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The biggest free arts festival in Ohio turns 30 this year.
The Black Swamp Arts Festival, running September 5 through 7 in downtown Bowling Green, brings great art in various mediums, awesome food and a dynamic music lineup, all in high form this year.
“We’ve continued to double down on having artists represent diversity with genres, backgrounds and experiences and we really try to find a balance of established artists and upcoming artists,” explains Cole Christensen, performing arts chair for the festival. “We’ve found a really nice sweet spot this year with bands people have heard of, and bands that people haven’t heard of, but soon will hear.”
Musical highlights this year on the main stage include up-and-coming band Leadfoot Granny, a quartet of young rock ‘n’ rollers who are making quite a splash on the local music scene. The band recently returned from its first tour outside Ohio, making a musical trek through Washington state.
Alejandro Escovedo, hailed by Time Out Philadelphia as “One of the great songwriters of our time,” will also be appearing. Escovedo has worked in varied genres such as punk, roots rock and alt-country, and has collaborated with famed record producer Tony Visconti and VelvetUnderground’s John Cale, as well as some guy named Bruce Springsteen.
“We’re celebrating all types of American and international music, including bluegrass, jazz, blues, rock, Latin and African music and everything in between,” said Christensen. “It’s always been our mission to celebrate a wide, diverse audience and this year, we’ve put together a really good lineup to celebrate that.”
Also appearing at the Black Swamp Arts Festival is Detroit bluesman Chris Canas,
referred to as “The prince of Detroit blues.” Toledo City Paper got Canas on the phone to discuss his acclaimed musical career.
A Q & A with Chris Canas
What do you think it is about Detroit that produces so many iconic musicians?
It’s hard to narrow it down to just one thing, but a lot of the blues guys from Mississippi and the
Southern states migrated up here due to the auto industry where they were looking for work, so there was a humungous blues scene in Detroit to begin with. There were segregation issues here back then and a lot of those blues guys went to Chicago. I think that history and the toughness of Detroit is what produces so many great musicians.
Will you be doing your set at the Black Swamp Arts Festival with your full band or as a solo act?
Both actually. I’ll be doing a full set with the band and an acoustic set.
What was the song or album that first got you interested in the blues?
There was one song that I heard called “The Thrill is Gone” and the one album was “The Simpsons Sing the Blues.” (The song) “Moanin’ Lisa Blues” was one of my favorites songs back then. Then I got interested in D’Angelo and N’Sync and neo-soul. My influences are all over the place. I’d say that Ray Charles, BB King and Aretha Franklin were my top three favorite musicians.
How would you define the term “bluesman?”
I define a bluesman as someone who expresses themselves in the truest form, in the most raw way possible. The blues to me is just truth; it’s raw and it’s unadulterated, not watered down truth.
Since you’re “the prince of Detroit blues,” I have to ask: What’s your favorite Prince album?
There’s a hidden Prince album. It was unreleased and it has him doing a live version of “The Ride” and him doing a live version of “Red House,” but he called it “Purple House.” It’s a really obscure one.
The Black Swamp Arts Festival runs Sept. 5 – 7 in downtown Bowling Green.
