If you’re looking to add a bit more blues to the red, white and blue of your Independence Day and can’t swing a trip to Portland, Oregon to be there in person, might we suggest pointing your browser to KBOO radio’s website, where they’ll once again be broadcasting live from several stages of Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival? The festival takes place annually on and around the July 4th holiday, with this year’s edition set to run from Thursday the 4th through Sunday the 7th.
Artist permitting, we’ll be able to hear such acts this time around as Bobby Rush, Ben Harper, Lucinda Williams, Curtis Salgado, Jackie Venson, Chris O’Leary, Igor Prado, Jubu Smith, and many more.
And if you want to check out some of the acts from the festival’s previous years dating back to 2014, visit the Waterfront Blues Festival program page on KBOO’s site, a virtual goldmine where you’ll find historical sets from such artists as Shemekia Copeland and Ruthie Foster, GA-20, Robert Randolph, Johnny Rawls, Christone Kingfish Ingram, MonkeyJunk, Canned Heat, Booker T, Eric Gales, the Big Head Blues Club, Fantastic Negrito, Elvin Bishop, Los Lonely Boys, the Phantom Blues Band, and a ton of others, including regular or annual appearances from locals such as Salgado and Kevin Selfe.
Thanks to KBOO for continuing to bring us what they can of this terrific festival each year. And happy listening (and Independence Day) to you!