beach. For those not familiar with the venue, Boston's is located just across A1A from the ocean and hosts the famed Blue Tuesday blues show with Frank Ward and the Nucklebusters Blues Band and a special guest. In the past we have seen Nicole Hart, The Skyla Burrell Blues Band, and Albert Castiglia during these shows.

Last year Bostons hosted the inaugural Red, White, & Blues Festival and we were able to attend everyday. See coverage here.  But this year were only able to make Sunday which included several regional and national blues acts: IKO-IKO, Ben Prestage, Bobby Lee Rodgers, Bill Wharton, Damon Fowler, and Ana Popovic - among many others. The day started with a tall boy of PBR and Lowdown 13 at the Tiki Bar stage. This is our regular hangout and the band did not disappoint with their hard rockn' blues.Check out their finale at MyJoogTV. Like most festivals, we now had a conflict. Our friends, IKO-IKO were scheduled inside on the Blue Tuesday stage and the Bobby Lee Rodgers Trio were scheduled on the Main stage. Rodgers has been on our watch list for quite some time, thus we shuttled back and forth to see each band. We are definitely biased regarding IKO-IKO and love each set we hear from the band - this was no exception. See a video here at MyJoogTV.  Now, for Bobby Lee Rodgers - we were completely overwhelmed. The guy can play the guitar; sat there mesmerized in the front row.  A video of "Lighthouse" will be posted here later next week - but check this guy out.

I had scheduled the day and lunch around seeing our good friend and one man bluesman Ben Prestage, who we "discovered" first at Merlefest and then at last year's festival. While singing or playing the harp, Presage pounds away on a kick drum and symbols; and plays the electric guitar or a cigar box that includes a separate bass amp. Electric and bass on the same guitar. He had quite an impressive following as well. The Tiki Bar stage was packed - making it difficult to even see the stage. Fortunately there were two sets so between these two, we saw quite a bit of this entertaining musician. Here's a very short video.

After Prestage and a few songs from the Jeff Prine Group, we had to excuse ourselves to shuttle the family home. Too much sun at the beach. It was disappointing to miss Damon Fowler and
Bill Wharton but I made it back for the main event: Ana Popovic. And she was awesome. Wow. A particular band mate may be a little over the top; but she can play. Yes, Ronnie Earl is a good comparison.  Thanks Bostons.