Lapsed Blues Festival Draws Big-Name Acts
The Doheny Blues Festival, booked for May 16-17, will try to reignite a lapsed tradition of Orange County blues festivals with big-name talent.
John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan are among the acts scheduled to perform at Doheny State Beach. From 1993 through 1996, a two-day event called the Orange County Blues Festival was held each September, first at Heritage Park in Dana Point, then at Doheny for two years, and finally in Newport Beach on the golf course of the Hyatt Newporter hotel.
No blues fest materialized last year. Instead, in September, Doheny State Beach hosted Doheny Days, a two-day, pop-rock showcase featuring the Monkees, Sugar Ray, Violent Femmes and Cracker.
Rich Sherman, who promoted Doheny Days, says he got a number of calls from fans assuming last year’s festival was a blues event. “It was hard getting around it: everybody wanted a blues festival, obviously.”
The Tustin-based Sherman is planning a Sept. 19-20 pop-rock sequel to Doheny Days, but he believes there is room for an outdoor blues festival as well. He says that moving the blues event to May has helped in booking talent, becausethe September festivals of the past had to compete with the better-established Long Beach Blues Festival, a longtime Labor Day weekend highlight on the Southern California blues calendar.
Hooker and Cray figure to be bigger draws than such past Orange County Blues Festival headliners as Etta James, Junior Wells, Wilson Pickett, Luther Allison, James Cotton and the Brian Setzer Orchestra.
Sherman is still piecing together the bill, which will feature 10 acts each day, playing from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Tower of Power, Robben Ford and Blue Line, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, the Walter Trout Band, Coco Montoya and Eric Sardinas have been confirmed along with Hooker, who headlines the first day, and Cray and Vaughan, who top the bill on the second.
Sherman says he wants to diversify the festival with women artists, a gospel group and a Cajun band.
Tickets, priced at $22 for one day, $35 for both, and $10 for children, go on sale March 14. (714) 740-2000 (Ticketmaster) or (714) 262-2662 (taped festival information).
