Blues Cazorla !

WOW! What an AMAZING music festival that was! 40 degree temperatures and the likes of Muddy Waters & Eric Clapton devotees playing the most brilliant blues music all day deep into the night and out the other side! During the day there was an endless haze of cigarette smoke (and heaven knows what other kinds of smoke too for that matter) together with Heineken cans and bodies being thrown into the fountains to cool off from the blistering mountain mid-day heat while the bands took their turns and their lives in their hands playing on the rather eccentrically wired up stage in the Plaza de Santa Maria.

The musicians were brilliant, although I have to say that I think that Jerry Portnoy´s facial expressions were rather lost on the Spanish devotees from what was being muttered around us. He was talking to Bob Margolin (they did a duo set in the crippling heat) effectively saying it was the longest day of his life - but he looked immaculate even if he was sweating buckets on the inside. To be fair to him, the electrics did explode during his and Bob Margolin´s act on Friday after having been giving them low grade electric shocks throughout their number, so perhaps by then he was a bit cheesed off with it all, but it cracked me up when he was speaking through the mike to the sound techs about needing less reverb and simply said in his strong american drawl "pocito reverb" !! I guess reverb must be a universal word! When the system finally blew, he muttered something under his breath and started packing away his harmonica while Bob, ever the utter professional, came to the front of the stage and finished the number miming all of Jerry´s harmonica bits which everyone found hilarious.

The show stoppers for me though, had to be the Barcelona band Txus Blues & J Bluesfingers - their song called Tango which turned into an Ode to the Tanga (yes ladies, Thongs), had the crowd eating out of their hands, but the finale to end all, was their song called "Soy harMonica Lewinsky" - I have never in my life seen anyone play a harmonica as pornographically as that and it was sidesplittingly funny!

So put it in your diary - Blues Cazorla - you can find their website always at www.bluescazorla.com and book your accommodation VERY early - it is a Cult Show and apparently one of the largest blues festivals in the whole of Spain!