The Baton Rouge Blues Festival, April 9 and 10 this year, has snagged a big blues star.
Pointe Coupee Parish Native Buddy Guy is among the great names in the festival’s history. Guy is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; winner of six Grammy Awards; and recipient of the Presidential National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors and Billboard Century Award.
“Buddy has been on the Blues Fest wish list forever,” said John Kaufman, the festival’s programming chair. “He has been the elusive artist we have not been able to land. But this year all the pieces fell in place and it all worked out.”
And for the first time since it began in 1994, the Blues Festival is a two-day event.
“We talked about it for the past few years,” Kaufman said. “It’s something we wanted to do. It was just a matter of pulling the trigger and committing to it.
“It’s a tough feat to pull off, being that it’s a free festival put on by volunteers,” Kaufman added. “But in order to make this festival grow, we had to move to two days. And we had the talent to do it and the resources to book it.”
Along with traditional blues, the lineup features such non-blues acts as The Rakers, a local rock band, and Tank and the Bangas, a New Orleans group that has roots in slam poetry.
“We expanded because we believe that all of those bands deserve a shot,” Kaufman said. “And they all have an appreciation of the blues and the history of the blues. If you listen to their music, at the core there definitely are blues influences in it.”
Thirty-nine acts have been booked for this year’s Blues Fest. Besides Guy, the Rakers, and Tank and the Bangas, there will be performances by rising young star Adia Victoria, Southern soul star Latimore, New Orleans’ Walter “Wolfman” Washington, classic swamp blues artist Lazy Lester and Kenny Neal and the Neal Family.
The festival is free. VIP passes are also available.
The Blues Festival takes place is April 9 and 10 in Repentance Park, Galvez Plaza, North Boulevard and the Old State Capitol.