HeatherFest 17 continued the tradition of fine blues, barbeque, and great people coming together to create a great vibe. HeatherFest is a massive house party that takes place each year in the Norton, Massachusetts backyard of local blues fan Heather McKibben.
Aside from featuring some of the area’s best blues and funk bands, HeatherFest has become synonymous with fun, meeting up with old friends from the music scene, cool biker dudes who fill McKibben’s front yard with their shiny two wheelers, the people manning the barbeque, and the volunteers who help McKibben pull it all together. These are all good karma people, and they keep HeatherFest chugging along with positive energy.
As HeatherFest took place on September 11, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there was an unmistakable feeling of patriotism in the air. Flags given out at the entrance were planted in the brims of many hats worn by attendees. HeatherFest was peopled by Americans who were ready, willing, and able to show the forces of darkness that we have won because we went on with our lives and were outdoors having fun.
I arrived in time to hear the Luke Mulholland Band opening up the day’s events. Mulholland and his boys are a tight bunch and they play raw punchy blues that make you bob your head to their beat. Their guitars were buzzing and their keys were exciting. The rhythm section underneath all that loose, freewheeling blues was solid, locked into a heavy groove.
Mulholland Band plays blues with a hard rock backbone. As lead guitarist, Mulholland whipped out clean, feisty phrases, and he sings with that whiskey-soaked voice many of us associated with blues. I’m just not sure how he acquired his whiskey-soaked voice as he doesn’t look old enough to drink yet. These players are young bloods on the local blues scene and I’d be willing to bet they will be headlining HeatherFest 27 in 2021.
The ubiquitous Racky Thomas was on hand playing solo acoustic on the side stage. This set allowed Thomas to entertain the crowd while the main stage bands got their heavy gear on and off the stage. Thomas was cool enough to invite 13 year old guitar slinger Len Tetta to join him on some vintage blues tunes like “Prodigal Son” and “Rollin’ And Tumblin.’” Tetta served up a chockfull of vintage acoustic blues notes and he churned out a bunch of greasy slide notes. Racky Thomas, regaining his side stage spotlight, sang a nice version of “Stagger Lee.” Thomas does a lot of neat things in his acoustic picking, adding all sorts of nice touches that put more pings in his sound.
Next up was the Toni Lynn Washington Band. Ms. Washington’s back up band featured the suave keyboard skills of Mr. Bruce Bears. Bears was percolating some hefty, soulful organ chords. Then she came on stage, the legendary Ms. Washington herself. Her smooth soulful croon was in good form and she performed “Rocky Me, Baby” with her usual graceful charm, fantastic vocals brought forth by a woman with humble, understated presence. Washington unleashed her multi-octave growl in just the right places, giving pleasant arcs in the lyrical content. Her band put out lively melodic lines, especially her guitar man who injected shards off cool darting phrases over the rhythm section’s shuffle beats.
Bears kept putting out a hip organ phrase and he kept pulling the soul up from the roots influences in these songs. The guitarist had a nifty way of unfolding brittle lead riffs, shiny, pristine notes that danced and cart wheeled over the groove.
Racky Thomas, in keeping with the patriotic tone of the day, lead everyone in a sing a long of “This Land Is Your Land” before turning the spotlight over to the Evan Goodrow Band.
Evan Goodrow’s heavy, soulful funk was born out of his husky, blues belt and his authentic down and dirty R&B guitar work. Whether riffing, phrasing, or slamming out catchy, funky chords, Goodroow’s fretwork was always blistering hot. His four piece included a cat playing a genuine Hammond B3 organ complete with a spinning Leslie speaker. The overall effect of having an organ without a bass player in the band opened up many avenues in the sound.
The organ player’s left-handed bass notes seemed even heavier than a bass guitar. He must have a good sub-woofer in his amp. And Goodrow has struck solid gold with this setup. It sounds great. He also brought along a saxophone player for this gig and that frenzied screaming run of horn notes came on like a gale force wind of funtified soul. Even when Goodrow played down tempo, meditative soul, his sound still had a heavy bottom. This was a good thing as his gravelly baritone needed a solid anchor underneath. His voice just had a depth that words cannot describe.
When Goodrow finishes a verse, a sweep of organ notes unfurl like a huge sail, catching every bit of air current and riding it far, until organ, sax, and drums become one big wall of sound while Goodrow’s guitar darted in and out of the funk.
It is impossible to stand still during any Goodrow gig. The boy keeps the beat so funky you cannot help to move your feet. After the dancing beat subsided, Goodrow paused to share his time slot with a September 11 moment of silence, a bag pipe player, and officials from Norton’s fire and police departments. Eventually, Goodrow came back on and did his locally popular number “It’s OK For Girls To Dance With Girls,” which he turned into an extended jam, highlighted by more of that screaming saxophone.
McKibben presented the first Keeping The Blues Alive award to Diana Shonk, the owner-publisher-editor-writer of Blues Audience Newsletter. The award was presented to Shonk by her friend and perennial HeatherFest volunteer Nancy Weston(a.k.a. Adventure Girl). Shonk has been aglow for the last several days about this award. She even asked me to interview her about it, which is fitting because I always rub it in when I scoop her on a story.
The last band that I saw before I had to leave was The Get Backs. It was my first time hearing them, although I’ve been hearing about them for some time now. They are a funk band fronted by the inimitable Brian Templeton, a singer who has remained for a long time his own person and his own kind of singer without ever seeming out of step with what is going on around him musically.
The Get Backs played a high octane heavy duty dose of funk before Templeton joined them. The singer, though, added an extra dimension of funk. These guys were a hard-hitting, swinging, horn-blaring funk out. These boys have been working on this material for months and the effort shows. Templeton launched into “It’s A Man’s World” with a throaty roar. The musicians supported him well with a build up in the keyboards that couldn’t be missed. The bass player’s nimble skills on his four string provided a lot of palpable low end notes. Horn shots, backbeats, and funk guitar riffs were the order of the day. The whole effect added up to some thick, zesty funk, the kind you can dance to all night long.
At this point I had to pick up my cooler and head back to New Hampshire. My apologies to the remainder of artists on the schedule.
HeatherFest 17 will likely be remembered for its warm, patriotic tone. It took place on the anniversary of the most heinous terrorist attack ever on American soil. Yet, the vibe at last Sunday’s HeatherFest, which was mirrored at many other events around the world, proved one thing: Our flag was still there.