The Carlisle Blues Festival is now in its fourth year, the festival is held in The Swallow Hill Top Hotel, which is ideal for this type of festival, the accommodation is good but not 5star, warm rooms, clean linen, spa, fitness suite, (looked good but didn’t try it) very helpful staff, good food and reasonably priced booze (looked good and did try it).
I arrived on Friday afternoon after a pleasant drive up the M1 and over the Pennines courtesy of the A66, the evening session started at 7.00pm with Kevin Thorpe’s Tipping Point who lost front man, guitarist and singer/songwriter Kevin to a tragic heart attack back in September, but carried on to deliver a cracking set, Kevin would have been proud of them, could have a big future on the blues circuit.

Chantel McGregor has been wowing the crowds at lots of festivals this year, but I thought she was too heavy and played with an almost angry vibe to most of her numbers, still an amazing talent and one to watch for the future.

Mud Morganfield and The Dirty Aces did exactly what you would expect the eldest son of “Muddy Waters” to do, it was a tribute to the main man, we all love Muddy’s songs so it was no surprise he received a tremendous reception, as far as I am concerned the jury is still out.

James Hunter closed the first nights entertainment with a rousing soul filled blues set that had everyone clapping for more.

Saturday’s musical extravaganza started at 1.00pm with the delightful Lucy Zirins who performed an acoustic set that was perfect for the fragile few with hang over’s, Lucy was followed by The Revolutionaires if Lucy soothed the heads of some these guys woke everyone up with their all flat out performance of Rock n Roll, Jump Jive, Rhythm & Blues great entertainment, great band.

At 3.30 Nicky Moore’s Blues Corporation came to the stage to deliver as perfect a set as you could wish for, this guy has been on the scene for over 40 years and still has an amazing voice, another great set.

The evening session kicked off with Hokie Joint, I have been waiting to see this band for over 12 months having read good reports and seen many videos I just had to see them live, and I was not disappointed, the first thing you notice is the lead singer is different from anything else on the blues scene anywhere, he is unique, fantastic variations to his voice, powerful when needed, subtle when required, the style of music they play is blues, but different to what you would imagine a band would play at a blues festival, it does help when you have a fantastic line up of quality musicians Joel Fisk on lead guitar, Fergie Fulton on Bass, Cupsey Cutmore on drums, Giles King on harmonica and Jo Jo Burgess. Hokie Joint 10/10 my pick of the weekend.

If any band could follow these lads it had to be Hamilton Loomis over from the states on yet another UK tour, always guaranteed to bring the house down plays some of the best guitar you could wish to hear.
Closing the Saturday night was the big name from the states Michael “Ironman” Burkes who put the icing on the cake with some guitar heroics of his own, along with his silky yet powerful voice it easy to see why he was nominated for three Grammy Awards as well as picking up Best Contemporary Male Artist, Best Blues Guitarist & Album of the Year in 2009.

The highly rated Marcus Bonfanti opened the Sunday Session with a brilliant set of original blues material from this trio of excellent musicians, very entertaining guy who has wit and charisma in abundance.
Most people at the festival had only heard of Ben Prestage because he is doing a UK tour with Ian Siegal, well this American one man band took the place by storm with his passionate voice and barnstorming guitar playing, his blend of Delta and Swamp Blues was right on the button with this crowd of blues fans.
The penultimate artist was Ian Siegal and Ian even added ”how do I follow that, the man is brilliant”, but so is Ian Siegal and follow it he did with the capacity crowd listening to his every word, Ian’s choice of songs is so vast now he can draw from his Country/Americana tunes & songs, to real down and dirty blues, but whatever he always delivers. Equal 10/10 with The Hokies.
Never The Bride closed the festival, and to honest did not go down that well, the band are fantastic but should not have been the last band, lots of people moved to the bar away from the “NTB” entourage who were a little bit too much for some people.What a fantastic weekend Nick Westgarth and his team put on an excellent weekend of entertainment, which attracted a sell out crowd, who are some of the friendliest people you will meet anywhere, See you there in 2011.

Barry Middleton