Bettye LaVette and Dr. John headline an unusually diverse Chicago Blues Festival whose side stages hold underappreciated treasures.
by David Whiteis, Bill Dahl, Peter Margasak and Leor Galil
Most of the well-known headliners at this weekend's 31st annual Chicago Blues Festival are older artists with mainstream appeal—that is, they play some combination of vintage blues, soul, and R&B. This is more or less standard operating procedure for the fest, but the 2014 lineup distinguishes itself in other ways: further down the bill you'll find an array of talent more diverse than in many recent years, covering soul-blues, roots rock, old-time string-band music, and more. From among the dozens of acts on the festival's six Grant Park stages, my Reader colleagues and I have spotlighted 18 on the schedule that follows—and they include several veterans with the kind of old-school cred that makes them reliable draws.…[ Read more ]