Although around here November is often wet & cold, not really the kind of weather one usually associates with the Blues, there were enough scorching hot guitar solos at the 5th Vully Blues Festival to make a steam bath of the local swimming pool! And I believe it can be said that the festival has found its public since when I was there Friday night all the wine cellars of Praz were well packed and grooving.
Wine cellars? The Vully is a small wine making area in Switzerland along the northwest side of the Lake of Murten/Morat and its local Blues Club had the good idea of taking advantage of the areas topography in organizing its Blues Festival. 2 days, 8 wine cellars & 13 blues bands is how it was presented this year! The wine cellars are situated throughout the village, each with it’s own style, most had setup tables and chairs and all had a bar where the public can sample their production as well as local specialties like the Gateau du Vully but if you want to sit down, better get there during a break.
The bands play 4 sets each (!) and all have different time scheduled making it possible to see at least a whole set (45min) by 5 of the bands each evening, or you can wander at whim, meet up with friends and see how well a particular cépage suits the band on stage. ;-)
As most blues environment here in Switzerland, the festival mostly focuses on Chicago Blues style bands although there was a good deal of funk going on as well as musicians like Richard Koechli who cover an amazing variety of blues styles. Something for everyone!
Regular readers, if there are any, probably realize by now that my heart mostly lies in prewar and what can be called alternative blues or “alt-blues” it seems (search “Deep Blues” with quotes on YouTube), so to be honest I am hard pressed to write about most of the music heard.
Still, a few highlights were The Blue Spirit Band who I had meet through Blaise a year or so ago, lots of energy yet a relaxed attitude that just draws you in. On the other hand Miguel M pretty much scalped us alive with intense sound pressure and bass! And my bad back was fortunate to have a table to lean on to enjoy a last set by The Voyageurs, an acoustic guitar and bass trio who were the perfect antidote to the, for me, slightly too many Hendrix style guitar solos encountered during the evening…
But still, a fine cuvée!