While overcast and gray skies put a bit of a dampener on the Blues Society Taiwan's (BST) inaugural Blues and BBQ Bash when it took place in Taichung in March, both organizers and society members are hoping that the heavens will be kind to them this time around when it holds its first Taipei- based blues bash at the Breeze Center Plaza tomorrow.
Organized by the BST and sponsored by Anheuser-Busch Asia and local radio station Super 98FM, the Taipei Blues and BBQ Bash will feature a mixed bag of blues oriented talent from both home and abroad.
The aim of the one-day festival is, according to the BST, two-fold. Firstly, it aims to promote blues music in Taiwan, where bluesmen like Boogie Chillin's Henry Westheim believe that it is a less popular genre because "people in Taiwan general think that the blues is `sad music.'" And secondly, it hopes the festival will generate local blues-oriented networks, which through word of mouth and music, will see a rise in the numbers of blues bands currently playing the circuit in Taiwan.
"Many people don't realize that blues music has always echoed across Taiwan. The term `blues' is really just another way of saying `life,'" said Westheim. "If you listen to Aboriginal songs you hear the same sentiments and feelings as in a Muddy Waters or a Robert Johnson song."
Unlike March's event, which received backing from the Taichung City Government, organizers of this weekend's blues bash had to forgo any form of
officially sanctioned government sponsorship. Instead the BST was forced to go it alone, which caused some confusion and nearly led to the cancellation of the festival altogether.
According to BST's Kevin Smith, who, when he's not deskbound plays for The Beaver County Rangers, problems arose shortly after the BST was informed of a scheduling change by organizers of the Taichung Jazz Festival and he got wind of another blues festival.
"We originally planned to hold the event in Taichung this weekend but the jazz festival spilled over into this week so we figured that in order not to clash why not move it to Taipei," said Smith. "It was a bit of a problem, especially when we heard news of another blues festival taking place. For a while it was [hit and miss] getting sponsors because we'd be asked `which blues festival are you?'"
Plans for the "other" blues festival eventually came to nothing and while the BST is still reeling from being given the runaround by organizers of the now
cancelled other festival, the change in venue and scheduling hasn't muddied the waters too much. In fact, the event's relocation to Taipei has left the BST already thinking about the event's future.
"We always planned for it to held twice yearly -- in spring and fall -- but until the sponsors pulled out earlier this year we'd always figured we'd try to keep it in Taichung," said Smith. "It would certainly be nice to hold it bi-annually in both Taipei and Taichung from now on."
Along with more standard forms of blues from popular Taiwan-based acts like BoPoMoFo, Stevie Ray and the Black Sheep and Boogie Chillin' blues fans will once again be treated to some hybrid and offbeat blues vibes tomorrow from the jug band Dave Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers, the vintage jazz/blues combo Les Chats Noir and the recently formed alt-country act The Beaver County Rangers.
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