Blues Cross

 

Da capo: Blues Fest organizer Bernie Clarke (left)
and Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll announced the lineup for this year’s
blowout during a press conference at the Empire Brewing Co. in May. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

 

Clarke explains that this year’s
festival will thematically tie all of its musicians together (see
enclosed official New York State Blues Fest program for a complete
schedule of artists). According to Clarke, festival co-organizer David
Katleski “got this idea to book just New York state bands in the spirit
of buying local and supporting the state economy: kind of like keeping
it in the family.” 

Yet Clarke, who assists the Blues Fest
in booking its musical acts, was originally dismayed by the difficulty
of attempting to stay true to that theme. “I initially rolled my eyes
in the back of my head, thinking, ‘You got to be kidding! How am I
going to book a blues festival ignoring 49 states?’ Plus, New York is
not the blues epicenter of the world. But we do have some pockets of
influence right now in this little core of people that are doing these
roots bands.”

Clarke’s efforts, thankfully, have
resulted in a true-blue menagerie of New York blues musicians slated to
play. Both Alexis P. Suter, who will appear on Saturday, and Bruce
Katz, a Sunday performer, come from the New York City music scene. John
Mooney, another Sunday highlight, grew up in Rochester, and the
remainder of the festival’s acts also share some connection to the
Empire State.

A special treat for this year’s festival
is the appearance of actor Dan Aykroyd, one of the original Blues
Brothers (his partner was the late John Belushi) during their Saturday Night Live days, a musical stint that director John Landis later transferred to the silver screen for the 1980 box-office hit The Blues Brothers.
He will emcee the event on Saturday, a fete of planning for which
Clarke credits Katleski, and Aykroyd may even invite along Elwood Blues
to sing a few tunes. 

“{Katleski} was looking for ideas on
ways to generate more buzz {about the Blues Fest}, and he found out
that Dan Aykroyd had this line of vodka {Crystal Head Vodka}, and he
has a winery or two that he’s promoting,” Clarke explains. “I don’t
know if Dave checked with the beverage company or if the beverage
company called him, but somehow he made that connection.” 

Furthermore, Clarke has scheduled a
tribute to Rosey Dean to be held at the festival’s second venue, the
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que stage in Hanover Square, on Sunday at 8 p.m.
Originally a slot that Dean himself was slated to play, Clarke decided
to turn the booking into an honorary gig after Dean passed away on
April 4 from cancer. Todd Fitzsimmons, who has been instrumental in
keeping the Roosevelt Dean Blues Band alive after its leader’s death,
will lead the tribute.

This year’s Blues Festival will also be
personally difficult for Clarke; his mother, Ellen Clarke, died at age
62 on June 30 after a battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Along with
readying the Blues Fest, Clarke had to assemble funeral arrangements
for his mother during the past week (calling hours and memorial
services were held on July 6 and 7). 

Clarke, a blues musician and frontman of
the Rhythm Sharks, remembers his mother as supportive of his musical
efforts. “She always told everybody that she prayed to God that her
child would become a musician,” Clarke recalls. “She used to tell me on
the first time she noticed I kicked {in the womb} she was listening to The Firebird {suite}.”

Regardless of his personal struggle,
Clarke is optimistic about this year’s Blues Fest, as well as about the
local blues scene in general. “{The Rhythm Sharks} are actually having
the busiest summer that we’ve ever had. My guitar player, Seth
Rochford, and I are playing every Thursday at Pfohl’s Beach House {at
Sylvan Beach},” Clarke says. “It’s starting to reach a critical mass.
It seemed like in the last 10 years we went from being blues-based to
more classic rock-based. Maybe the pendulum is swinging back the other
way.”

—Matt Mumau