W.C. Handy Blues Festival

The best decision I made on Saturday was to park my butt in a seat at the beer tent across from the main stage at the W.C. Handy Blues Festival in Henderson, KY.

Beers were $3. Water was $2. Shade and a great view of the stage were free. I wouldn't have been able to stay at the festival for 11 hours without the shade and the water. As it turned out, the tent also proved useful when a northern Kentucky monsoon struck.

A little before 7 p.m., Albert Cummings was on stage sending one tidal wave after another from his guitar when the trees started whipping around. I'm not saying that Cummings conjured up the storm, but it sure as hell seemed as if the winds were riding in on his notes.

Cummings and his band scurried off the stage as lightning started lighting up the sky, and a few minutes later the festival was pelted with five minutes of the hardest rain I've ever seen. About half the crowd rushed for shelter under the beer tent — it probably would have been a lot more, but the bouncers were still carding would-be under-aged drinkers.

Surprisingly, not many folks left the festival after the monsoon. They were probably as eager as I was to see Shemekia Copeland, who finally took the stage about an hour later. Her big voice cut through every conversation in the park. I wonder whether folks even diverted their attention long enough to order beer when Copeland started storming through "Wild, Wild Woman." I know the tune delighted a few women around me, who playfully elbowed their boyfriends when Copeland sang "I'm a wild woman, baby, and you're a lucky man."

Unfortunately, lightning cut Copeland's set way short, but not until she'd performed two of my favorite songs: "The Other Woman," a drop-dead sexy blues burner from her "Wicked" album, and Buddy and Julie Miller's "Dirty Water," a tune that meshes Americana and blues styles (you can find it on Copeland's new album, "Never Going Back").

My friends and I headed back to the hotel a bit later when we decided the weather would probably prevent Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials from taking the stage. I'm sorry we missed them, but we had a great day of blues.

In addition to Cummings and Copeland, we saw:

• Moreland and Arbuckle. Aaron Moreland, a guitarist, and Dustin Arbuckle, a harp player and singer, are a couple of young dudes from Wichita who boogie like they're playing in old-time juke joints.

Moreland whips notes out of his guitars, especially his cigar box guitar, which is just about the coolest thing I've ever seen. Arbuckle sings with a swampy growl and plays his harp like Slim Harpo or Lazy Lester were his mentors. In a way, I'm sure they were, because I'm willing to bet he's burned through one old Excello recording after another, right along with all the old Allman Brothers records.

• Eric Bibb. I already knew how good Bibb is in concert; my friends didn't. They were amazed that a guy by himself with an acoustic guitar could command an entire park. He did.

Bibb is one of the greatest proponents of the blues tradition. He proved that right away, starting his set with a killer version of the blues classic "Stagger Lee." A sense of tradition comes naturally to Bibb, though. His father is Leon Bibb, a folksinger who used to hang with Dylan, and his uncle was John Lewis, the pianist of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Eric Bibb's keen appreciation of the past was especially apparent when he sang "Still Livin' On," a tune on which he name-checks blues greats such as Mississippi John Hurt, Pops Staples, Elizabeth Cotton and Rev. Gary Davis. And if you've never heard a live rendition of Bibb performing Davis' "I Heard the Angels Singing," you need to add an item to your bucket list.

• The Nighthawks and Hubert Sumlin. I'd happily drive a couple hours just to see the Nighthawks, a rockin' blues band that incorporates a lot of musical styles into its tunes. I'd fly across the country to see them perform with Hubert Sumlin, who played guitar with Howlin' Wolf's band for so many years.

Sumlin might be 77, but he still plays with the vigor of a 20 year old. And, man, he caresses a sweet tone out of his guitar. Seeing Sumlin was the highlight of the festival for me. Hell, it was probably the highlight of my year so far, and I've seen a lot of fabulous shows in 2009.

So, yeah, I'm disappointed that storms kept me from listening to Shemekia Copeland sing for two hours. I'm miffed that I didn't get to see Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials. But it's hard to bitch much after seeing 11 hours of great blues and gorged on great barbecue. So you can bet I'll be back at the Handy Blues Festival down the road.