How Blues on the Fox celebrates blues history
A popular music festival that's celebrating 20 years in Aurora got its start when a group of buddies discovered some decades-old recordings that tie the city of lights to the history of blues.
Known as “The Leland Sessions,” these 1937 and '38 tracks on Bluebird Records featured “guys that shaped the urban Chicago blues as we know them today,” said David Glynn, a festival organizer and founding member of the Fox Valley Music Foundation.
These were guys like John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, Tampa Red, Washboard Sam and Yank Rachel, and they played live for their recordings in the penthouse ballroom of Leland Tower on Stolp Island, a former hotel now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Rediscovering these musical gems led to humble beginnings for Blues on the Fox in 1997. But the event has grown in notoriety each year and now is drawing what organizers call a “big” act in Tedeschi Trucks Band to cap two days of jams for its 20th anniversary.
A large crowd of die-hard blues fans is expected to take over the turf at RiverEdge Park, 350 N. Broadway, from 7 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, June 17, and 3 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, June 18, for the festival.
Fans can hear Marcia Ball at 7 p.m. Friday and The Robert Cray Band at 9 p.m. National touring acts on Saturday include Larry McCray at 5 p.m., Los Lobos at 7 p.m. and Tedeschi Trucks Band at 9 p.m.
Steve Warrenfeltz, a Fox Valley Music Foundation member and owner of Kiss the Sky records in Batavia, said all of Saturday's acts have collaborated before. Los Lobos members are friends with Larry McCray. Los Lobos and Tedeschi Trucks Band both have appeared on McCray's albums. Los Lobos members also have played with Tedeschi Trucks.
The connections go even one step further, to a band of local musicians that recently completed a double-album tribute to the original tunes from “The Leland Sessions.” Simply called Leland, the band features eight performers who worked for two years to take the 1930s recordings and redo them in the style of the 1950s.
“We made an effort to go back to the old school and do it like they used to,” said Scott Tipping of Warrenville, a guitarist who worked with Warrenfeltz as the tribute album's producer.
Tipping knows the members of Los Lobos, completing the circle of connections among Saturday's bands.
“It's going to be pretty interesting to see if there's some jamming or guest appearances,” Warrenfeltz said.
The local group Leland is opening Saturday's afternoon of music with a performance at 3 p.m. to further pay homage to the historic recordings that sparked the event.
“It's going to bring a lot of hometown pride,” Tipping said about the performance. “Good blues music and good American roots music is music that makes you want to get up and dance. We're going to kick off that Saturday with quite a party.”
RiverEdge Park is the perfect venue for such a fest, organizers say - although Glynn said some longtime visitors do get nostalgic for the streets, remembering simpler days when the festival was held in a parking lot on the west side of the Fox River.
But at RiverEdge, with its expansive lawn of grassy knolls, Glynn said sight lines and volume levels both are strong throughout the park.
There's plenty of room to set up blankets or lawn chairs, but to preserve views of the stage, there aren't many trees. So don't skip the sunscreen and hat, Glynn advises.
Park rules have been revised this year to allow outside food in small, soft coolers and two sealed water bottles per person. Genoa Italian, Concessions offers a full menu and a beverage station next to the women's restrooms sells drinks, with a wristband required to buy alcohol.
Big City Blues Magazine and the Fox Valley Music Foundation will set up booths at the event, with the foundation selling posters from past years of the fest and promoting its second annual Blues Month in the Fox Valley, which concludes June 25.
Blues on the Fox tickets are $20 for Friday and $40 for Saturday.
“The place is going to be rockin',” Glynn said.
20th annual Blues on the Fox
When: 7 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, June 17, and 3 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, June 18
Where: RiverEdge Park, 350 N. Broadway, Aurora
Who: Performers include Marcia Ball, The Robert Cray Band, Leland, Larry McCray, Los Lobos and Tedeschi Trucks Band
Cost: Friday $20, Saturday $40
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