I've written about the little Feat side of the Byron Saga elsewhere, so I won't belabour those points again here. A three day pass meant we were going to be seeing plenty of other acts along the way, and while Feat were the reason I was attending there were a number of other long-term favourites on the bill as well.
We made our way back from Friday afternoon's meet and greet in time to catch Tony Joe White for a start.
Like most of my friends and acquaintances I'd dug the hell out of Polk Salad Annie in 1968 but hadn't paid too much attention to Tony Joe's output over the intervening years. I guess he's pretty much a one-trick pony (though he did write Rainy Night In Georgia) but if that guitar, stomp box and drummer take on swamp funk floats your boat he's good value live (if he wasn't he wouldn't have been booked for return gigs over the years, would he?). Personally, that's a groove that I quite like from time to time, but Madam was in the firmly unimpressed basket.
The following act, Emmylou Harris, was much more to her liking, and the presence of Buddy Miller and the funky rhythm section that operated as Spyboy meant Emmylou rocked a bit more than I'd expected, but classics from the country end of her repertoire also got an airing. Anything I'd like to hear that missed getting a guernsey could be attributed to the limitations that a one-hour festival set places on an extensive back catalogue.
But after thirty years of fandom, Friday night's highlight was Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band. If you're familiar with the man's vast catalogue you'd have a fair idea of what could be on offer, and the presence of the Phantom Blues Band was a fair indication of what was likely.
No great surprises, in other words, but I enjoyed it and I can finally say that I have seen Taj Mahal.
Back at Red Devil Park mid-Saturday afternoon we walked into the middle of a good set by Joe Camilleri's Revelators, featuring a damn good take on Van Morrison's Beside You, a track that I'd always regarded as hands off territory when it comes to covering Van The Man. There's a studio version on The Adventures of the Amazing Revelators if you want to check out bassist Joe Creighton's vocal for yourself.