Guitar Blues

On February 25, 2009, Steve and I saw Guitar Blues at the Wheeler Opera House.

Guitar Blues consists of Jorma Kaukonen, of Hot Tuna and a founding member of Jefferson Airplane, Robben Ford and Ruthie Foster.

Being that the only one of the three musicians with whom I had any familiarity was Ruthie Foster and being that I think she's phenomenal (as the title of one of her CDs states), I figured that the other two would be of a kind and that we were in for an awesome evening.

I was only partly right. It was a awesome evening but only because Ruthie stole the show. While both Kaukonen and Ford are extremely talented musicians, their music did little or nothing for me.

Ruthie, on the other hand, simply shone. Every time she stepped on stage, you could feel the energy in the theater change. Even those in the audience who were drawn to the show by the other artists (which was basically everyone but me) could be heard remarking afterwards how Foster was the real jewel.

Kaukonen, while very talented with a guitar, was too mellow and Ford, while also quite skilled, was too jam session-y.

But when paired with Foster and when Foster soloed, the audience soared.