News Release

For release June 10, 2004

2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival announces stellar line-up

NEWS ALERT: MIDNIGHT MAMBO BLUES CRUISE ON SATURDAY NIGHT IS SOLD OUT.

PORTLAND, Ore.—Grammy-Award winning bluesman Keb’ Mo,’ presented by CO-OP Network, and the young blues-rocker Jonny Lang, presented by First Tech Credit Union, will headline the 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, presented by First Tech Credit Union.

The 17th annual blues festival opens at noon on Friday, July 2, and concludes at 9 p.m., Monday, July 5, at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on the banks of the Willamette River in downtown Portland.

The largest blues festival West of the Mississippi, the Waterfront Blues Festival annually attracts more than 120,000 blues fans from across the U.S. The festival offers close to 100 performances on four stages. This year’s festival offers more workshops, more Blues Cruises on the “Portland Spirit,” more films and special programming than ever before and fabulous fireworks on July 4.

Special focus The 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival will celebrate the late Howlin’ Wolf and spotlight the blues-based music of Louisiana and Texas.

Admission
Admission is a daily donation per person of $5 plus two cans of nonperishable food. The festival is the major annual fund-raiser for Oregon Food Bank. All festival donations benefit Oregon Food Bank’s work to eliminate hunger and its root causes.

Schedule
The 2004 Waterfront Blues Festival promises to be another stellar festival.

Friday, July 2, noon to 10 p.m.

Main Stages:
The festival will kick off at noon Friday with a high-wattage line-up headlined by Grammy Award-winning bluesman Keb’ Mo’, presented by CO-OP Network, at 8:45 p.m. on the Miller Stage.

The Holmes Brothers, presented by Karolyn March, Attorney, will serve up a set of their gospel-tinged blues at 7:45 p.m. on the Credit Union Stage. The Chicago Tribune hails the Holmes Brothers as "the undisputed masters of blues-based American roots music."

Then hear the pioneers of rock-boogie-blues, Canned Heat, presented by CO-OP Network, at 6:45 p.m. on the Miller Stage.

In a tribute to blues divas, Linda Michelet will kick off the day’s line-up at noon on the Credit Union stage.

Other main stage highlights include Seattle slide guitar wizard Henry Cooper and a reunion of the Albina Allstars, featuring Norman Sylvester, Lloyd Allen, Raydell Clay and Mel Solomon.

A&E Front Porch Stage:
Memphis bluesman Robert Belfour will share the percussive, hypnotic guitar style he developed with neighbors Junior Kimrough and R.L Burnside in the north Mississippi hill country. Former Memphis compadre Mark Lemhouse will back Belfour on drums. Lemhouse, the formidable guitarist, now based in Salem, was nominated for two W.C. Handy Awards this year. Finger picking and tall tales from acoustic bluesman and raconteur Roy Book Binder and Portland ’s young acoustic duo, Hillstomp, will round out Friday’s A&E Front Porch line-up.

Blues Cruise:

The “Portland Spirit” will head down the Willamette River on the first of five festival blues cruises. The Hoodoo Moon Blues Cruise will feature Canned Heat, The Holmes Brothers , Robert Belfour and Mark Lemhouse, Roy Bookbinder and Hillstomp. TICKETS ARE GOING FAST. WE EXPECT THIS TO SELL OUT BEFORE THE FESTIVAL BEGINS.

Howlin’ Wolf celebration
After hours, the Northwest Film Center will present its Reel Blues film series on the A&E Front Porch Stage at 10 p.m. with a screening of “Hubert Sumlin: Living the Blues.” The film profiles the pioneering Chicago blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin. The film kicks off a series of presentations at the Waterfront celebrating Sumlin’s former boss, the legendary Howlin’ Wolf.

On Saturday, at 10 p.m., Reel Blues continues that theme with the fabulous recent documentary, “The Howlin' Wolf Story—The Secret History of Rock & Roll.”

On Saturday afternoon, the Household Workshop Stage will host a presentation by writer and musician Mark Hoffman, co-author of the recent biography “Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life & Times of Howlin’ Wolf.”

The festival’s celebration of the Wolf culminates Monday at 2:15 p.m. when Sumlin joins the Paul deLay Band on the Credit Union Stage with Howlin’ with Hubert. Following the performance, blues photographer and historian Dick Waterman will interview Sumlin at 4 p.m. on the Household Workshop Stage.

Saturday, July 3, noon to 10 p.m.

A&E Front Porch Stage:
The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival will spotlight blues from the bayous of the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast.

For the third year, the A&E Front Porch stage will host its popular Zydeco Swamp Romp, headlined by Rosie Ledet, the sultry “Zydeco Sweetheart” from Lafayette , La. Leroy Thomas and The Zydeco Road Runners and Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers, both based in Houston, are known for their dynamic, accordion-swinging front men. Portland ’s TooLoose Cajun Band will open, followed by a zydeco dance-lesson demonstration on a dance floor brought in for the event.

Main Stages:
Mardi Gras voodoo will take over the main stage when the legendary Mardi Gras Indian group, the Wild Tchoupitoulas, join New Orleans ’ legendary Cyril Neville and the Uptown Allstars in a collaboration presented by First Tech Credit Union. Cyril Neville and the Uptown Allstars will celebrate their 20 th anniversary of Crescent City blues, funk and R&B. Trumpeter Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers will deliver bluesy, swinging Crescent City classics as channeled by funky, modern hipsters.

Sonny Landreth, presented by iQ Credit Union, is perhaps best known for his brilliant slide-guitar work with John Hiatt and the Goners. On his most recent recording, Landreth returned to his roots in the Louisiana swamps and earned a 2004 Grammy nomination for Contemporary Blues Recording of the year. Saxophonist Reggie Houston, who has worked with such New Orleans legends as Charmaine Neville, Fats Domino and Irma Thomas, is pondering moving to Portland to become first Artist in Residence at Portland ’s acclaimed music education program, Ethos, Inc. At the Waterfront Blues Festival, Houston will guest star with Portland piano ace D.K. Stewart and his quartet. The set will stretch musically from New Orleans to Chicago and from Memphis to Houston.

Playing into the Mardi Gras theme will be Portland's raucous, 20-piece March Fourth Marching Band.

For hard core blues, it doesn’t get much grittier than the searing father-son reunion of James and Lucky Peterson. Guitarist-vocalist James Peterson, now 65 and based in Florida , has critically acclaimed recordings of his own on the Southern soul-blues Malaco/Waldoxy label. Dallas-based Lucky Peterson was a child blues prodigy when, at age 6, he scored a top 10 hit on the R&B charts, landing appearances on the “Ed Sullivan” and “Tonight” shows. Today, he is the most formidable triple threat in the blues world: a fabulous organist, brilliant guitarist and captivating vocalist whose explosive live sets are the stuff of legend.

Other main stage highlights include a set by Portland ’s Lloyd Jones, whose seamless groove gets reinforcement from Mark “ Kaz” Kazanoff and the Texas Horns. The Texas Horns, who have toured and recorded with such artists as Delbert McClinton, Dr. John and Buddy Guy, will serve for the second year as the festival’s resident horn section, lending their firepower to a number of main stage sets.

Expect another strong line-up on Saturday from Northwest Women in Blues and hard-hitting blues rock from southern Oregon ’s Broadway Phil and the Shouters.

Blues Cruise:
The “Portland Spirit” will set sail Saturday afternoon on its Women in Blues Cruise. The cruise includes Austin blues-belter Angela Strehli with Ron Thompson and former Mother Earth lead vocalist Tracy Nelson. On the upper deck, weather permitting, lower deck if not, the acclaimed finger-picker Mary Flower will hold court. This fabulous cruise includes Portland ’s Janice Scroggins and Linda Hornbuckle.

Reel Blues:
After hours, Reel Blues will present “The Howlin' Wolf Story—The Secret History of Rock & Roll,” last year’s fabulous documentary on the late Howlin’ Wolf .

Blues Cruise-SOLD OUT:
The “Portland Spirit,” meanwhile, will head up the Willamette River on its Midnight Mambo Cruise with another stellar line-up of New Orleans blues and R&B: Sonny Landreth, Cyril Neville, Kermit Ruffins and Reggie Houston. THIS CRUISE IS SOLD OUT.

Sunday, July 4, noon to 10 p.m.

A&E Front Porch Stage:
The festival and the Memphis-based Blues Foundation will present this year’s winners of the International Blues Challenge: San Diego ’s Zac Harmon and the Mid-South Blues Revue who won ‘best band’ honors, and Arkansas-based Lightin’ Lee & the Upright Rooster, who took the duo/solo category.

The Cascade Blues Association and festival will present this year’s Journey to Memphis finals. Four regional acts--Rose City Kings, Portland; Lori Bouck and the Interpreters, Oregon City; Sammy Eubanks, Spokane; and Randy Oxford Band, Tacoma--will compete to determine the CBA’s IBC entry in 2005. Last year’s Journey to Memphis winner, Blind Rhino, will follow with a set of its high-energy blues-rock.

The A&E Stage will host Bill Rhoades’ annual Harmonica Blow-off, featuring Johnny Dyer; former Muddy Waters Band harp ace, Paul Oscher; Lynnwood Slim; harmonica-ace and blues journalist Scott Dirks; and Portland ’s Bill Rhoades. The all-star backing band includes John Lee Hooker’s longtime guitarist, Michael Osborne.

Main Stages:
San Diego ’s Paladins — “one of the most powerful roots-rocking groups in the nation,” according to the Los Angeles Times — promises to bring down the house in a rare collaboration with the Texas Horns.

Detroit soul-blues veterans, The Motor City Rhythm & Blues Pioneers, will feature the vocal talents of Joe Weaver, Stanley Mitchell and Kenny Martin, all of whom had hits in Motown in the 1950s and ‘60s. Detroit drummer R.J. Spangler, who previously backed Johnnie Basset and Alberta Adams at the Waterfront Blues Festival, will lead the Pioneers’ hard-grooving backing band.

San Francisco roots rockers Jeffrey Halford and the Healers team up with legendary Texas keyboardist Augie Meyers—known for his work with the Sir Douglas Quintet, Doug Sahm and the Texas Tornados, Bob Dylan and John Hammond—for a set of blues and Tex-Mex flavored roots rock. Austin ’s Ruthie Foster, a surprise hit on the A&E Front Porch last year, returns to the main stage with percussionist Cyd Cassone for a set of gospel-tinged blues. The line-up also features Robbie Laws and Hoodoo Nation.

The Mannish Boys, a “super group” in the truest sense of the term, features some of the cream of the West Coast blues scene: former Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist Kid Ramos, San Francisco’s Frank “Paris Slim” Goldwasser also on guitar, Randy Chortkoff on harmonica, and bassist/vocalist Finis Tasby. In several different combinations, the group will back special guests including veteran harmonica ace Johnny Dyer and Southern California harmonica ace Lynnwood Slim.

July 4 highlights include an old-time Gospel Summit with Linda Hornbuckle, Janice Scroggins and Shirley Nanette.

A celebration of the soul-blues legacy of Stax records tentatively will feature veteran Portland soul singer Ural Thomas, who worked as a backup singer for Wilson Picket; Olivia Warfield; Kathy Walker; and Rubberneck’s Ricardo Ojeda.

Joey Fender & the ‘55s, from Anchorage , Alaska , will deliver blues and roots.

The Lucky Peterson Band with soul-blues vocalist Greg Smith will close the stage. Smith, now based in Dallas, Texas, played with Linda Hornbuckle when he lived in Portland.

Blues Cruise:
The Southern California super group, the Mannish Boys includes Fabulous Thunderbird guitarist Kid Ramos and guitarist Arthur Adams. The cruise also features Jesters Brass Band and Dylan Thomas Vance.

Fireworks:
The evening ends with spectacular fireworks over the Willamette River .

Monday, July 5, noon to 9 p.m.

Main Stages:
The 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival will continue at noon on Monday, a legal holiday, with a line-up that features a formidable crop of young guitar slingers balanced by a host of seasoned blues men and women who honed their chops in years of gigs in Texas roadhouses.

Headliner Jonny Lang, 22, presented by First Tech Credit Union, will close the festival at 7:50 p.m. on the Miller Stage. Lang, who already has a Grammy Award and two-platinum albums under his belt, will play material from his hard-rocking, new recording, “Long Time Coming. ”

Three other young guitar slingers will precede Lang, presented by First Tech Credit Union. Each promises to give Lang a run for his money. The Canadian-born, now Memphis-based guitarist, Anthony Gomes, is a favorite on the East and Midwest blues circuits. Readers of “Blues Wax Magazine,” the nation’s largest-circulation blues publication, recently voted him “Artist of the Year.” From northern California, the 26-year-old guitarist Shane Dwight and his band have earned rave reviews at such prestigious events as the Monterey Bay Blues Festival and San Francisco Jazz Festival. Monte Montgomery may be the most mind-blowing guitarist to emerge from Austin , a city long known for its guitar virtuosos. Barely 30, Montgomery was recently named Austin ’s “Acoustic Guitarist of the Year” for the seventh year in a row. And “Guitar Player” magazine just proclaimed him “One of the 50 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

Opening Monday is another fiery young guitarist with roots in the Texas blues tradition, Michael LePaul Williams. Now based in Seattle, Williams grew up in Austin, Texas, son of the legendary late blues-soul singer Junior Medrow Williams, lead singer of Stevie Ray Vaughan's first group, The Cobras.

Montgomery was still a toddler in the early ’70s when blues belter Angela Strehli and her cohorts—Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kim Wilson, Lou Ann Barton, Marcia Ball, Jimmi Vaughan—created the rock-and-blues sound that helped spur the blues revival of the next two decades. At the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, Strehli will team up with former Mother Earth vocalist Tracy Nelson for a female spin on roadhouse blues, backed by a superb band led by San Francisco guitar ace Ron Thompson reinforced by the Texas Horns.

Curtis Salgado will take a day off from a West Coast tour opening for Steve Miller to put in an appearance that promises to be a festival highlight. Salgado “is keeping the classic flame of soul music alive,” raves the Los Angeles Times in response to Salgado’s tour in support of his powerful new Shanachie release, “Strong Suspicion.”

Stevie Ray Vaughn called former Howlin’ Wolf guitarist, Hubert Sumlin, “the heaviest, most original guitar player I’ve ever heard.” Jim Hendrix called him “my favorite guitarist.” Sumlin will join Portland’s Paul deLay Band for Howlin’ with Hubert, a set celebrating the music of Wolf as well as deLay and Sumlin. Following the Wolf’s death in 1976, Sumlin and deLay toured the West Coast together in a band backing pianist Sunnyland Slim. Both have remained friends and admirers of each other’s work.

Other Monday highlights include a guitar shoot-out by the Strat Daddies, featuring Jim Mesi, Tim “Too Slim” Langford, Terry Robb and Robbie Laws, backed by Jimmy Lloyd Rea on bass and Randy Lilya on drums.

A&E Front Porch Stage:
The A&E Front Porch stage will feature delta and acoustic blues with sets by Los Angeles finger picker Doug MacLeod and Muddy Waters Band alumnus Paul Oscher in his multi-instrumental solo set, “Alone with the Blues.”

Houston bluesman Texas Johnny Brown toured and recorded with Amos Milbourn, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker and Ruth Brown and cut the guitar tracks on many classic recordings put out by the Duke-Peacock label in the late 1950s and ’60s. Brown makes his Waterfront Blues Festival debut and closes the Front Porch Stage.

Blues Cruise:
Texas Johnny Brown will share the bill on the afternoon Lone Star Blues Cruise on the “Portland Spirit” with Ruthie Foster, Monte Montgomery and Austin expatriate, the Original Snakeboy. Recently relocated to Portland, Snakeboy took first place at the 2000 National Slide Guitar Festival.

Blues Cruises

Last year’s Blues Cruises on the Willamette River were so popular that this year the festival expanded the schedule to five—three afternoon and two late-night cruises. Cruise admission fees benefit Oregon Food Bank’s work to eliminate hunger and its root causes. No-host hors d’ oeuvres and bar are available on all cruises. Photo identification is required to board. MIDNIGHT MAMBO CRUISE IS SOLD OUT.

Space is limited. Purchase tickets in advance through July 1 from TicketsWest, 503-224-8499, 1-800-992-8499 or www.ticketswest.com . TicketsWest will charge a convenience fee. Oregon Food Bank will sell any tickets remaining after July 1 at the festival at Oregon Food Bank’s Information Booth by the Household Workshop Stage. TicketsWest is also selling four-day festival passes for $15 plus convenience fee.

Afternoon cruises run from 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Board at 2:30 p.m.
Afternoon cruises are open to all ages. Tickets are available in advance from TicketsWest for $15 for adults and $10 for children plus a convenience fee. That’s less than the cost of a typical “Portland Spirit” cruise without the spectacular music. After July 1, tickets go up to $20 for adults and $15 for children.

•  Afternoon Blues Cruise, Sunday, July 4: The Mannish Boys with Kid Ramos and Arthur Adams, Jesters Brass Band and Dylan Thomas Vance.

•  Lone Star Blues Cruise, Monday, July 5: Texas Johnny Brown, Ruthie Foster, Monte Montgomery, the Original Snakeboy.

Late-night cruises sail from 10:45 p.m. to 1:15 a.m. Board at 10:15 p.m.
Late-night cruises are open to blues fans 21 and older. Tickets are available in advance from TicketsWest for $25 plus a convenience fee. After July 1, tickets go up to $30.

•  Hoodoo Moon Blues Cruise, Friday, July 2: Canned Heat, The Holmes Brothers, Robert Belfour and Mark Lemhouse, Roy Book Binder and Hillstomp.

•  Midnight Mambo Curise, Saturday, July 3: Cyril Neville, Sonny Landreth, Kermit Ruffins, Reggie Huston. SOLD OUT.

Workshops

Look for in-depth educational workshops on the Household Workshop Stage and children’s activities at the Ethos Blues Lab. Presentations and workshops scheduled include an introduction to Piedmont guitar styles by Mary Flower; a blues photography presentation by blues historian and photographer Dick Waterman; a guitar workshop by Roy Book Binder; an introduction to Chicago blues piano, harmonica and guitar by Paul Oscher; blues and roots keyboard by Augie Meyers; "Blues Piano for Kids: Learing a Professor Long-Hair groove with David Moore"; a harmonica workshop with Johnny Dyer and Scott Dirks, harmonica player and co-author of the acclaimed biography "Blues With a Feelin': The Little Walter Story"; artist interviews with Hubert Sumlin and Ruthie Foster; blues harmonica and piano classes for kids and more.

“The workshops give the festival a cultural depth that doesn’t exist at most other festivals,” says Lisa Wiebe, director of development at Oregon Food Bank.

Don’t miss the Empty Bowls booth. The Oregon Potters Association coordinates Empty Bowls, a fund-raiser to benefit Oregon Food Bank. The association collects pottery donations from its members and sells them—most for just $10—at the blues festival.

Festival sponsors
Oregon Food Bank thanks festival sponsors for making the 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival possible. The 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is presented by First Tech Credit Union with major sponsorship by CO-OP Network, Household, Miller Genuine Draft, KINK fm102 and The Oregonian A&E.

Supporting Sponsorship is provided by iQ Credit Union, Pepsi, Snapple, Safeway Refreshe, Beringer Wine, Henry's, Tully's Coffee, Frito Lay Snacks, Dreyer's Ice Cream, Yoshida Sauce, Smuckers, Stonyfield Farm Yogurt, Zenner's Sausage and Smoked Meats, Gillette, POVA, Riverplace Hotel, OregonLive.com, KBOO, KOIN TV6, Northwest Film Center, Spring PCS, Day Wireless Systems, Green Mountain Energy, Edge Design, Music Millennium, Guitar Center, Beard Frames, Karolyn H. March, Attorney, Cascade Blues Assocation, Oregon Potters Association and Cascade Zydeco Association.

About Oregon Food Bank
Oregon Food Bank is a nonprofit, charitable organization. It is the hub of a statewide network of more than 800 hunger-relief agencies serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash. Oregon Food Bank recovers food from farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, individuals and government sources. It then distributes that food to 20 regional food banks across Oregon . Eighteen are independent, charitable organizations. OFB directly operates the two regional food banks serving the Portland-metro area. Those two centers distribute food weekly to more than 300 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs helping low-income individuals in Multnomah, Clackamas, Clark and Washington counties. Oregon Food Bank also works to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy and public education.

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For more information, visit www.waterfrontbluesfest.com and www.oregonfoodbank.org or call 503-973-FEST

Contacts:

Jean Kempe-Ware, public relations manager
Oregon Food Bank
503-419-4170 (office)
503-572-7588 (cell)
jkempe-ware@oregonfoodbank.org

Peter Dammann, talent coordinator
503-283-3225
damray@europa.com