| Lewes will rhyme with 'blues' ... at least from April 24-27 By Bruce Pringle |
|
But if the four-day event
April 24-27 has had a low profile so far, its organizers are aiming
high for future years. "We'd love to see
it grow into something like the jazz festival in Rehoboth," said
Joe Baray, marketing director of The Lighthouse Restaurant,
one of at least seven establishments in Lewes and Midway that are
expected to host blues and blues-influenced performances. Baray said he and Tom Jones
of Lewes' Irish Eyes Pub & Restaurant decided on staging a blues
festival, then recruited other local restaurants
to participate. For this year, each business largely is operating
on its own, but a formal festival organization may emerge,
Baray indicated. The Rehoboth Beach-based
Autumn Jazz Festival also started small. Over 13 years, it has evolved
into a major October attraction that draws thousands of people and
features nationally and internationally popular musicians. The Lewes Blues Festival
will occur in a festival-rich month in coastal Sussex County. Following last weekend's
Latin Festival, the area will experience the Delaware Music Festival
(63 bands with First State connections) Friday
and Saturday, April 11-12, and the Powerpop
Festival (50 acts, many with national reputations) Friday and Saturday,
April 25-26. Except for the Lewes Blues Festival, all the April events
are scheduled for Dewey Beach. Baray said he wasn't concerned
about the Powerpop Festival occurring during
the middle two days of the Lewes festival. The two events will attract
dissimilar crowds, he predicted. A complete lineup of
Lewes Blues Festival acts has yet to be compiled. Among the acts booked
at The Lighthouse are guitarists R.C. Yetter
and Joey Fulkerson. Yetter has built a regional
following for his Stevie Ray Vaughn-style
blues rock. Fulkerson, perhaps best known for his days as headliner
of Delmarva Peninsula favorites Joey and the
Hurricanes, recently has performed in Chubby Checker's touring band
and with Chuck Berry. Another regional blues-rock
favorite, the Tom Larsen Band, has announced it will play during the
Lewes festival at Irish Eyes and at 1776 Restaurant in Midway. In
addition, guitarist Larsen and the band's bassist, Charles Calloway,
are listed for acoustic performances at Irish Eyes and Lewes' Rose
& Crown Restaurant & Pub. Also scheduled for The
Lighthouse is a Friday, April 25, reunion show featuring musicians
who played at the former Front Page, a popular Rehoboth nightspot
in the 1980s and early '90s. Other businesses expected
to host festival acts are Striper Bites and Second Street Grill in
Lewes and Tutto Bene
in Midway. For The Lighthouse, Baray said, participating in the festival is part of a bigger
effort that includes year-round Thursday-night jam sessions and a
summer music lineup featuring the Supertonics blues band, jazz act
Kings of Mojo and classic rockers Trailer Park Casanovas and the
Mary Rhodes Band. "We're trying to
get people to think about Lewes as a place to go for high-caliber
entertainment," he said. |
