The following was review was sent to us by Ron Berry of Iowa Park, Texas.
Click on the small GIF image to view the full size JPG image.
The
photo below of B.B. King's Trumpet player,
James Bolden, aka Dr. Boogaloo,
is copyright © 1997 by Ron Berry:
We arrived at the Coca Cola StarPlex in Dallas, Texas early on Saturday, Sept. 20th with great anticipation of what was on the agenda for the night. The acoustics were great and really did the entertainers justice!
First up, was Jay Geils and Magic Dick. They really rocked the place when Jay Geils played "Pontiac Blues" and then it was great, when harmonica ace, Magic Dick did his solo,"Whammer Jammer". They were followed by Keb Mo, whom we had not heard. We were very impressed with his old time Delta blues.
Then Dallas native, Jimmy Vaughan (brother of legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan), cranked out some of his brother's tunes, as well as his own rockabilly songs such as "DFW". He was followed by the great Mr. Robert Cray, who never did a song with the same guitar. (He always likes to make sure they are perfectly tuned for each and every song.) The highlight of his set came when he cranked it up for a good ole' Southern R&B, "Do That for Me", a new tune that combined soul with reggae rhythms.
Then here came the KING's court to warm us up for the man himself and they really got the crowd fired up! When BB cut loose, the crowd went wild!! He did several of his great songs and then sat down to do a duo with Jimmy Vaughan which was a REAL delight! You would never know that BB had just turned 72 years old. earlier that week, because he was playing "Lucille" like a man half his age!
Just before the end, we had worked our way to the gate where we were hoping to get backstage to see BB afterwards, but the 1 1/2 hour wait resulted in not getting backstage, due to a rude head of security. Dr. Boogaloo did come out to see us though. He was very nice and friendly as he took pictures with us and presented my wife, PJ, with a Bluesfest necklace from the band. I barely got a glance at it, because she had it put up and wasn't going to let anyone get their hands on it!
Needless to say, we had a wonderful evening at Bluesfest in Dallas and are looking very forward to Nov. 20th when BB comes to Wichita Falls, with special guest, Corey Harris.
Ron Berry
Iowa Park, Texas
Email: rberry@wf.quik.com