Hamish Anderson Blog #2: The Tour Continues
Summerfest:
After some more shows on the west coast it was back to the festivals playing in Milwaukee at Summerfest. It was the toughest drive up there from Chicago – the weather was intense! I was excited to be on the same lineup as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, again, but this time the schedule didn’t line up on the same date.
Great crowd, they even came and lined up backstage to grab merch and hang after the show which was awesome. There was a MASSIVE storm that shut things down shortly after I finished and before the headliner Huey Lewis and The News took the stage– crazy thunder, lightning and rain coming down sideways. Gotta love the midwest weather!
Next day we got on the road to shows in Iowa, another in Wisconsin, then Pittsburgh, New Jersey and finally up to Canada for the RBC BluesFest Ottawa.
RBC Blues Fest Ottawa:
It felt great to be back in Canada. I had performed at the RBC BluesFest and another festival in Quebec City (Le Festival d’Ete Quebec City) two years ago so I was very excited to get to play RBC again. The entire RBC Blues Festival was incredible — the lineup was so well curated (again with Tom Petty, Gary Clark Jr, Peter Wolfe etc). Mark Monahan and the RBC team really knows how to build a festival. This was definitely one of my favourite crowds that we’ve gotten to play to. They really got into it and I had a great time with them. They came by the meet and greet after and we sold out of merch that night which is always a plus. Perfect timing as it was the last show of this run! It was also a great bonus ending the tour by watching Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers close out the festival!
Big Blues Bender:
After some LA shows thru August it was time to get back to the festival shows with Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas. We all loaded up the van and drove from LA to Vegas and this was my first time actually playing in Vegas. It was awesome to be part of a lineup including Mavis Staples, Doyle Bramhall II and Dr. John and the Blues Bender was such a great festival to play because it was all about showcasing Blues music old and new.
Telluride Brews & Blues:
Telluride was definitely a highlight of this year! I’d heard so many great things about the festival and its vibe so it was pretty exciting to get to be a part of it! The Lineup was full of heroes including Steve Winwood, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt and many more. Telluride itself was the perfect backdrop for this festival with the stage facing the amazing Colorado mountains. The night we arrived in Telluride we all got to check out Bonnie Raitt’s set which was amazing, the highlight was definitely her doing a solo acoustic take on Skip James “Devil Got My Woman. On Saturday morning we were the first act to play the main stage that day, the crowd was really into it and it was definitely one of my favorite sets we’ve played this year. That night we got to open up for Drive By Truckers which was just awesome. The whole experience was a true highlight of this year.
Hamish Anderson
