Springing the Blues Festival in Jacksonville

(Memphis, Tennessee) After a great couple of days in Tampa playing the Tampa Blues Festival, the Reba Russell Band drove up the peninsula to Jacksonville to play the George's Music Springing the Blues Festival on Saturday.

Rolling up Florida to Jacksonville

The weather was perfect and the crowd was enormous, music fans as far as the eye could see.

Here's a link to George's Music: http://www.georgesmusic.com/

Here's a link to the festival: http://www.springingtheblues.com/index.cfm?page=about

Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms and festival Producer Mitch Harbeson

Mitch has produced this show for years and I remembered meeting him when we played the festival back in 1999. He is a classy guy and a good friend of the blues. The band would like to thank Mitch for making us fee welcome and for his many efforts to make the show go smoothly. This event is an undertaking of such huge proportions and it all ran on time with no hiccups.

Check out this lineup for Florida's largest free blues festival...on the beach!

Friday April 9

5:00 John Miller Blues 6:00 Willie Randolph 7:30 Toots Lorraine and the Traffic 9:00 Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band	5:00 Mile Train 6:00 John Miller Blues 7:30 Willie Randolph 9:00 Toots Lorraine and the Traffic
Saturday, April 10
11:45 Tori Sparks 12:45 The John Sosebee Band 1:45 Mile Train 2:45 Alphonso Sanders & Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry 4:00 Reba Russell 5:15 Conrad Oberg 6:15 John Nemeth 7:30 Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm 8:45 Michael Burks	1:00 Tori Sparks 2:00 John Sosebee 3:00 Mile Train 4:00 George’s Music Featured Artist 5:30 Alphonso Sanders & Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry 7:00 Conrad Oberg 8:30 The Reba Russell Band
Sunday, April 11
12:00 Willie Mae 1:00 Woody and the Peckers 2:00 Skinny Legs and All 3:00 Jo Ann Shaw Taylor 4:00 Shane Dwight 5:00 Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials 6:15 Magic Slim & the Teardrops	12:00 Skinny Legs and All 1:30 Willie Mae 3:00 Willie Green's Blues Project 4:15 Jo Ann Shaw Taylor 5:30 Shane Dwight

Drummer Doug McMinn heads for the drums before our set on Saturday afternoon.

Josh Roberts straps on the Stratocaster and fires up his Fender Twin

Wayne Russell suggests that I find my way to the Hammond organ

Reba Russell sings the blues

Reba Russell sings to the capacity crowd(photo by Lee Hempel)

A terrific crowd of fans, no problems, no fights, just music lovers

We played a long set of our original material including a couple of sneak previews of songs from the upcoming new Reba Russell band CD, called "8" as it is the eighth CD that we have recorded to date. It is indubitably our finest effort and the band is very excited that it will be released in a few days. It features all new songs and lots of great studio performances from our sessions at the Zebra Ranch. Reba has been working tirelessly on the mixes, artwork, liner notes and song sequences for this new blues album. She is to be applauded and thanks also go out to engineer/co-producer Dawn Hopkins for a job well done.

Jolene Roberts, her brother, Jeff Fedora and his sweet lady, Amyah Parrish
These are great friends, and Mom and uncle to my favorite guitarist, Josh Roberts

After the show we ate at the Campeche Bay Cantina, where I enjoyed some superb ceviche, tasty seafood cooked in lime juice without heat. This place is located adjacent to the festival and has great food. Here's a link: http://campechebay.net/

Josh Roberts and the author before supper...

These guys look like they might scare small children.

As the sun goes down in Florida we prepare for another set on the festival's West Stage

Palm trees and neon in the Florida sundown

A few laughs are had after our excellent repast. Time for the second show!

The Reba Russel Band takes the West Stage for our last show of the trip.

It takes tons of gear and many talented people to make a show like this happen.

Doug prepares to beat the drums into submission.

Wayne and Josh get ready to play for the big crowd.

This festival is very family friendly. In front of the stage there were children riding these huge bungee swings(pictured above) that flew 15 or 20 feet into the air. I wanted to ride one but they did not have enough super double giant bungee cabling to keep me from leaving earth's atmosphere after the first bounce.

The Reba Russell Band (photo by Margo Frazier)

The next morning we arose to load the car as the hotel's lovely flowers blast into bloom.

More lovely greenery across from our hotel

I tapped out the last words of last week's American Blues News story about the Tampa Bay blues Festival as Wayne and Reba Russell arrived back at the hotel after a visit with Reba's delightful Aunt Bernice who cooked lasagna and chocolate pie for the ever hungry Wayne. Within a few moments we were rolling back down the long highway headed for Alabama, Mississippi, and our home state of Tennessee.

The sun sets in Alabama.

Night falls as we hurdle toward Birmingham.

Check out my website at: http://www.robertNighthawkTooms.com/

RCT

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© Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms, 2010