Portland's four-day blues bash at Tom McCall Waterfront Park beats the heat -- and photographer Joe Cantrell catches the sights and sounds and free-flowing joy of it all.
A weekend for laughing and embracing and feeling joy.
Ace photographer Joe Cantrell has been shooting the Waterfront Blues Festival for more years than some people in the audience and even a couple of the musicians have been alive (although he still has a few years to go to catch up with the astonishing 90-year-old blues singer Bobby Rush).
You can see his extraordinary photos of this year’s July 4 opening day here, complete with the musicians, the throng in downtown Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park, the river rats taking in the scene from their boats on the Willamette, and the post-show Independence Day fireworks display lighting up the downtown sky.
That was only the beginning. Cantrell returned July 5-7 for days two, three, and four, through the festival’s big finale on Sunday. And, yes, he took his camera with him. The lively and lovely results of his keen-eyed efforts are here, providing proof of the festival’s many pleasures.
It was an unseasonably hot four-day stretch: The sun shone bright, and temperatures flirted with and eventually achieved triple digits. That might have thinned out the crowd a bit, but it did nothing to dampen the joy that filled the park and the audience that braved the heat while the music played from five stages. Visit — or, if you were part of the festival crowd, revisit — the sights and sounds through Cantrell’s eyes and camera lens.
— The Editors
The music makers
Blues man Bobby Rush, 90 years young.Bobby Rush and the North Mississippi All Stars.Legendary Portland blues singer Curtis Salgado wailing away …… and legendary Portland blues singer Curtis Salgado signing an autograph.
Putting the squeeze on with the Lost Bayou Ramblers.
Fiddling the day away with the Lost Bayou Ramblers.
Washboard, squeezebox, and … a Muppet vocalist?Playing and dancing at the Front Porch Stage.
Transformations
What’s a day in the park without a little face paint?… oh, the magic of it all!
These blues are made for dancin’
Blues Festival audiences are an active lot, eager to line up and get movin’.Zydeco time: Swing your partner …
… and swing your partner again …
… and again …
… and again …
… and again …
… and again …… and again.Under the bridge you could dance with electronic-light version of you.
Checking out the booths
Longtime Nepalese vendors were back on the scene with fantastic fabrics.
As evening falls, hats off to some fancy chapeaus.
A swoosh of fashion amid a delectable riot of color for sale.
Rowin’ on the river
The Willamette River runs right behind the festival grounds in Tom McCall Waterfont Park, providing a good spot to float and sip and visit and listen to the music …… and maybe catch a quick forty winks, too.
Faces in the crowd
Blues and ‘cues on a bright July day.
A festival cart driver takes a break from hauling musicians to grab a bite to eat.
Eyes straight forward.Several shades of shades.Play misty for me.Taking life easy …… and partially made in the shade.
After the show is over
After he’s finished his festival photos, Joe Cantrell spots a chorus line of crows as he heads back to his parking lot. They have a lot to chat about — but that’s another story.
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!
Great, great, great, almost every single one.