What A Night for The Blues

The Big Gig Santiago & The Soulmovers and Mississippi MacDonald

Dereham Memorial Hall, Saturday 25^th May 2024

Santiago & The Soulmovers, Dereham Memorial Hall. (c)CLP

 

Absolutely chucking it down.  Branches breaking under the combined weight of foliage and very heavy rain.  Perfect for the drive out through flooding, via a phantom road diversion, to Dereham for an evening of blues.

 

Arriving slightly frazzled by the evening’s journey, I really needed to hear something to relax me, soothe my worried mind and slow me down.  Thankfully, I found it within the comforting confines of Dereham’s picture-book Memorial Hall.

 

Mississippi MacDonald strolled on stage in a classic black showman’s suit with shiny seams, with mighty fancy lapels, wide as a Concorde delta wing and just as aerodynamic.  He strapped on his Fender CS ’61 as he greeted the audience with a Londoner’s “Good evening, ladies’n’gennelmen.  ‘Ow yer doing?” Then we were away. 

Mississippi MacDonald, 'has earned the right to claim the name' (Living Blues, USA). (c)CLP

Backed by The Shunters, Dereham Blues Society’s House Band, with the phenomenal Andy Cooper on the Hammond organ, Stewart Pattinson on drums and Stuart Aitken on bass, Mississippi MacDonald proceeded to take us on a slow burn through his classy catalogue of reassuringly authentic blues numbers.

 

The man has been on something of a mission in the recent last couple of years.  Travelling to record Stateside, working with family members of blues greats, recording in some of the best blues studios along the Mississippi and in Memphis itself, as well as playing all over the UK spreading the blues word with many of his own tunes.  And he just can't stop making records, since his first label-backed album release Do Right, Say Right  on Another Planet Music in 2021, followed by a release with harpist Steve Bailey, Crazy About You, then his own Heavy State Loving Blues in 2023. Now, two more in 2024: the acoustic album with Phil Dearing, Call Me Mississippi and in May, after immersing himself in the Memphis sound, Hard Luck & Trouble.

 

This hardworking, constantly travelling man tried to tune into his latest live venue, but sometimes was could not quite read the audience.  He asked for a bit of audience chorus participation, got very little.  Thought he might get the hundred or so weather-beaten diehards in the hall to react favourably to the Cooper’s classic organ introduction to Drinking Blues, but found gospel call and response wasn’t on the Dereham audience's agenda tonight.  All those non-Conformist chapels that lie around Norfolk are no longer homes for religious engagement, not since they have been converted to Instagram-life-style-magazine dwellings.  Professional to a T, Mississippi pressed on, without missing a beat, note by note, winning them all over, with his sensitive playing. 

 

The gentleman in the Stax t-shirt, (Albert King’s label) was delighted to have the up-beat Blind Leading the Blind dedicated to him.  Then Drinking Blues was beautifully delivered. Boy, can this man play.  It was like being there with Mississippi at five o’clock in the morning, trying to clear his head.  The heat, the crickets, the dark rum.  Whoa!  Slip off your shoes, lie back on the sofa, watch the cooling fan spin moon shadows on the ceiling and let the sounds of blues guitar soothe your weary head.  MacDonald was excellent and he has a voice to go with his instrumental gifts.  This isn’t mimicry, but homage to the godfathers of the blues.

 

MacDonald’s performance with the Shunters Company backing, was technically and emotionally beautifully aligned. Add to that an immaculate sound mix that made the very best of the hall's acoustics, it was all set for a great evening.  If you missed this gig, I suggest that you grab hold of a copy of Mississippi’s 2023 album, Heavy State Loving Blues, or Hard Luck And Trouble, then pull up a chair. 

If you want new songs, delivered with genuine blues feeling and tip-top musicianship, get yourself down to the next Mississippi MacDonald gig.  He is touring hard, having a family to support, so there are plenty of shows on offer. It's worth every bit of a drive to find him too! 

 

The quality of this opening act would have been plenty of entertainment for me alone, but as they say, 'follow that.'  This was a very, very tough act to follow.  Doreen Aitken and the Norfolk Blues Society handed the job of following that tonight to the blues-based trio, Santiago and the Soulmovers.

 

Originating from Sante Fe, Argentina, but now based in north central London, Santiago Periotti and his band hit the stage with panache.  These three musicians have complete sympathy for each other’s playing.  The back-stage driver is clearly drummer, Juan Gasco. You would not mess this guy around.  When he says ‘Play’ they play.  When he says ‘Rock.’ they rock.  Yes,the answer to ‘Jump.’ Would be “How high?”  Gasco lays the firmest foundations for the band, who are perfectly aligned, attuned, tight.

 

Thanos Papageorgiou (c)CLP

His compadre in the rhythm section is the shaded, Thanos Papageorgiou.  This man plays his bass like a guitar.  The way he plays it is remarkable.  In his hands the bass is as dynamic and clean a sound as you could hear.  He wrings melodies from the four-string beast, not just throbbing beats.  Papageorgiou does not accept the bass is just be a supporting-member of a blues band.  He has something special to add to the mix.

As for Santiago?  Here are some clues.  A Fedora hat, straight out of New Orleans.  The looped chain hanging off his belted tight, black, flared jeans.  A shiny black leather jacket that fits snug to his stick thin frame. Long hair.  A classic rock voice.  Oh yes, and his guitar,A Gibson Firebird V.  This guy is not carrying a standard bluesman’s guitar.  This piece goes with the voice and the boots and the hair.

 

Santiago Periotti (c) CLP

We get blues, we get slide guitar, but we also get the fluid, rapidity of ROCK! guitar solos. All the trills and frills as the set builds.  After a very funky (and very well received Walking The Dog). When the band hit their new number This Kind of Love it was not a complete surprise.

Periotti’s voice went to places that many a rocker would be proud to visit. He has trained himself to be able to sing at volume and intensity, without losing vocal integrity - it was amazing to hear it!   

The trio underlined their complete togetherness, with their perfect control of a staccato rhythm and interplay.  Now, I am not a rock fan, but I know people who would have really appreciated this diversion off the blues-to-funk highway.  The band did lose some of the audience with some of its heavy numbers, before winning them back with his song Hold On To Me. 

Who's the man? Santiago goes off piste

This was a tricky period in the show.  These numbers were definitely a departure from Norfolk Blues Society territory and it took I Lost My Faith In Love to right the ship. From there, we had a hard-hitting cover of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way,  before a mind-clearing finale of Dereham’s finest visiting musician’s Voodoo Chile.  This classic was delivered with thrilling energy, making it an unforgettable conclusion to the night. 

 

With this last number, Periotti was powerfully underlining that blues is the basis of rock and here he delivered what is the  epitome of such musical evolution. 

Periotti is a great front man.  He and his band fit tight as a fist-in-glove.  They put everything into their show.  They were great value and the audience applauded long and hard at the end.  We had seen a star in action.  It was great fun. 

 

The road steaming from May’s underlying warmth and the heavy condensation of the day’s downpour was a tough return leg to drive in the dark, but now totally chilled, I could now just wend my way home, taking it easy down Norfolk's old country roads.

 

Norwich Blues Society organised this show to whet the appetite for Norfolk’s least pretentious, hardest working, most fun, free music festival of them all, The Dereham Blues Festival. The main activities run from 10^th to 14^th July, 2024, but there are several events from now until then to get your musical juices flowing.  This is definitely a free festival not to be missed. 

There will be musicians you have never seen and heard before and familiar favourites playing in the bars, clubs and hotels around the town. You can just wander through, without a wrist band, because it is all FREE, (apart from its already sold out opening night gig).

Get yourself over for this tenth iteration of Dereham Blues Festival. It is great fun. A weekend when the old market town of Dereham comes alive. See you there!

~

Spencer Ide

Dereham

25th May 2024