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Taken from BigPond (April 14, 2004)
Music Live Review Article
Byron Triumphs
by Brian Wise
 Byron Bay's most successful ever East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival closed last night with some classic reggae delivered to an ecstatic crowd by Jamaica's Burning Spear who somehow managed to follow an awesome set from Toots & The Maytals.
With thousands gently swaying to the music's good vibes it seemed the perfect way to close an event which had provided one of the best and most eclectic line-ups for any Australian festival.
As if it hadn't good enough to have the nation?s premier roots music festival in Byron Bay over Easter, the weekend eventually delivered perfect weather as well. After some 'isolated' showers on Thursday and Good Friday settled the dust the remainder of the festivals days were bathed in sunlight.
It may make those in cooler regions of the country insanely jealous to learn that the perfect way to start the music festival-going day here was with an early morning swim or surf on Byron's glistening main beach followed by breakfast at a beachside cafe - but how many music festivals anywhere in the world offer you that opportunity!
When great music coincides with great weather in a location like Byron it is hard to imagine a better event. But don?t just take my word for it. Ask Jackson Browne, who spent the past week here wandering around town, or Michael Franti who could be seen strolling along the beach or bare-chested and bare-footed through the streets.
Both Browne and Franti (and his band Spearhead) turned out to be two of the undoubted hits of this year's East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival but they were just two highlights in four and a half days of amazing music.
Of course the problem for anyone at an event like this with its more than 100 separate performances is that of being able to see everything you want to - which you just cannot do! But the weekend seemed to revolve around some crucial performances.
Thursday
Mavis Staples opened the festival's main Mojo stage in the Southern Hemisphere's biggest big top tent and immediately created a wonderful vibe that was to last the whole event. Her uplifting songs and powerful voice were inspiring. Taj Mahal followed that with a set in his trio format that included a whole slew of old favourites. Then Michael Franti , who seemed to be some God-like figure to many fans, got the crowd jumping and thinking with some potent messages.
The first evening on the main stage was capped off by an incredible show from Femi Kuti and his Positive Force ( a thirteen-piece band that includes his wife and also his nine year-old son). Like Franti, Kuti wraps his music around some powerful messages and his Afrobeat is irresisitible. It is hard to recall a more spectacular show from any previous group from Africa - and that includes Youssou N?Dour, Baaba Maal and Salif Keita (who are all better singers than Femi but come nowhere close in showmanship). As he moves seamlessly from singing to sax to keyboards to trumpet (he?s recently been listening to Miles Davis!) he throws himself across the stage with abandon, dancing to a beat that left the crowd awestruck and yelling for more.
The North Mississippi Allstars closed out the Crossroads stage with a show that recalled the Allman Brothers at their peak with Duane Allman in full flight. Luther and Cody Dickinson are the sons of legendary producer Jim Dickinson (check out the Sticky Fingers credits or the Weddings Parties Anything discography!) and along with guitarist Duwayne Burnside (son of RL) and bassist Chris Chew fly the flag for the sort of Southern rock that gave jamming a good name. Close your eyes and you swear you hear Duane Allman when Luther is playing but Burnside is also a revaltion with his fiery playing and gritty vocals.
Friday
If there was ever any doubt that Richard Thompson was one of the world's great guitarists that was dispelled by his main stage set on Friday. Thompson won over the crowd with his self-deprecating sense of humour and flying fingers. Even though you might have heard songs like 'Vincent Black Lightning' dozens of times before this extraordinary singer/guitarist has the ability to make his songs live again on stage.
American Keller Williams is almost completely un known but he won?t be after his Byron shows. Preceding Thompson, Williams uses his bare feet to trigger an effects rack that creates musical loops to support his scat singing. An extended and seemingly improvised version of Van Morrison?s 'Moondance' took the audience on a fascinating trip.
Mia Dyson is off to America shortly and after her Crossroads stage set no-one would doubt that she will be successful there or at least create a lot of attention for the future. Dyson's inspired guitar playing is wedded to a sultry voice that is as powerful as it is emotive. The Waifs' Josh Cunningham and Donna Simpson, who followed Dyson later both said she was the most impressive act they had seen at the festival. High praise indeed.
Jackson Browne's acoustic set later that evening at Crossroads might have seemed to have been a daunting task. By the time he went on stage at 9.00pm you might have thought the crowd would have been well-oiled and rowdy; however, it was attentive and almost reverential. Browne's anthems seem almost as ingrained here as they must be in America.
When Steve Earle took the stage for an extemporised version of 'Cocaine', with some interesting new lyrics, everyone knew that they were seeing something special. Earle later returned in the encore for 'Take It Easy' - a song that could easily be the theme for Byron Bay.
Another highlight arrived with 'The Next Voice you Hear', a song originally recorded with trumpeter Jon Hassell as a bonus track on a greatest hits album but one of the most interesting recordings Browne has made. With will Crobsy from Mavis Staples' band on guitar and Andy roman on sax, the song echoed eerily into the night.
Browne graciously launched into 'Running On Empty' as soon as it was requested saying that he felt that people had a right to hear songs they knew if they were prepared to be so attentive through some of the more obscure material such as 'Looking East' (from the album of the same name). He probably underestimated the fact that most people there seemed to know every song and have probably brought every album despite the fact that he hasn?t had a chart hit for more than a decade.
Of course, the music charts are completely irrelevant in determining the line-up at this event so it was sheer coincidence that John Butler, who preceded Browne, also happened to have a Number One album on ARIA chart. Some might take that fact to explain the huge crowd that he attracted but he was a star here long before everyone else discovered him.
James Brown's arrival in Australia came after yet another incident in his seemingly rocky personal life. But if Brown had been bothered by the publicity it didn?t show. He truly is the 'Godfather of Soul' and for an hour tonight he proved it. Stories of his alleged brief appearances on stage seem to be malicious rumours as Brown strutted his stuff for nearly an hour with more energy than any septuagenarian has a right to have. The voice is not as strong as in his heyday but how could it be? It just happens to be augmented by one of the funkiest band?s anywhere. Bouncing through 'Sex Machine' and 'I Feel Good', Brown showcases all the hits including a still awesome ?Man?s World?.
Of course, you have to put on hold all your ideas of political correctness when two scantily clad and astonishingly lithe white go-go dancers take the stage but think of them as aerobics instructors and it works!
Brown whipped the audience into a frenzy and it is doubtful that anyone (not even Ben Harper) has received such a loud and insistent ovation here.
Saturday
The Paladins appeared here in the very early days of the festival and while this event has come along way the band is pretty much the same as it was a decade ago. There is still the raw, rockabilly-infused sound but the audience demographic has changed and the former headliners on the main stage were now fulfilling that role on the Jambalaya stage in the smallest of the three tents.
The paladins were joined for this festival by Bill Kirchen, former guitarist with Commander Cody?s Lost Planet Airmen. Kirchen is a fabulous player who seems to be able to play anything -as evidenced by the dozens of musical references he includes in his epic version of ?Hot Rod Lincoln?.
While many punters bemoaned the fact that Lucinda Williams had cancelled you couldn't complain that Steve Earle didn?t meet the country music quota. His Mojo stage set on Saturday night was awesome in its power. With ex-Blackhearts and Del-Lords member Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel on guitar, Earle?s band The Dukes are more potent than ever. While he delved back as far as ?Guitar town? it was Earle?s rendition of the song 'Jerusalem', which he wrote in Melbourne two years ago, which was not only the most affecting but said the most about the current world situation.
Earle mostly let his music do the talking but offstage he was more garrulous than anyone can recall him ever being (and he is know to like a chat). Looking fit and healthy after losing 35kg (?It?s the Atkins' Diet, get the book,' he said) Earle wandered from stage to stage and soaked up what is his favourite music festival.
If the Godfather of soul had been a highlight in what seemed to be a weekend of musical royalty, the King of Rock 'n' Soul, Solomon Burke was one of the most incredible performers ever to appear here. The king-size Burke, who sits on a specially built ?throne? after being helped onstage behind a large black curtain, also has a king-sized voice and surely one of the best ever to grace this nation. And Burke doesn't just sing ? he puts on a ?show?.
With his son and daughter on stage as backing vocalists, Burke directs them to give roses to members of the audience (sometimes after wiping the petals with his tears).
Surprisingly there was a political edge to Burke?s performance. He introduced a stunning version of Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' by claiming that 'this November a change is gonna come in America.' Earlier he had implored politicians to 'bring the soldiers home now'.
While rthere were a few selections from his latest Grammy Award-winning album Don?t Give Up On Me (and yes, he did remind us of that award) Burke delved into history for much of his material. A soul bracket dedicated to Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Don Covay and others started with 'Dock Of The Bay' and meandered through a bracket of soul classics.
Just to show that he could sing rock ?n? roll as well as soul. Burke closed his hour-and-a-quarter-long set with a brilliant Little Richard medley.
'Oh, I love you all tonight,' said Burke to a rapturous response. It was showmanship of the absolute highest degree and the sort of show that has probably never been seen in Australia before.
Sunday
Pharoah Sanders was perhaps one of the most inspired signings to any music festival in Australian history - and his performance on the Crossroads stage this evening struck a blow for jazz the likes of which has seldom been seen or heard in this country.
Sanders absolutely thrilled a packed tent of 5,000 mostly young punters who had probably never heard of him before nor had owned any jazz albums but who became instant converts. Sure it was avant-garde at times but no-one cared a jot about that while the gloriously epic 'The Creator Has A Masterplan' (from the Karma album of the 60's) was in full flight with its solos from Sanders and the other members of his quartet (including a brilliant piano solo from William Henderson).
Sanders' triumphant appearance, after which he was clapped off stage like a newly discovered hero of the festival, proved that audiences are much more open-minded, accepting and hungry for new things than the mainstream media would have you believe.
Shemekiah Copeland, the diminutive daughter of the late Johnny Copeland, was one of the surprise packets of the entire festival. Small in stature but huge in voice Copeland showed off that power by walking into the audience mid-performance on the Mojo stage without a microphone but could still be clearly heard across the huge tent! There is no doubt that she will return in future years.
Doctor John and his band The Lower 911 brought a welcome touch of New Orleans' funk with a run through a considerable and impressive back catalogue. The long, eerie version of 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters' with its attendant sound effects and threatening beat turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival. (Dr John's new album with its special guests such as Randy Newman might just be his most successful for years).
Fiona Boyes has been touring with Chris Wilson and Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's former guitarist and their set on Jambalaya stage brought with it some really classy blues. Boyes is singing and playing better than ever. Wilson seemed overawed to be singing Wolf's songs with the man?s guitarist but his versions were so powerful that Wolf would have surely approved.
Joe Camilleri watched Pharoah Sanders prior to his own set with his Bakelite Radio to close the Jambalaya stage. It seemed to inspire his performance and his outfit sounded as slick and rootsy as ever and drew an appreciative crowd despite competition from other stages.
It might have seemed daunting but the Cat Empire handled their headlining spot on the Mojo stage with amazing aplomb and flare for such a young band. The fact that they had the whole audience dancing was a sign of even greater things to come from this innovative band.
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