SALT LAKE CITY, June 24, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — When most people think of blues music, they tend think of big urban landscapes, places like Chicago, St. Louis, or Atlanta, with their dark, smoke-filled, jump-joints, wooden, seedy bars, exposed red brick, splashes of neon, and the plaintive whine of the tenor saxophone.
While the sights and sounds of gritty urban settings like those are fewer and further between here in Salt Lake City, the beating heart of the blues experience — its soul-searching , soul-quenching music — is alive and well.
Just ask the thousands who trickled into the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City last Saturday for the Second Annual Utah Blues Fest.
A mixture of local and national blues acts, the one day event was a fundraiser for the non-profit Utah Blues Society. The goal, according to organizer Brian Kelm, is “to keep the great musical American art form of blues alive.”
The weather cooperated and people of all ages chilled to chord progressions made famous by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Freddie King, but played by modern day counterparts.
Organizers say that the event would not have been possible without the help of about a hundred people that volunteered to get the show on.
If you missed the event, check out the video link above.
