Blues on the River alters music venue, offerings

Southern soul was traditionally the main genre offered at Blues on the River, the longtime festival held in the River Market District.

But it's a new day. The 19th annual incarnation has not only changed venues and months; it has expanded to include concerts and activities for other music lovers ... and the entire family.

Blues on the River Music Fest 2018 will take place Saturday in Burns Park. Featured will be a line-dance recording artist, some mean guitarists and singers serving up classic Delta, Chicago and electric blues; a jazz trumpeter and a party band; gospel artists; and, oh yeah, some purveyors of that good ol' Southern soul.

Blues Hall of Fame 2017 inductee Latimore ("Let's Straighten It Out"), and line-dance instigator Bryson "Cupid" Bernard ("Cupid Shuffle") are highlights among more than 20 artists of various genres performing simultaneously on two main stages and one community stage. Other performers include blues singers/guitarists Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Robert Kimbrough Sr. and Bob Margolin; and Southern soul artists Theodis Easley, Bigg Robb and Donie Ray. Arkansas performers include Tragikly White; jazz trumpeter Rodney Block; blues vocalist Charlotte Taylor; Arkansas Brothers, whose music is self-billed as "redneck soul," and millennial-age blues-singer/guitarist phenom Akeem Kemp. For a tentative schedule of main stage acts, see impacttickets.com.

Other invited performers include the Michael Burks Project, Dino Davis, Rikki D, Billy Jones, Preston Shannon, Mr. Sam, Heater Crosse and Ed Bowman. The event will even include some gospel acts, curated by the Rev. Clarence "J.C. Loves" Thornton, host of the J.C. Loves Morning Show on Joynet Radio. Artists, and their performance times, are subject to change.

Also new to Blues on the River will be a bike rally and contest. This time, the festival will offer boat-dock and recreational-vehicle views. "It's all about families coming out to have a good time," says promoter Karega "Red" Wilson of Events Arkansas.

Wilson believes the event will bring back the glory days of North Little Rock festival activity, which once was highlighted by the Summerset Festival held Labor Day weekend in Burns Park: "I'm just trying to get all demographics, all genres of music inside of it" for an affordable price, he says.

Gates open at 2:30 p.m. for the festival, which begins at 3. Regular individual tickets are $29; as a show of appreciation for veterans and first responders, they will be admitted for $20 if they show their identification at the gate. Food vendors will sell refreshments including seafood, funnel cakes, corn dogs, hot dogs, chicken, barbecue, beer and other beverages. No coolers will be allowed in the event area, but attendees can take lawn chairs, blankets and umbrellas and, for a $25 charge, 10-foot-by-10-foot tents to set up in a special area. The event will also include courtesy shuttle service for senior citizens and the handicapped.

Blues on the River was last held May 6 at the First Security Amphitheater in Little Rock. The festival was formerly held in April, but rain chances that month are too great, Wilson says.

Wilson has been handling the festival for about the past six years. It once was exclusively associated with a couple of radio stations.

"It used to be all Southern soul," Wilson says. "I wanted to expand it to cross-demographics ... so, in order for it to go to the next level ... I reached out to Terry Hartwick with the city of North Little Rock to get it back over there where it originally started years ago."

Wilson was asked to parlay it into a family event "and that's what I pretty much did."

Structuring the show has been easy for Wilson. Getting the artists was also easy, especially as he knows most of them. The difficult part has been to "get everybody together to kind of see the vision" and rounding up sponsors.

Having brought in the entertainment for the National Biker Roundup in Little Rock in 2016, Wilson decided a bike show would be a good tie-in for the festival -- "bikers and blues always go together," he says, citing Fayetteville's Bikes Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally held the last weekend in September. Bikes will be judged for the titles of Best Cruiser and Best Street Bike. All bikers must register at impacttickets.com.

"[At] a lot of these venues, you can't have boats, RVs and motorcycles in the same place because there's no venue big enough," Wilson says. "But ... Burns Park is the perfect place for all of it." The marina clubs and other boaters will be able to dock right in front of, and view performances on, all three stages.

"Anytime you can have a concert and you can bring your RVs, and your boats, and your motorcycles, and your family and have a good time, that's a nice atmosphere," Wilson says. "You can't do that in the city. But you can do it in the park."

Weekend on 07/26/2018