Blues From the Top Festival 2025

Blues From the Top Festival
Winter Park, CO
June 27-29, 2025

The Town of Winter Park and Grand County have been hosting this summer blues festival for 23 years now. During that time, the festival has grown from a small start-up operation in a field to a three-day festival with national acts and big-name headliners, all presented in an outdoor amphitheater with a grassy bowl pointed toward a state-of-the-art outdoor stage. Each year the festivities are presided over by looming peaks and ridges reaching above timberline to 12,000 to 13,000 feet. The musicians and the audience alike find inspiration in the breathtaking topography.

Over the years, the festival has been known for identifying up-and-coming talent and giving them a stage early in their careers. Some of those blues artists include Samantha Fish and Joe Bonamassa. This year's lineup included mostly established blues players and a few grizzled veterans.

Friday, June 27

Sonny Landreth

Sonny Landreth and his trio kicked off the three-day festival with a power-trio jam focused on Landreth's slide guitar playing. And that focus was appropriate because he is widely viewed as one of the top slide players in the country. He has a smooth style, gently caressing the neck of his guitar. He is one of those players who makes it look easy, but of course, it is anything but.

His set included several blues standards such as Elmore James' "It Hurts Me Too" and "Walkin' Blues." He paid tribute to some of his fallen blues heroes, such as Hound Dog Taylor and Johnny Winter. He finished with "Congo Square." Landreth sang a bit, but mostly he played his slide guitar, going with his strength.

J.J. Grey and Mofro

In contrast to Landreth's trio, JJ Grey brought along a band almost four times the size of Landreth's; an eleven-piece band (including himself). Not surprisingly, the band had a big sound and easily changed its timbre, tone and attitude throughout its set. Grey played occasional harmonica and guitar, but mostly sang in an authoritative voice with an impressive range. He was joined by two backing vocalists, a three-piece horn section, another guitarist, bass, keyboards, drums and percussion.

Grey has had some hits over the years and he revisited some of them such as, "Orange Blossoms," "What You're Looking For" and "Top of the World." With hits come fans and many of them were in the audience Friday night, singing along. His two backing vocalists added sweet harmonies behind his lead vocals. Grey yielded the stage a couple of times to allow the backing singers to come right up front and belt it out on their own. The three-piece horn section—two trumpets and a tenor sax—added some punctuation and tasty counterpoint.

As so often happens, Grey was smitten with the spectacular mountain environment, remarking on the beauty of the surroundings. Between the scenery and the enthusiastic response of the audience, Grey was clearly delighted and sang like a man on a Rocky Mountain high. (Sorry.)

Saturday, June 28

Unlike many ski towns in Colorado, Winter Park did not start life as a mining town. Not much mining has ever occurred around these parts. Instead, ranching and logging provided the economic backbone before people realized snow could equal gold. Winter Park ski area, about five miles up the valley from the town, got its start in the 1930s. An unusual aspect of the Winter Park Ski Area is that it is owned by the City and County of Denver. Although situated some 65 highway miles west of Denver, the ski area is technically a Denver city park. However, Denver is not in the ski business, so the city leases the ski area to Alterra, one of the two ski area conglomerates that now dominate ski area ownership in the United States and, increasingly, in Europe (the other being Vail Resorts). Like so many ski towns in Colorado and elsewhere, the Town of Winter Park has found that sponsoring music festivals can help the area economy make its way between ski seasons. Winter Park also hosts the Winter Park Jazz Festival which typically focuses on smooth jazz.

Blues From the Top works to not only promote the blues, but to ensure that the blues carries on into the future. To further that goal, Blues From the Top sponsors a kids' stage off to one side of the main stage. Youthful blues musicians get the chance to perform for the enthusiastic blues audience, giving them a taste of plying the blues trade. Sometimes, the professionals appearing at the festival take some time to mentor the budding blues players.

Vince Converse and Big Brother

Originally from Houston, Vince Converse is now based in Denver along with his band, Big Brother, most of whom are from Colorado. So, Converse had a leg up on the altitude issue, coming from 5280. While that is quite shy of 9,110, it is still a much easier lift than coming straight from sea level like many of these bands.

Converse and Big Brother were champions in the Colorado Blues Society's competition in 2023 and 2024 and so earned a trip to Memphis for the International Blues Competition, where they made it to the semi-finals both years.

Converse is a guitar slinger who can seemingly cram several dozen notes into a single measure. He did not have to do that all the time, however, because he brought an eight-piece band with him, giving the group plenty of options for different sounds and different soloists. While blues-based, the band's music was infused with r&b, rock and jazz. In fact, one of the tunes on the set list was Jeff Beck's "Freeway Jam" from Blow By Blow (Epic, 1975), a jazz-oriented album from another guitar slinger.

In addition to Converse on guitar and vocals, Big Brother included another guitarist, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards and two horn players. In addition to his incendiary guitar chops, Converse displayed a big, gritty voice, ideal for belting the blues. More than once, he scat-sang and simultaneously played the same notes on his guitar.

The band following Converse ran a bit late, having misjudged how long it takes to drive from the Denver airport to Winter Park. Apparently, they had not heard that there are only two seasons in the Colorado Rockies: winter and construction. Converse and band stepped up, however, and, even though they had run through their planned set, continued, impromptu, for another 10 minutes. The head start on the altitude thing no doubt helped keep the band fully energized through and beyond their planned set.

Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers

It turned out that Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers were only a tiny bit late getting on stage, thanks to a high-speed set change. Once fully organized, the band commenced to party. They are from New Orleans and Lafayette, Louisiana, so the partying is as natural as, well, playing music.

As the band's name describes, this outfit plays Zydeco, a blues derivative native to the Cajun and Creole areas of Louisiana. Dopsie described himself as both Cajun and Creole and spoke a little French to prove it. One of the defining aspects of Zydeco is the prominent use of the accordion, which happens to be Dopsie's axe of choice. Another critical element of the Zydeco sound is the washboard, which was a feature of the Zydeco Hellraisers.

Dopsie and Hellraisers played a set of good-time, get-up-and-dance party music. Dopsie, with his accordion, was a dominating presence on stage. He led his band through a seven-song set that kept the energy up. Besides Dopsie, the Hellraisers featured two guitarists, bass, drums, saxophone and washboard.

Toward the end of the set, Dopsie told the story of playing with the The Rolling Stones at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The Stones are obviously heroes to Dopsie and he described it as a musical highlight of his career. The Stones getting together with a Zydeco player is not as surprising as it might seem. Mick Jagger has been a Zydeco fan for decades and he has told a story of seeing Clifton Chenier, sometimes referred to as the King of Zydeco, in concert in 1978 in the Los Angeles area. And, coincidentally, three days before the Hellraisers' set in Winter Park marked the centenary of Chenier's birthday.

On stage with the Stones in 2024, Dopsie joined them for "Let It Bleed." Although the Hellraisers did not play that one Saturday afternoon, they covered another Stones song, "Beast of Burden." Another cover was John Lee Hooker's "Boom, Boom." The band closed their set with "Dancing In The Streets." Except it was not the Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' hit, but rather a Dopsie original. But it was danceable nonetheless.

Joanne Shaw Taylor

Joanne Shaw Taylor hails from England and now lives in Nashville. In the midst of a festival featuring many blues/rock guitar heroes, Taylor turned out to be a blues/rock guitar heroine. Her playing was heartfelt, accurate and soulful, and she could convey all of that at any speed, from a slow, crowded parking lot creep, to a Montana highway with no speed limit (at least not one that is enforced). Her vocals were equally passionate and authoritative. Her British accent only came through when she told one of her stories. While singing, she can easily be mistaken for an American.

Taylor figured out how to play the blues at a young age and at 16, was discovered by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, who immediately hired her for his post-Eurhythmics band. Now 39, she has ten albums under her belt and is a veteran of many tours of the United States, Europe and beyond.

Taylor is a Blues From The Top favorite, having performed here twice before. Despite releasing Black and Gold on the Journeyman label in 2025 she only played one tune from the album, the set opener, "I Gotta Stop Letting You Let Me Down." The rest of the set was drawn from five earlier albums, including two from her debut album, White Sugar (Ruf, 2009), "Just Another Word" and "Watch 'em Burn."

For better or worse, playing the blues seems to be a male-dominated activity. In an attempt at gender equalization, Taylor brought along a female bassist and female drummer. Her second guitarist and keyboard player, however, were men. But, regardless of gender, they could all play and collectively laid down a solid blues/rock performance under a clear blue Rocky Mountain sky.

The Record Company

Chris Vos, lead vocalist, harmonicist and guitarist for The Record Company, came on stage and announced right up front, "We play rock and roll." The band proceeded to prove it. Muddy Waters famously explained that "the blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll." The blues/rock sub-genre (is that a sub-genre of the blues or a sub-genre of rock?) is the continuing embodiment of Waters' observation. Despite Vos' characterization of the band's music, the blues looms large in their sound, just like the peaks surrounding the Rendezvous Event Center in Winter Park. There was really no escaping it.

Like Taylor, the band played only one song from their album, The 4th Album (Round Hill Records, 2023), "Talk to Me." The bulk of the remainder of the set came from their first album, Give It Back To You (Concord Records, 2016). The band scored several hits on adult rock radio from that record, so the crowd was familiar with many of them. As if to confirm the band's rock and roll bona fides, they concluded with a certified rave-up rocker, "All Day and All of the Night" from The Kinks.

The Record Company is somewhat similar to The Black Keys. And that is not just because the bands' names both start with the same definite article ("The"). Both bands feature a rootsy stripped-down sound based in rock with that heavy blues influence. The Black Keys' commercial breakthrough came in 2010 with Brothers (Nonesuch Records, 2010), so the timing of The Record Company's arrival on the scene only six years later was fortuitous.

Vos acted as the band's spokesman and emcee during their set. He talked about how he grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. To authenticate his farm roots, he wore a Case cap. (For the city-folk, J.I. Case Company manufactured tractors and other farm machinery for over 150 years until 1999.) He also talked about attending the first concert that he paid for. He was 14 years old and his parents drove him to Milwaukee so he could see Metallica. The day before The Record Company's appearance at Blues From the Top, the band was in Denver. A local rock radio station set them up to see Metallica that night, who happened to be performing at the local NFL stadium.

Vos explained how attending that concert reminded him of his 14-year-old self. He had been interested in music and that Metallica concert convinced him he should pursue his interest in music. He gave a shout out to the high school kids playing on the youth stage and encouraged them to follow their musical dreams.

Little Feat

At what point in the life of a long-running band, which suffers the loss of several key players, do the replacement members and remnants turn into a cover band or, at best, a tribute band? It has been a concern that Little Feat crossed that threshold with the death of Paul Barrere in 2019. The Feat is no stranger to bouncing back after the death of a key member. Little Feat was conceived by Lowell George, who led the band through its first 10 years before going the way of all flesh in 1979, at the tender age of 34.

After eight years, the band regrouped, adding long-time unofficial member Fred Tackett on guitar, vocals and trumpet, and Craig Fuller, formerly of Pure Prairie League, also on guitar and vocals. The band has more or less been together ever since, with Fuller leaving in 1993 and other members coming and going such as Shaun Murphy on vocals. In 2010, original drummer Richie Hayward passed away. He was eventually replaced by Tony Leone in 2020. Then, in 2019, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Paul Barrere passed away, leaving a hole nearly as big as George's passing. Could the band recover from the cumulative effects of so much turnover? The band replaced Barrere with Scott Sharrard in 2019. Sharrard previously played with the Gregg Allman Band, and he led his own group, Scott Sharrard & the Brickyard Band.

Despite it all, Little Feat has carried on. As if to prove their continuing vitality, the band released Strike Up the Band (Hot Tomato Productions, 2025), their first album of all original material in 13 years. Saturday night at Blues From The Top, Little Feat stuck mostly to the tried and true, drawing heavily from the Lowell George period, with only a couple of tunes from the post-George period, plus two from the new album. They started their set with the title track from their comeback album Let It Roll (Warner Brothers, 1988). That tune is a real raver and carries the significance of the band's reformation after suffering what could have been a fatal blow.

"Fatman in the Bathtub" was always a favorite of the Lowell George era and beyond and it sounded good on Saturday afternoon. "I'd Hate to Lose Your Loving" was the other not-new, post-George tune. This one was a Craig Fuller/Barrere composition and appeared on Let It Roll. "Oh Atlanta" is another long-time favorite from the Lowell George era, but this one was written by Bill Payne, keyboardist and vocalist and only remaining original member, going back to 1969. Payne sounded good on the vocals on this one and his keyboard work throughout the set was top-notch. The years have been kind to him.

Following "Oh Atlanta," Payne gave a shout-out to his fallen comrades, George, Hayward and Barrere. The band followed that up with "Time Loves a Hero," which took on new meaning in light of Payne's introduction. The two new songs were next, "Too High to Cut My Hair" and "Bluegrass Pine." It's always hard to judge brand new songs when they are sandwiched in between stone-cold classics, many of which entered your cranium a half-century ago and have been happily residing there since then as they have frequently bubbled to the surface all during that time. These new songs had the unmistakable Little Feat stamp, "Too High," with a funky, spicy New Orleans beat and "Bluegrass Pine," with a bit of wistfulness amid the laid-back vibe.

The show concluded with classic Feat; first Lowell George's hippie-beatnik anthem "Willin'" and then "Spanish Moon," followed by "Dixie Chicken," a Feat classic that has been a closer for decades. As usual, "Dixie Chicken" extended far beyond the original album version of just shy of four minutes to several times that, including a lick from a Barrere tune, "I Do What the Telephone Tells Me To Do."

Is Little Feat now nothing more than a pretty good cover band? Listening to "Spanish Moon," it was clear that in 2025, the only way to improve on this version would be to add the Tower of Power horn section which sat in with the band on the live album that would prove to be the culmination of the Lowell George era, Waiting for Columbus (Warner Brothers, 1978). As much as some of us would like it to be 1977 again, it is not. It is 2025, and Little Feat is still with us. And that is a good thing.

Sunday, June 29

Winter Park Ski Area is among Colorado's best. It gets more snow than most other ski areas in the state and it stays cold most of the time, making for great snow conditions most of the time and frequent powder days. The Mountain Pine Beetle infestation that began about 20 years ago killed thousands of trees at the ski area, but management removed the deadwood and now previously impenetrable forests offer up some fine tree skiing all over the mountain.

The Town of Winter Park developed organically along US Highway 40 and today is a mile-long strip with no real center. The town has steadily been improving the Rendezvous Event Center in recent years and it is now a top-flight outdoor concert facility, ideally suited for a three-day blues festival.

Besides giving a stage to young blues players, Blues From the Top is associated with the charitable organization Blue Star Connection. This group provides musical instruments to children and adults with cancer and other life-threatening diseases to help them during their treatment and recovery. One way the group raises money is by auctioning guitars signed by blues performers. Many of the artists performing at Blues From the Top this year signed a guitar. Blues From the Top emcee Kai Turner promoted Blue Star Connection's booth at the festival during breaks between bands and encouraged bidding on the guitars.

Honey Island Swamp Band

The Honey Island Swamp hails from New Orleans, a town known for its late-night, if not all-night music scene. So, imagine the challenge of not only coming from sea level to play at 9,110 feet, but also hitting the first chords at 11 am. Maybe they just stayed up all night. But, they did not play like fatigue or sleep deprivation was a problem.

This was a six-piece band with two guitars up front that sometimes played unison harmony lines à la The Allman Brothers Band. The band also included a drummer, percussionist, bass and keyboardist. Normally, the group is a quintet, but picked up a guest percussionist for this gig. Lead vocalist and guitarist Lee Yankie charismatically delivered distinctive, growly vocals throughout the band's set. Some of the lyrics were a bit puzzling, especially this one: "I love my baby like a rubber hose." Must be a southern thing.

Although the band performed at Blues From The Top, Honey Island Swamp Band is not a straight-ahead blues band. That genre is certainly a big influence in their music, but they also mix in plenty of rock, country, Americana and a little Cajun for a heady, rootsy milieu.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds

This is another long-time band that has undergone significant personnel turnover. In fact, the only original member of this quartet is vocalist/harmonicist Kim Wilson. The other significant member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds was Jimmy Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan's brother. Jimmy Vaughan is still alive and kicking, but he left the T-Birds in 1990, 35 years ago. With only 25% of the original band still on the bandstand, is this just a T-Birds cover band?

In this case, no. That is because of Wilson's distinctive vocals which are still intact and make this version of the band sound like the T-Birds of the 1980s. Wilson is also a formidable harmonica player and, during the band's set on Sunday, he proved that he has maintained those particular chops all these years with an extended instrumental tune that was all harp. And delivered at an elevation of over 9,000. After the extended harp work, Wilson commented that he wanted to see if he could still do it at this altitude. Success.

Although musical preferences are obviously highly subjective, this group, perhaps, offers some lessons for gauging the evolution of long-running bands. Vocals can be the most distinct aspect of a band because they are the most human of musical instruments. No mechanical device gets in the way of the music and the message. Singing voices are a bit like fingerprints and snowflakes, no two are alike. So, when a group loses its distinctive vocalist, its sound will change. Thus, the T-Birds still sound like the T-Birds, but Little Feat, having suffered the loss of two primary vocalists, now sounds different. But time marches on.

The T-Birds' current guitarist, Johnny Moeller, ably filled Jimmy Vaughan's spot, dishing out some classic licks and supplying energetic and heartfelt solos when his turn came. Rudy Albin on drums and Steve Kristy on bass rounded out the quartet. In recent years, the band has included a keyboardist in the band, but only four players made it to the Winter Park gig.

The T-Birds releasedStruck Down on the Stoney Plain label in 2024, and they played two tunes from that one, "Don't Make No Sense" and "Payback Time." The latter tune, in particular, had that T-Birds guitar-driven, gutsy, blues-rock sound that first brought them to prominence in the late 1970s and through the 1980s. Wilson has called Struck Down the best T-Birds album ever. While that could be hyperbole from a band member, on the other hand, not many people are as intimately familiar with all the band's albums as he is.

Their biggest success came with the album Tuff Enuff (CBS, 1986). Both the title track and "Wrap It Up" garnered radio airplay and turned into hits. Sunday afternoon, the band played both and concluded their set with "Tuff Enuff."

Southern Avenue

Southern Avenue's Family (Alligator, 2025) is one of the finer releases of 2025. The delicious three-part harmonies of the Jackson sisters is the first thing that grabs the listener and sets this band apart from its peers. But those harmonies are expertly augmented by the continually snappy and catchy guitar work of Ori Naftaly. Sometimes, vocal harmonies as intricate and compact as Southern Avenue's do not quite hold up in a live setting. However, in this case, those harmonies were delivered with perfection. The Jackson sisters have a big advantage over most vocal groups because they have been singing those harmonies their entire lives. Toss in some sisterly intuition, and the results are as solid as the mountains surrounding Winter Park.

The name of their previous album, Family, is apt not just because of the three sisters in the band, but also because lead singer Tierinii Jackson is married to guitarist Naftaly. In fact, Winter Park is the place Naftaly proposed to Tierinii when the band was performing at Blues From The Top some years prior.

Besides Tierinii, Tikyra Jackson propels the band from the drum chair. Sister Ava joined the band a few years after her sisters because she was finishing a degree in violin performance. She pulled out her violin for two tunes during the band's set. Matt Wilson rounded out the band on bass. No word on whether he is related to any of the other band members.

The Jackson sisters grew up in a musical family and began singing in their church when they were very young. Their devout parents insisted on playing only gospel music and prohibited their progeny from even listening to secular music until they were well into their teens. From the stage, Tierinii told the story of how she decided she wanted to be a blues singer and she would go down to Beall Street in her hometown of Memphis to do so. She was repeatedly rebuffed because she did not know enough about the music. She persisted, however, and eventually worked her way into the scene. She explained how she left home at age 19 to pursue her dream and eventually convinced her younger sisters to follow.

Naftaly, meanwhile, grew up in Israel and began listening to and playing American roots music, in particular, the blues, from around age 5. Eventually, he brought the Ori Naftaly Band to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge held every year in that city. He liked what he saw, moved to Memphis, met Tierinii and formed Southern Avenue.

Southern Avenue's vocal harmonies are delightful but, on top of that, Tierinii is a truly exceptional vocalist on her own. In fact, she was arguably the best vocalist among the eleven bands at the festival. Toward the end of their set, the band played "Dr. Feelgood," a blues classic that gives a gifted blues singer the chance to raise the hair on the back of everyone's neck. Tierinii did that with a performance matching or exceeding any recorded version of that song currently in existence.

This is a band to watch in the future. And if they come to your town, no need to debate about whether to go to the show; there is no question: go.

Kingfish

In 2019, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram suddenly parachuted into the blues scene from a clear blue sky as a fully formed blues man at the age of 20. He had garnered some regional notoriety around his home base in Clarksdale, Mississippi, but it was the release of his debut album, Kingfish (Alligator, 2019), followed by heavy touring, that turned the heads of blues fans nationwide. Now, six years later, Kingfish has a wide following and three Alligator records under his belt. Because of those accomplishments, Kingfish earned the Sunday afternoon headliner position at Blues From The Top.

Kingfish fronted a quartet with bass, drums and keyboards. The focus was on him and rightly so. The reasons for the early (and continuing) adulation include his fluid, melodic and effortless guitar lines and big voice that you would think was coming from a grizzled bluesman several decades older. And, he is a bit of a showman. Toward the end of his set, he disappeared from the stage, only to reappear a minute later, walking into the crowd in a Buddy Guy move. He displayed total control over his guitar. At one point, he remarked that, "People don't like it when I play fast, so here's some slowness." The slowness only lasted for a couple of minutes.

Following the three Alligator albums, Kingfish is moving on and will soon release a new album on a different label, Hard Road (Red Zero Records, 2025). The lead-off tune of his set was "Voodoo Charm," the first single from the upcoming album. Red Zero Records is a new label being launched by Kingfish in partnership with Exceleration Music. Kingfish will not be leaving Alligator completely behind because it has an affiliation with Exceleration Music. Kingfish will be the new label's CEO and one reason for starting the new label is to give broader exposure to more blues musicians and the blues, in general.

Kingfish's talent, drive and now a new record label add up to a bright future for the blues.

After 23 years, Blues From the Top is a solid institution in Colorado and an important part of the local blues scene. The top-notch talent and beautiful setting are a great combination, and, like Kingfish, Blues From the Top promises to keep the blues alive well into the future.

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