Blues Sunset in Citte di Castello
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2007
1
5
25
Trip End
Sep 05, 2007
Citte di Castello,
Italy
Sunday, June 24, 2007
(Citte di Castello, Saturday, June 23, 2007)-The Blues Sunset festival in Citta di Castello in the province of Umbria is a whole different affair from the night before in Avezzano. Organized by a close-knit bunch of local blues lovers and staged in the piazza in the center of this gorgeous little ancient town from 2:00 pm or so until midnight on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and evening, Blues Sunset presents a relentless lineup of Italian blues bands and performers, one after another, half an hour at a time, grinding out their versions of the standard blues repertoire for a local crowd that grew larger by the hour.
Our hosts were a pair of well-established young citizens named Alberto and Martino; our driver, Luigi; and their extensive network of friends and fellow blues-lovers who were determined to present this music to their townspeople whether they were ready or not. The range of approaches to the blues developed by the Italian musicians and singers was impressive, and I especially enjoyed the jump-blues and Chicago-style blues of Joe Caruso and his band.
Mark and I were scheduled to go on at 9:00 pm, but the fellas kept holding us back until the crowd reached the size they had been anticipating. There was a midnight curfew, but as it turned out there was another reason for delaying our entry onstage: As the headliners, it would be hard for the authorities to make us stop right at midnight, and the organizers were using us quite frankly as a way to extend the concert another half hour or so. I was getting a little nervous about getting our set in as planned, but we followed our new pal Jon Short and his Italian harpist, Giordano, and really had a ball when one of the fellas-pretty well bombed out of his mind-climbed up on stage to offer instant translations of my verses for the crowd. This always makes things better, when they can understand what I'm saying, even though it makes Mark's job twice as long as usual.
Our visit to this beautiful village is fully rewarding and we have a great time. The only thing bothering me is that we can't connect with Afrissippi as they're on a northern course parallel but several hundred miles away from our orbit, and we never do get to hook up with Guelel Kumba, Eric Deaton, Justin Showah and Wallace Lester-four of my most favorite people in the world-while both sets of us are touring in Italy.
Our Blues Sunset ends in the middle of the night on the grounds of the Vill Sacro Core, kind of a resort hotel complex outside of town where everyone has retired to carry on an all-night blues Jam Session. Since the organizers had made their pilgrimage to Bluesville USA and learned that there's nothing the blues players enjoy more than playing informally with one another in any sort of setting, they've made the jam session the ultimate criterion of the success of their festival, and the cats are wailing outside our windows as we nod off to sleep after a hard day's travel and a demanding evening on the plaza. Luigi will pick us up in the late morning, drive us back via Hwy 45 to Roma and turn us over to Antoniello and Fort Prenestino, where we'll play our next concert for the comrades on Wednesday night.
-Detroit
August 5, 2007
