Baton Rouge has got the blues, and no one could be happier.
This Saturday, the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation will host an all-day blues festival in downtown Baton Rouge near North Boulevard Town Square.
The festival is held every spring and features both veteran and premiere blues acts in Louisiana.
More than 20 bands will play on the four stages at the event. Acts include the popular alternative soul funk group SpeakEasy, returning pros Kenny Neal and Henry Gray and Chris Thomas King of “O Brother Where Art Thou” fame.
Repentance Park will host the Foundation Stage, the main stage of the festival, and the Swamp Blues Stage will be set up at Galvez Plaza. The Old State Capitol will feature performances from local bands, and the Gospel and Soul Stage will be established at the Shaw Center for the Arts.
Chris Brooks, chairman of the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, said his group booked a variety of bands to attract a variety of people.
“Every style of music is based on the blues, and we want to educate people about its heritage and sound,” Brooks said.
While most of the artists performing at the show will play the blues, many of the bands will also incorporate other styles of music into the songs they intend to play. Crossover styles will include soul, gospel, garage punk, electronica and Zydeco.
The festival has been advertised as a journey through “the swamp blues.”
According to Brooks, “the swamp blues” were born in the bayous of Louisiana and perfected at the heart of Baton Rouge in the 1950s. The melancholy tunes of swamp blues musicians like Slim Harpo traveled all the way to Britain and heavily influenced the iconic sounds of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Today, the swamp blues live on in the form of contemporary artists who blend traditional blues musicianship with lyrics that reflect the troubles of modern life.
In addition to live performances, the festival will feature food, dancing and artistic exchanges. The festival will even coincide with “The Visual Blues,” an exhibit at the LSU Museum of Art that honors the memory of the Harlem Renaissance.
Attendees of the exhibit will be able to paint their own monoprints like the ones featured in the gallery. According to Jeff English, the museum’s communications director, the event is open to all ages, and “the work is really inspiring.”
Brooks said he hopes the festival will appeal to people of all ages.
“A lot of the older generation likes the blues, but there’s a lot of music today still influenced by the blues, so we’re bringing acts that everyone can enjoy,” Brooks said.
The Baton Rouge Blues Festival will be held in downtown Baton Rouge in and around the Shaw Center on Saturday April 12 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
“We want to educate people about the heritage of the blues through a different sound.”