Thanks for another great year!!!

Wow. What a weekend! Thank you to everyone who came out and joined us for an incredible two days of music at the 16th annual Santa Cruz Blues Festival.

Despite some trepidation over a forest fire burning in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and partially cloudy skies that at times hinted at showers, Aptos Park remained dry and once again proved to be an idyllic spot to spend the weekend.

From the first sounds of Saturday’s opening act, JJ Grey and Mofro, straight through to 7:25pm on Sunday, when Al Green left us all humming “Love and Happiness” as we packed up our blankets and bundles, we never stopped rocking.

It was the first time many SCBF attendees heard Mofro, but it won’t be the last. As one attendee said, “What I love about this festival is that I always hear something new that becomes one of my favorites.” Jimmy Thackery’s Jimi Hendrix tribute and Coco Montoya’s soaring guitar ballads pleased all those guitar blues fans out there—we saw a lot of air guitar action going on across the park—and the Legends of the Blues performance with Pinetop Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Hubert Sumlin, and the Mike Schermer Allstars humbled us all. But Bonnie Raitt was the woman of the day. She played an incredible set of music, featuring hit songs, blues classics, and guest performances by Perkins, Summlin, and Smith, Stephen Bruton, the Boneshakers, and longtime collaborator Maia Sharp. She’s a class act.

Sunday started off with kick in the pants: It didn’t take long until almost everyone in the park was on their feet and shaking their booties along with Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. The Boneshakers kept up the momentum and infused it with a shot of funk octane—Randy Jacobs’ screaming guitar solos, the pulsing beat of the Mexicali Horns, the expert guitar playing of Stephen Bruton, and incredible performances by two vocal superstars, Sweetpea Atkinson and Malford Milligan. Whew. By the time the Subdudes came to the stage, we were ready for a little break to sit back, close our eyes, and let those beautiful harmonies just take us away. It was the perfect segue to hear the man of the hour, Al Green. It’s a fair guess that everyone in that park knew every word to every song, and we let him know it. There was a lot of love going around.

We are so grateful to all of you who come and help us celebrate such great music. Your support is what allows us to keep bringing these kinds of artists to Santa Cruz County. We hope you all had as much fun as we did.

If you didn’t make it to the merchandise booth for the latest SCBF T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and posters, check back here in a few weeks.

Thank you music fans!!! We hope to see you again Memorial Day weekend 2009!