2008 Telluride Blues And Brews Festival – Day 3 – Sun, Sept 14th

The third day was certainly the charm as it was another great day weather wise and the Blind Boys of Alabama started the day off around 11 amongst the faithful still recovering from the excesses of the beer tasting on Saturday.

Next up was The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band and I was not sure what to expect but the festival program said something like ” Robert Johnson on crack”.  After about 20 minutes, I was thinking a high octane version of George Clooney’s movie ” Where Art Thou”.  Highly entertaining.

Two Louisiana bands again were sandwiched in the middle of the lineup, The Chris Thomas King Band and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, to bring a bit of life to the crowd.

The Derek Trucks Band made their appearance as the sun was setting and the temperature dropping.  Susan Tedeschi came out toward the end to lend her own special sets of skills and to get the crowd warmed up for the closer of the festival.

Etta James…. How could I come up with enough adjectives to describe the Queen of the Blues???  I haven’t seen her in a few years and was not sure what to expect since she has had medical problems recently.

Well. the Lady still has the spunk, sassiness and the voice of angels that I have come to know in the many times I have seen her.  For a little over one hour, she captivated the crowd with her usual antics with the band and singing old standards such as “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and “Sugar On the Floor”.

Does it get any better than Etta James singing “At Last” in the backdrop of beautiful mountains of Telluride???

Not in my mind….

At the end of the show, she walks offstage and sits on her scooter and I thought was headed to the back of the stage.  Instead, she took a sharp right, cuts across the stage, almost takes out her two guitar players and then assumes the position below.  Classic….