By Sylvia Benavidez
The mood of the crowd for the 21st Marshall Blues Fest in downtown Marshall Saturday was warm and embracing. People were kind and made room for each other’s lawn chairs and cheered on the performers with generous praise both on and off stage. “I saw so many people coming up to the band members saying, ‘You were great.’ That was wonderful to see,” said Kimber Thompson, director of tourism for Choose Marshall.
Leading up to the headliner, Laith Al-Saadi, who appeared on season 2016 of The Voice, the festival hosted performers from 3-11 p.m. They included Generator, Who Dat? Blues Band, and Brendon Linsley Band.
The performers were warm and inviting to audience members. “They interacted with the crowd both onstage and off,” report Thompson.
The annual free family-friendly event is sponsored by the Marshall Downtown Development Authority. In addition to the featuring of well-known Michigan Blues artists, the festival hosted food vendors, non-profit vendors, a beer tent, and extended hours at the downtown bars and restaurants. New to the Marshall Blues Fest was an inflatable slide provided by the National Guard. Thompson also shared that more space was added to the festival. She said, “We opened up down to Madison Street to reach more businesses.”
“We heard from a number of restaurants and retailers that they had the best day in sales this year,” said Thompson.
There were a few kids sliding and playing with giant Connect toy in the middle of the blocked off Michigan Avenue but no organized events.
Thompson noted that this year all the performers were high energy and at the top of their game. Al-Saadi featured his own music as well as covers such as “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters and “Feels like Rain” by Buddy Guy. His fingers flew across his guitar. He introduced various band members such as David Stearns on bass, Jeff Trudeau on drums, and gave a brief history of how they met, who they met along the way, and what it meant to the development of his music style. Al Saadi shared that he doesn’t believe art is a competition. Even though he had success on “The Voice,” he promotes being the best version of yourself that you can be in life and in art. That being said, he is proud of his time on show and his success afterward.
“I had the number one international blues album for 5 ½ weeks. This one song I will play for you later called, “Gone,” had over 224,000 hits on YouTube,” said Al-Saadi.
Those intimate details that the performers shared and the great music that kept the crowd listening, dancing, and applauding. Thompson said, “People came and stayed. The connection with the audience, the performances, the weather. It was a beautiful day for it.”
The band and I had a fantastic time in Marshall and hope to return the Bluesfest again soon! We are playing on 11/14 at the Franke Center, so hopefully we will see some of our friends and fans in Marshall again then! Small corrections – Jeff Trudell (not Trudeau) on drums and 244,000 plays on Spotify for “Gone” in one night when I was on the voice (thanks largely to Pharrell Williams, who was kind enough to tell people to check out my original music while I was a contestant on The Voice). Thank you for the kind words! – Laith
Speaking as a member of the band Generator, who performed at this year’s Bluesfest, we had a great time! The sound people were helpful and worked hard. The crowds were fun and so receptive. We loved every minute of it!