Blues finale: a festival with teeth

July 8, 2019

Joe Cantrell

Culture, Music, Photography

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE CANTRELL

When the extraordinary young guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram waded into the crowd at the Waterfront Blues Festival on Sunday and started picking the strings with his teeth, you knew the whole darned party was gettin’ down. Musicians, fans, techies, vendors, kids, couples, senior hipsters, spur-of-the-moment dancers, festival newbies and seasoned blues aficionados – it was the last day of the four-day music extravaganza in Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park, and everyone was wringing the juice from the thing down to the last drop.

**“Kingfish” Ingram: whole lotta talent goin’ down.**

Ingram, the 20-year-old prodigy from Clarksdale, Mississippi, who’s played and recorded with Buddy Guy, Keb Mo’ and other greats, is two years out of high school and taking the music world by storm. Portland was happy to be part of the deluge. A Portland favorite from New Orleans, the fabulous Trombone Shorty – Troy Andrews on his birth certificate – played a late set with his band Orleans Avenue, and the likes of Feufollet, Ural Thomas & the Pain, and the Too Loose Cajun Zydeco Band – plus a whole lot of happy revelers – kept the closing-day party sizzling and most everyone waiting impatiently for next July, when the blues fest will blow the lid off the riverfront again.

Photographer Joe Cantrell was on hand for the whole four-day music marathon, snapping the players and the crowds and the Fourth of July fireworks and everything in between. Here are some highlights from Sunday in the Park with Joe:

“KINGFISH” INGRAM (TEETH, BAND, & CROWD INCLUDED)

TOO LOOSE CAJUN ZYDECO BAND

**Too Loose gutarist Peter Damman is also the festival’s talent coordinator**

JOE COVERS THE WATERFRONT

Sponsor

FEUFOLLET & FANS

URAL THOMAS & THE PAIN

Waterfront Blues: a bang-up start. Joe Cantrell photographs opening day at the festival, complete with Fourth of July fireworks.
Waterfront Blues 2: In the Spirit. Joe Cantrell captures the mood of the festival’s Day Two, from Ghana’s Spiritual Brothers to Harpdog Brown & the Uptown Blues Band.
Blues Fest 3: Let the good times roll. Joe Cantrell captures the groove as the festival loosens its Louisiana Belt.

Joe Cantrell

I spent my first 21 years in Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma, assuming that except for a few unfortunate spots, ‘everybody’ was part Cherokee, and son of the soil. Volunteered for Vietnam because that’s what we did. After two stints, hoping to gain insight, perhaps do something constructive, I spent the next 16 years as a photojournalist in Asia, living much like the lower income urban peasants and learning a lot. Moved back to the USA in 1986, tried photojournalism and found that the most important subjects were football and basketball, never mind humankind. In 1992, age 46, I became single dad of my 3-year-old daughter and spent the next two decades working regular jobs, at which I was not very good, to keep a roof over our heads, but we made it. She’s retail sales supervisor for Sony, Los Angeles. Wowee! The VA finally acknowledged that the war had affected me badly and gave me a disability pension. I regard that as a stipend for continuing to serve humanity as I can, to use my abilities to facilitate insight and awareness, so I shoot a lot of volunteer stuff for worthy institutions and do artistic/scientific work from our Cherokee perspective well into many nights. Come along!