a bit blue
With the onset of winter and the global credit crunch spiraling out of control, now seems like the perfect time for a blues festival. B1Maximum is happy to oblige.
TEXT MARTIN RICHARDSON feedback
My dad was a great blues lover, which made long family car journeys something of a trial. In the back seat we couldn’t even get up a decent wail of “are we nearly there yet?” without risking another tape of some authentic delta bluesman, apparently recorded in a tin shack in Alabama while a hailstorm raged outside. And who, in affluent England, could seriously relate to the subtleties of three chords and the truth about depression-era America, complete with tragically deceased faithful dogs and recently departed faithless women? Until very recently Moscow had exactly the same problem: an orgy of conspicuous consumption has little room for a spindly old guy named after a physical disability, carrying a guitar. But now the MICEX is plunging further than Anna Semonovich’s necklines, oil prices are at levels which could see Lukoil bosses peddling barrels of Urals Crude in your local perekhod and anxious financiers are eying up the summit of the Federation Tower with dark thoughts in mind. Bankruptcy lawyers apart, we’ve all got the blues now. Which is great news for the Efes Blues Festival, which lands at B1Maximum to celebrate the holiday weekend. The 10th Russian installment of this annual event doesn’t have anyone named after a physical disability — political correctness ended the viable careers of acts like “partially sighted” Willie Johnson long ago — but does boast Watermelon Slim. Despite carrying a moniker that sounds like it was generated by a Facebook application, he’s the real deal. Vietnam vet turned anti-war protestor, toting a diploma cum laude from the school of hard knocks, he has an enviable reputation as a chronicler of contemporary America’s woes with voice and slide guitar. He is joined on the festival bill by living legend of the scene Eddie Bo and the crown prince of a burgeoning dynasty, John Lee Hooker Jr. The shows hit B1Maximum on Nov. 2 and 3, starting at 7 p.m. Cover is 1,200 rubles. | 
