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July 9th was opening night of the 2004 Ottawa Bluesfest, also known as ‘my annual summer highlight’. The festival was just getting better and better all the time and I was excited for an evening of whiskey rock and roll courtesy of George Thorogood & his Destroyers.
One thing that grew along with the size and scope of the Ottawa Bluesfest was the rallying cry that it was no longer a blues festival at all, and why don’t they change their name already? Now, I won’t get into the many reasons why this is an asinine statement at best, but suffice to say that in this case everyone could just go suck an egg.
George Thorogood is not only a blues artist at heart (and primarily in substance), when you look at it he pretty much single-handedly introduced the work of the blues masters to a whole generation or two of folks (myself included). Name a George Thorogood hit…go ahead.
Who Do You Love? Bo Diddley. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer? John Lee Hooker. Heck, even Move It On Over is a Hank Williams song. You know it’s a Thorogood original when the alcohol references completely obliterate any sense of lyrical grace or mystery; when it’s seriously dumbed-down, it’s one of his. All I’m saying is Get A Haircut, Bad To The Bone and I Drink Alone are firmly on the ‘drink up, turn off and rock out’ side of musical philosophy.
Gotta say though, Gear Jammer is a fast-drivin’, law-breakin’ open-G anthem if ever one was written. George knows his milieu, that’s for sure, and certainly he knows better than to use words like “milieu” in his songs.
Anyway, the show was great and everyone except the blues purists and the poor suckers madly working the busy beer tents had a rollicking good time, and so kicked off another in a thus-far endless series of Ottawa Bluesfests, with many more highlights to follow.
Todd Man Out 