North
Liberty Blues & BBQ Festival 2024
Centennial Park
North Liberty, Iowa
July 13, 2024
By Phillip
Smith; July 13,
2024
Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com
Barbeque and blues are about as
perfect of a food and music pairing as I can think of. I can’t think of a more
popular culinary-audio combination, unless one is in Clarksdale, Mississippi,
where the delta tamales rule the roost. Yesterday, North Liberty, Iowa hosted their
annual North Liberty Blues & BBQ Festival for the sixteenth time, and
the event remains one of my favorite blues festivals. Admission is always free,
and the barbeque trucks are abundant. The weather held up quite nicely, and the
occasional breeze was a blessing for those of us baking in the ninety-degree
heat.
I arrived just in time to catch
Charlotte Blu originally from Rock Island, Illinois. Her angelic voice and
impressive performance on acoustic guitar pulled me right in to a fabulous set.
She played through a mix of terrific originals including her song “Strange” and
striking covers which included B.B. King’s “Thrill is Gone”, Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”,
Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey’, and Tracy Chapman’s “Give
Me One More Reason”. She even performed the Amy Winehouse song “Love is
a Losing Game”, which she sang for her audition of season 20 of The Voice in
2019.
Iowa-based Cedar County Cobras
took the stage after Charlotte Blu. With Tom Spielbauer on guitar
and April Dirks on upright bass, they are one of my favorite blues duos.
I love their unique take on Delta blues and Mississippi Hill Country blues.
Their covers of songs like R.L. Burnside’s “Old Black Mattie and “Going
Down South”, Robert Johnson’s “Walking Blues”, and “Going Down South”,
and Acey Payton’s “I Love You” keep my full attention. They played
several of my favorite originals, “Voodoo Doll”, “Utah”, and “Gimme Lightnin’”
before closing with a spirit-lifting cover of Pops Staples’ “Get Right
Church”.
Iowa City’s Dave Zollo and
the Body Electric took the stage next, for a high-energy groove-filled show
of roots, blues, and soul originals such as “Strawberry Wine” and “Ain’t No God
but God”. I enjoyed this show immensely.
Finally, I caught Blake Shaw’s
Big(ish) Band, an Iowa City-based ten-piece jazz ensemble featuring a seven-piece
horn section with Shaw on bass/lead vocals, and Dan Padley on
lead guitar. They kicked off their riveting show with the blues standard favorite “Every Day I Got
the Blues”. They played the jazz-fueled mash up “All Houses of the Rising Blues”
and “Willow Weep For Me” off Shaw’s 2019 album It Happened, and
covered The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love”, bringing their sensational set to a close with Stevie Wonder’s “You
Can Feel it All Over”.
With the heat taking its
toll, and the fact that I wasn’t familiar with either of the final two acts Jeremie
Albino, and The White Buffalo, I called it a day.
---
· All Photos by Phillip Smith
Charlotte Blu
Cedar County Cobras
Dave Zollo & The Body Electric
Blake Shaw Big(ish) Band
* All photos by Phillip Smith
