Buddy Guy, Lucinda Williams, and other stars bring the blues to 2022 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Other standout blues acts at this year’s fest are Terminal Station, Petunia and the Vipers, and Emily Rose Nyberg
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Buddy Guy.
“Funny thing about the Blues,” legendary blues veteran Buddy Guy once said, “You play ’em ’cause you got ’em, but when you play ’em, you lose ’em.”
The energetic 85-year-old musician, an eight-time Grammy winner, has had an enormous influence on shaping the genre he is so fiercely and endlessly passionate about. Guy is returning to the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival this year following his unforgettable sold-out Orpheum performance in 2019.
He’s one of the many standout artists making up the 2022 fest’s outstanding blues programming.
The recipient of the Billboard Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, among countless other honours, Guy has inspired everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan and has collaborated with fellow blues legends Muddy Waters and B.B. King, to name just two. His latest album, The Blues Is Alive and Well, features contributions from stars like Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck.
Guy performs on June 24 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre at 8 pm as part of the Jazz Fest’s Marquee Series (tickets starting from $59).
Joining Guy at the 2022 Jazz Fest is none other than three-time Grammy winner Lucinda Williams. Her bold new album, Good Souls Better Angels, marks a return to the gritty blues that first inspired her in the late 1970s and sees her reuniting with Ray Kennedy, co-producer of her game-changing 1998 album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. “It’s all come full circle,” the Louisiana-born singer-songwriter says of her latest release.
Williams performs as part of the Marquee Series on July 2 at 8 pm at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (from $57).
Over at Ocean Art Works on July 24 at 4 pm as part of Granville Island Jazz is Terminal Station, kicking traditional blues sounds into high gear at this free performance sponsored in part by CHMC Granville Island. Straddling Allman Brothers rock, Booker T funk, and North Mississippi garage-blues, these 2021 WCMA “Best Blues Act” nominees—Scott Smith(vocals/guitar/harmonica), Jeremy Holmes (bass/vocals), Darryl Havers (keys/vocals), and Liam MacDonald (drums)—are first-rate players who’ve performed with luminaries such as Jim Byrnes and Bo Diddley.
Emily Rose Nyberg (left); Petunia and the Vipers.
Petunia and the Vipers share the stage with Emily Rose Nyberg on June 28 at 9 pm at Ocean Art Works for a Granville Island Jazz show that’s not to be missed ($10 at the door; concert sponsored in part by CHMC Granville Island).
Petunia and the Vipers seem to have time-travelled straight from the 1920s, barnstorming from Western swing to early rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues, complete with picking, yodels, howls, and pure fun.
Nyberg, meanwhile, learned to play guitar from her late father Rodney, who encouraged her unorthodox style. She blends gospel, old-time country, and blues into songs she’s road-tested everywhere from Southern Appalachia kitchen parties to East Van punk houses, finger-picking on her dad’s old hollow-body guitar.
If you’ve got the blues, you’re sure to lose ’em at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. More information is at https://www.coastaljazz.ca.
Post sponsored by Coastal Jazz.