Wednesday, August 1, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Hillstomp will roll
down from Portland
for the festival. This
junkbox blues duo is
noted for rummaging
through the dumps and
forgotten backwoods
of American music,
recycling traditional
elements into a fresh
and distinctive brand
of do-it-yourself hill
country blues stomp.
The clanging and tumbling from
assorted buckets, cans, and BBQ lids,
paired with a rambunctious slide guitar
creates a bit of North Mississippi trance
blues, a bit of Appalachia, and a dash of
punkabilly.
Hillstomp’s unforgettable live per-
formances tap into a magic that cannot
be rehearsed, converting outlaws and
traditionalists alike from skeptics into
preachers.
Down North takes their music in a
different direction entirely. Lead vocalist
and dancer Anthony “Renegade” Briscoe
proudly steals the spotlight with his bal-
let-trained dancing and emotional vocal-
impact reminiscent of Prince. Bassist
Brandon Storms blends slap/pop bass
lines with deep
N
Curtis Salgado is a major fig-
ure on the Central Oregon music
scene, making regular appearances at
local festivals. Salgado started out in
Eugene’s bar scene with his band The
Nighthawks. He quickly developed
into a player and singer of remarkable
depth, with vocal and musical influ-
ences including Otis Redding, O.V.
Wright, Johnnie Taylor, Muddy Waters,
Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson
I and II, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’
Wolf, Otis Spann, and Magic Sam.
Once Salgado joined forces with
his friend Robert Cray and began play-
ing together as The Robert Cray Band,
he found himself sharing stages with
many of his heroes, including Muddy
Waters, Bobby Bland, Albert Collins,
and Bonnie Raitt. He’s also toured with
Santana.
Castro Coleman, AKA Mr. Sipp, “The
Mississippi Blues Child,” spent 22 years
in the gospel music business as a record-
ing artist and producer. Recognized for
his amazing vocals, songwriting ability,
musicianship, ability to produce records,
and entertain fans with an upbeat, out-
landish show all make Mr. Sipp “The
Total Package.”
With more than 125 recording cred-
its to his name, Mr. Sipp has played on
more than 50 national recordings with
several Grammy-nominated projects.
Perhaps the newest outfit to grace the
Sisters stage, Shanda and The Howlers
are making waves playing on illustri-
ous bills with The Blasters and Wanda
Jackson, and performing at The Rhythm
Collision Weekend (Riverside, CA) and
the massive Viva Las Vegas rockabilly
festival.
C O P E LA N D
Just a couple years ago, Nikki Hill
was a bartender with an affinity for
punk and a deep love for classic R&B.
At her husband (and now guitar-player)
Matt Hill’s behest, she stepped out from
behind the bar and onto the stage. The
response has been ecstatic, stunning
audiences with their muscular sound,
Matt’s volcanic leads, and Nikki’s inim-
itable charisma.
On being informed of the Sisters
Rhythm & Blues Festival lineup,
one music fan exclaimed: “Cedric
Burnside?! That guy is blues royalty and
a freaky-good drummer to boot.”
The Cedric Burnside Project keeps
Mississippi Hill Country Blues alive by
honoring the past while blazing a path
toward the future. The grandson of leg-
endary R.L. Burnside and son of drum-
mer Calvin Jackson, Cedric Burnside
has developed a relentless, highly rhyth-
mic charged style that takes the blues to
another level.
This four-time winner of the presti-
gious Blues Music Award’s Drummer of
the Year (’10-’14) is widely regarded as
one of the best drummers in the world
and has begun to make a name for him-
self as a traditional blues guitarist as
well. In 2006, he was featured in Craig
Brewer’s film Black Snake
Moan, playing drums
next to Samuel
L. Jackson.
S H E M E K IA
With a voice that
is alternately sultry,
assertive, and roaring,
Shemekia Copeland’s
wide-open vision of con-
temporary blues, roots,
and soul music show-
cases the evolution of a
passionate artist with a
modern musical and lyri-
cal approach. She’s earned
eight Blues Music Awards,
a host of Living Blues
Awards (including the pres-
tigious 2010 Blues Artist of
The Year), and more acco-
lades from fans, critics, and
fellow musicians.
She’s sung with Eric Clapton, Bonnie
Raitt, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mick
Jagger, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana,
James Cotton, and many others. She
opened for The Rolling Stones and enter-
tained U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait.
Santana says, “She’s incandescent…a
diamond.”
Nikki Hill is Jenn Rambo’s personal
“buzz” artist.
“ S h e ’s v e r y h i g h - e n e r g y, ”
Rambo told The Nugget. “It’s nice to
see a strong female in the lead role in
her band — and she’s the star.
And she’s young, and
adorable, and very
talented.”
TR AI
DAVI D JACO BS-S
LO S LO B
O BY
O S P H OT
DAV ID A
GUT
L A N KO
tents — at the Village Green, the whole
park will be the venue. The event will
contribute to YouthBuild and to Sisters
Habitat for Humanity, as a way of sup-
porting education in the building trades
and workforce housing in Sisters.
And, the Rambos note, in order for
“all festival attendees to experience the
entire lineup, we’re excited to announce
that the majority of artists will play both
days.”
They’ll want to experience the entire
lineup, because it’s a powerhouse one.
The festival headliner is the legend-
ary band Los Lobos — which stepped up
when the iconic bluesman John Mayall
canceled his August and September
dates due to illness.
Los Lobos sets the tone for the eclec-
tic nature of the music that will fill
Sisters through the weekend.
More than three decades have passed
since Los Lobos released their debut
album, “Just Another Band from East
L.A.” Of course, they swiftly proved
to be anything but a “just another”
anything.
As the band’s biography notes: “Los
Lobos were already East L.A. neighbor-
hood legends, Sunset Strip regulars and
a Grammy Award-winning band (Best
Mexican-American/
a whole different
appreciation of
being alive, of the
world, of my fam-
ily, of my career.
I want life to be
exciting and cele-
bratory. I want to
dig in. I want to
grab life by the
balls and not let
go, y’know…?”
T o m m y
Castro & The
Painkillers has
established a
strong following in Sisters and Central
Oregon with shows over the past several
years at The Belfry.
Like many, many young aspiring art-
ists, Tommy Castro fell under the spell
of blues-rockers Eric Clapton, Elvin
Bishop, Taj Mahal and Mike Bloomfield.
As he got older, he discovered the bed-
rock blues of Muddy Waters, B.B. King,
Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Elmore
James, and the deep-rooted soul singers
like Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, and
James Brown.
Together, Tommy Castro & The
Painkillers — bassist Randy McDonald,
keyboardist Michael Emerson, and
drummer Bowen Brown — are a lean,
mean lineup who deliver soul-shak-
ing, muscular music. On record and
on stage, their road-hardened, seem-
ingly telepathic musicianship brings an
unmatched passion to Castro’s blue-eyed
California soul and hard-rocking, good-
time songs.
Castro has won four Blues Music
Awards including the coveted B.B. King
Entertainer of the Year Award, the high-
est award a blues per-
former can receive.
CO-VAN-R OO
Continued from page 1
Tejano Music Performance) by the time
they recorded their major label debut
‘How Will The Wolf Survive?’ in 1984.
Although the album’s name and title song
were inspired by a National Geographic
article about real-life wolves in the
wild, the band — David Hidalgo, Louie
Perez, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano and
Steve Berlin — saw parallels with their
struggle to gain mainstream rock success
while maintaining their Mexican roots.
Perez, the band’s drummer, once called
their powerhouse mix of rock, Tex-Mex,
country, folk, R&B, blues and tradi-
tional Spanish and Mexican music the
soundtrack of the barrio.
“Three decades, two more Grammys,
a worldwide smash single (‘La Bamba’)
and thousands of rollicking perfor-
mances across the globe later, Los Lobos
is surviving quite well — and still jam-
ming with the same raw intensity as they
had when they began in that garage in
1973.”
Walter Trout is the beating heart of the
modern blues rock scene — respected
by the old guard, revered by the young
guns, and adored by the fans who shake
his hand after the show each night. After
five decades in the game, Trout is a tal-
ismanic figure and the glue that bonds
the blues community together, at a time
when the wider world has never
been so divided.
“I’m 66 years
old,” says Trout,
“but I feel like
I’m in the best
years of my life
right now. I feel
better than I
have in years
p h y s i c a l l y.
I have more
energy. I have
PH OTO BY M AR
BLUES: Powerhouse lineup on tap
IJE N
Wednesday, August 1, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
WA LT ER TRO U
T
THE BANDS
In order for all festi val att endees to experience
the enti re lineup, the majority of arti sts will
play both days. We have two stages: The Village
Green (305 S. Fir St.) and Sisters Art Works (204
W. Adams Ave.). The main entrance and check-in
are at The Village Green starti ng at 3:30 p.m. on
An All-Oregon Beer Garden
Plus one Cidery and one Distillery
Friday, August 3. The stages are
within walking distance and there
is ample parking throughout town.
Special thanks to Sisters Saloon (190 E. Cascade
Ave.) for hosti ng the unoffi cial/offi cial aft er-party
featuring David Jacobs-Strain (both nights)!
FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 | 5 PM-MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 | 12 PM-MIDNIGHT
VILLAGE GREEN
VILLAGE GREEN
ART WORKS
ART WORKS
3:30 Check-in
5:00 Hillstomp
5:00 Shemekia
Copeland
6:20 Cedric Burnside
1:30 Shanda & The Howlers
6:20 Nikki Hill
7:40 Nikki Hill
3:00 Company Grand
7:40 Cedric Burnside
6:20 Mr. Sipp
9:00 Walter Trout
5:00 Tommy Castro &
The Painkillers
9:00 Walter Trout
A GREEN
F EST I VA L
10:30 Hillstomp
6:20 Curti s Salgado
10:30 Los Lobos
10:30 Los Lobos
––– SPONSORED BY –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
NSIDE
M R. S IP P
9:00 Mr. Sipp
D OW N N O RTH
7:40 Shemekia Copeland
C BUR
9:00 Tommy Castro &
The Painkillers
10:30 Down North
5:00 Down North
CEDRI
7:40 Curti s Salgado
12:00 David Jacobs-Strain
21
synth and pitch-bent
solos that parallel gui-
tar leads. Psychedelic-
jazz guitarist Nick
Quiller dominates the
fretboard with unbound
imagination, shredding
into another dimension,
exploring the sound-
scape from high to low.
Finally, drummer
Conrad Real’s finesse
and intensity, evoca-
tive of Chris Coleman or
John Blackwell, serves as Down North’s
foundation, through impeccable groove
and powerful chops.
David Jacobs-Strain has made Sisters
a regular tour stop since his first perfor-
mance here as a blues guitar phenom,
dazzling the Sisters Folk Festival audi-
ence at the age of 14.
A song poet and fierce slide-guitar
player, this Oregon native is known for
his virtuosity and spirit of emotional
abandon. His music speaks of open
roads, longing hearts, and flashbacks of
Oregon.
His live shows transition from
humorous, subversive blues to delicate
balladry, swinging back to swampy rock
and roll. It’s a range that ties Jacobs-
Strain to his own generation and to
guitar-slinger troubadours like Robert
Johnson and Jackson Browne.
He’s shared the stage with Lucinda
Williams, Boz Scaggs (more than
60 shows), Etta James, The Doobie
Brothers, George Thorogood, Robert
Earle Keen, Todd Snider, Taj Mahal,
Janis Ian, Tommy Emmanuel, Bob
Weir, T-Bone Burnett, Del McCoury,
and many more.
For more information or to buy tick-
ets visit sistersrhythmandbrews.com.
THE BREWS
H IL LSTO M P
20
––– PROUDLY SUPPORTING ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Commemo
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waste and
get a nifty
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will be use le cups
d in
beer garde the
Water bott ns.
le
stations at filling
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stage; brin ach
reusable w g a
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bottle and ter
stay
hydrated!