Festival hopes to attract ‘true blues’ crowd

By Steve Tool

Wallowa County Chieftain

As late summer approaches, the call of the Delta Blues is being heard across the Wallowa Valley as the 21st annual Bronze Blues and Brews Festival gets ready to wail Aug. 11-12 at Joseph City Park. Interim festival director Mike Straw is upbeat about this year’s selection of some of the finest blues the nation has to offer.

For this year, the artists selected are people who perform music closer to traditional blues than some of the festival’s past acts.

“It’s a little bit risky, but we’re attracting some attention from the ‘true blues’ crowd,” Straw said. “I’ve gotten any number of calls from people who are coming because it’s a real blues program, and these are some top-notch guys.”

Included in the lineup are winners and nominees of high-profile blues awards including bassist Anni Piper, guitar player Albert Castiglia, singer Rae Gordon, harp player Sugar Ray, pianist Victor Wainwright and one-man-band Brody Buster.

Straw stressed that the festival is produced on for the benefit of the community. Proceeds go to a number of community endeavors, including the schools.

“I was happy when I heard from the Wallowa schools program that they were grateful for our donation,” Straw said. “I was happy when I heard from the Joseph playground people that our donation two years ago was fundamental in helping them leverage other grants. I was happy to get a large envelope in the mail the other day from the Joseph Charter School art teacher Jeniffer Connolly thanking us and sending pictures signed by kids of all the stuff they’d done.”

Straw talked of how the community and business benefits from the festival as around 1,500 people attend the two-day event.

“This is a relatively low-impact thing,” Straw said. “People come, then they go away, but they still spend money on cheeseburgers and in gift shops and book stores.”

As per the festival’s title, around 20 microbrews will be offered in the beer tent and works from local foundry Valley Bronze will be on display and for sale. A number of food vendors will also set up shop.

Even with all the benefits the festival brings to the county, Straw said that for him it’s still about the music.

“We’re just trying to bring a true and American art form to the county and expose people to it,” he said.

Tickets are $35 for the Friday jam in the park and Saturday’s all-day show. Kids 10 and under are free. Tickets can be purchased online at www.bronzebluesbrews.com or locally at Joseph Hardware or the Sports Corral in Joseph or The Bookloft in Enterprise. Tickets at the gate are $40 and tickets for Friday jam in the park only are $20.