Buddy Guy turns heads

He walked through the crowd. Guards followed him closely with a flashlight. Heads turned away from the stage as Buddy Guy made his way around the audience. The crowd went wild.

“He is top of the shelf,” said Randy Man. “Completely A-game, but that’s his shtick.”

Randy calls himself a seasoned blues man. Being a musician himself he knows a lot about this genre. He has been to six Buddy Guy shows and found this one to be similar: completely awesome.

“He played only half of his stuff,” Man said. “I think that’s good for this crowd. They really get to hear his stuff and not someone else’s.” Man said was pleased to see a somewhat younger crowd. Younger audiences don’t listen to blues much, and he hopes the festival has changed that.

“The lineup was solid,” he said.

Man enjoyed all performances he saw but said he came to Bettye LaVette. She took the Shelter Insurance stage at Eighth and Cherry before Buddy Guy.

“She had everything: soul, blues, gospel.”

As the crowd dwindled after the final performance, Man stood with his lawn chair and a few friends in the nearly empty intersection. He was waiting on Curt Rosy. Rosy had been backstage during the final show.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed,” Man said. “We were looking over during the show and seeing him behind the stage along the wall.”

Rosy was hoping to get his final autograph of the evening.

Turning $100 into a priceless instrument

For a $100 guitar it has become a priceless instrument. Since the beginning of the Roots ‘N’ Blues ‘N’ BBQ Festival owner Curt Rosy has acquired autographs from Ruthie Foster, James Hand, Tab Benoit and Del McCoury Band.

“We’re getting Buddy Guy on here by the end of the night,” Randy Man said. Randy is a friend of the guitar’s owner and a member of the Kansas City Blues Society.

The bass guitar became a place for blues artists’ signatures after Curt purchased a nicer guitar to replace it. He and his friends take the item to various blues festivals to get more and more names. Curt is a blues musician himself, so the guitar means more to him than rubbing elbows with celebrities.

“He’s one of the best in Kansas City,” Randy said. “Maybe that’s why he hasn’t joined the society. Artists are cheap.” The two laugh.

A fresh alternative

Despite the abundance of meat and sweet treats at the festival, Jordan Schrier said the fruit at her booth sells quite well.

“People walking by are like, ‘Ooh, healthy stuff,’ and get excited,” Schrier said.

Schrier works at the Wilson’s Gift Shop and Garden Center booth on Cherry Street. It offers apples, trail mix, candy corn and peanuts mix, caramel apples and watermelon. You can even choose to roast your own marshmallow on a miniature roaster to build a s’more.

But the hot item at the booth is the fresh watermelon.

Cooper Zimmerschied, 7, and his sister Katina, 2, begged their dad for pieces of watermelon as they passed the booth. Each picked out a slice, one with as few seeds as possible for Katina.

- Sarah Herrera and Valeria Turturro

Volunteers at VIP tent enjoy unexpected visitors

One of the perks of having a Whole Hog Pass are the visits to the Whole Hog Access Tents, which provide unlimited drinks and snacks including an assortment of alcoholic beverages, water, soda, chips and cookies.

Emily Evans, manager of the VIP tent near the Mediacom Peace Park stage, said her favorite part about working there are the people who visit.

“It’s been really cool to meet the different people who come to the tent with VIP access because a lot of people who come I wouldn’t expect to have a pass because it’s so expensive,” she said.

Evans explained that there is such a variety of people who come by and that they’re here because of their love for the music and seem to have a really good time. Evans said she even met some people from Canada.

Evans said her job responsibilities, which begin “before the music starts,” include making friends with “the VIPs” and talking to them.

“I get paid to be their best friends,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun because I’m getting paid to do what I would come to do anyway. And there’s a great view of the stage.”

Evans explained the most stressful thing that has happened so far while she was volunteering at the tent was last night when the tent ran out of beer an hour and a half before the last performer, Ruthie Foster, got on stage. Fortunately, the tent eventually got some about 40 minutes before the concert was over.

When asked which artist has been her favorite so far, Evans didn’t even think twice.

“Ruthie Foster and her encore was amazing,” she said.

Greg Brostoski was another volunteer who worked at the Whole Hog Access Tent at Peace Park Friday night. He also enjoyed working at the tent and said it wasn’t a bad place to work.

“It’s a good spot to volunteer. Right by the stage, get some drinks, meet new people,” he said.”There were regulars that came by, and you could watch them get progressively drunker.”

Brostoski explained  he has volunteered at many festivals but this is his first time working Roots ‘N’ Blues ‘N’ BBQ Festival. He explained that his experience at this festival is a little different from the others.

“You get a lot more cross-section of people since it’s a city festival,” he said. “You get a cross-section of people that aren’t drawn together for a particular reason. It’s something to do. Why not, you’re already here; why not make the festival part of what you’re already doing?”

Brostoski also enjoyed another role in the festival as a part of the barbecue judging. He explained that the judging was “hard core” and they had to take part in “double-blind taste testing.” Brostoski said they are given a plate with small samples of barbeque, each sample assigned a number.

“I didn’t realize, but there a lot of rules to sanction barbecue contests,” he said as he laughed. “They have an oath.”

Marriage parade

It’s the last thing you’d expect at the Roots ‘N’ Blues ‘N’ BBQ festival.

Bride-to-be Sara Rechtin and her fiance, Justin Wiercinski, paraded down Elm Street, wedding party and all. Rechtin’s sister, Katy, said Sara grew up in Columbia and wanted to come back and celebrate.

“They’re big music buffs, so it’s kind of a big deal to them,” Katy said.

Sara said she likes blues and alternative country, so wandering through the festival seemed fitting. Wiercinski’s groomsmen took advantage of the atmosphere and stopped at a tent for a couple of beers.

Sara now lives in Chicago, but it’s easy to see her roots are here in Columbia. The wedding will take place at 4 p.m. at Stephens College with a reception to follow.

- Jessica Showers and Josh Chittum

Universal Drum Appeal(s) to everyone

Children drum along with Universal Drum Appeal at Flat Branch Park

“There’s no right or wrong way to play percussion,” Morgan Matsiga said.

As the founder of Universal Drum Appeal, an interactive drum and percussion ensemble based in mid-Missouri, Matsiga didn’t want the children surrounding him to be bashful. He asked the group at Flat Branch Park to clap with him and began pulling small sets of hand drums, maracas, tambourines, wood blocks and cowbells from a table behind his station. After the kids had the instruments in hand, they couldn’t help but play along.

Malkyah Bailey, 9, from Harrisburg, was a little nervous at first, but this wasn’t her first time drumming.

“My dad has a couple bongos at my house, and I’ve played those a couple of times,” she said. “I like that I can make, like, new beats to them.”

Matsiga said he wanted the children to experience “the great healing power of the drum” and went on to speak of the importance of the drum in this “troubled world we live in.”

Even while reporting on the scene for this blog, Josh Chittum couldn’t help but jump in with Matsiga and his partner Ishtah. The group started to drum, and Matsiga gestured for him to join in. It was a great time. Josh cannot stress how important he feels the communal playing of drums is to the human experience.

“The thing that’s amazing about the drum is that every culture has a drum,” Matsiga said. “Whether it’s for ceremony or therapy, there’s a universal link.”

- Josh Chittum and Jessica Showers

Blues in the schools

You gotta sing the blues to lose the blues.

That’s T. J. Wheeler’s motto, and that’s what he’s teaching his students.

Wheeler was an artist in residency for two weeks at Grant Elementary School in Columbia and North Elementary School in Holts Summit. Sponsored by the MO Blues Association, Wheeler is part of the Blues in the Schools program. The program brings award-winning educators and performers into schools to teach history, heritage, tolerance, respect, diversity and self-respect, all through the rich culture of blues music.

The students performed remakes of blues classics as well as original songs written with Wheeler. The Grant Elementary School students sang “Grant School Rules Green” in honor of a portion of their school that was rebuilt in a green fashion. They especially came alive at the lyric “Reduce, reuse, recycle, don’t refute,” kicking the volume of the song up a few levels and preaching to the crowd.

One song called on members of the “kazoo army” to join in. Students in the audience were given kazoos to contribute to a surround sound.

With kids in the audience blowing bubbles and families grinning with pride of the students, the community and roots aspect of the festival could be seen and felt in the air. I doubt any other performance at this festival would make you so eager to laugh and join in with the band.

Audience plays and fundraises during concert

As the growing crowd at Peace Park listened to the upbeat music performed by Primitive Soul, children filled the air with colorful beach balls and distinct pink balloons swayed in the breeze.

Songs played by Primitive Soul included “Love Somebody” and “Don’t You Know You’re Riding With the King,” one of the band’s favorites, lead singer Alan Grant said to the crowd. Even at 11 in the morning, the crowd was wide awake, cheering and dancing to the songs, especially during the solos played by various members of the band.

Many children played with the beach balls thrown out to the crowd before the show.

Caleb, his brother Jacob and new friend Destiny played with the beach balls and said they were excited about being at the festival. Based on how much fun they were having, it was hard to tell they had just met.

“I just made friends with them five minutes ago,” Destiny said.

Caleb explained his favorite part about the festival.

“I like being here because my dad runs the Mediacom here and we get to launch shirts off slingshots and punch the beach balls to the crowd, and everyone starts having fun,” he said.

Jacob was the only one who said no when asked whether they liked the music, but all three agreed they would be staying at the festival all day.

The longer the concert went on, more and more audience members carried bright bubble-gum pink balloons.

Krista Myer and Mary Stauffer walked around Peace Park carrying pink balloons and pulling a case filled with pink T-shirts. Co-chairs for Susan Komen for the Cure in Mid-Missouri, the two women walked around selling the balloons and T-shirts to raise money to fight breast cancer.

Myer said the festival has been very helpful for the group’s fundraising. Myer and Stauffer said the crowd has been very supportive and many people have come up to them to tell stories about themselves, family members or people they know who have won the battle against breast cancer.

“This festival has been a successful fundraiser,” she said. “The response from the crowd is just tremendous.”

Of the funds collected, 75 percent will go the the newly created mid-Missouri affiliate and the other 25 percent will go to breast cancer research in Dallas, Myer said.

The organization has a booth on Cherry Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. They are selling cotton candy, water and wristbands in addition to the balloons and T-shirts to fundraise for their cause.

A family affair

Families pushing strollers and pulling little red wagons came out to enjoy the food and music. Pink balloons and bags of kettle corn were clutched in the hands of each passing child

Lily, 7, came to out to enjoy James Hand’s concert with her mother and grandfather. She said she was having fun and really liked the music. Her favorite genre is country, but Hand’s music was not quite comparable to her favorite musician, Taylor Swift.

Balloons and cotton candy

Two things come to mind when I think of festivals: balloons and cotton candy. At least that is what my inner child thinks. No festival, carnival or fair is complete without sticky fingers and a balloon tied to your wrist.

One tent on Cherry Street is providing both. All items are pink because the money is a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure Mid-Missouri.

Will McWilliams stops to buy a balloon for his son Cohen. “He’s a big fan of the balloons,” Will says as he crouches to tie the pink ribbon to Cohen’s wrist. Cohen smiles.

Elizabeth Mendenhall is the cotton-candy maker extraordinaire. She and her crew make cotton candy fresh. “We don’t have to buy the bags, and it tastes better,” she says as she finishes making a serving of it. Not only does the bag cost money, but it also compresses the candy, making it less fluffy.

Each serving takes about 30 seconds to make and is fluffy and delicious. I know. I tried some. Now I just need to get a balloon for my wrist.