November-December 2005 Newsletter

• Blues in the Schools •
• On the Waterfront 2005 •
• Berghoff Blues •
• Jason Ricci review •
• Candye Kane review •
• Shemekia Copeland review •
• Ana Popvic review •
• Sista Monica review •
• Walter Trout review •

Berghoff & Blues 2005 Festival

Monroe, Wisconsin is the home of Huber Brewery and the bi-annual Berghoff and Blues Festival.  This year’s event was well attended by the public and our Crossroads Members.  We set up our tent and got 17 new members to join (13 individuals and 4 families) and worked with the artists who sold and autographed CDs and programs at our booth.  We got several CDs, some for our library and some autographed to auction off for our Hurricane Katrina Relief activities.

The day opened with the Green County’s own group, The Crashers.  Jennifer Deprez was outstanding on vocals and is touted as the charmer of the combo, and they were right.  Gary Hendrickson on guitar was also awesome.

The Westside Andy/Mel Ford Band was up next and were a crowd favorite.  Andy Linderman is one of the best harp players around and Mel Ford is a great guitar player.

  Baton Rouge native son Kenny Neal was up next.  From the reaction of the crowd, I would have to say he was the favorite of the day; his performance with his band, an acoustic duet with Billy Branch and the fact that his CDs outsold the other artists many times over showed their appreciation of his exceptional work. 

Acoustic blues lovers were fueled by some great music from Rory Block.  A NJ native who grew up in and still hails from NYC, Rory is a talented artist whose career has been revitalized.  She put on a great show!

SOB’s aren’t all bad, and Billy Branch and his SOB’s (Son’s of the Blues) showed why.  Branch and Co. put on a super set and then he and Kenny Neal did some acoustic numbers from their recent CD.  Branch demonstrated some of his great harp work and his band put on a great show for us.

Last up were the headliners, Roomful of Blues.  Led by lead singer/harpist Mark DuFresne, the band put on a great set of their jazzy blues that brought the house down.  Everyone jammed to the swinging sounds!

Huber Brewery fed us with an assortment of beers to supplement the sustenance we got from the great blues music.  Between the beer, blues and great foods, everyone had a great time.  Fine weather, friends from the club, musicians and blues fans made for a great late summer/early fall day in Monroe!