The Wheeling Heritage Music BluesFest ... or the part I saw

The Wheeling (that's wild and wonderful West Virginia) Heritage Music BluesFest has been getting great blues lineups the last few years, and I finally got a chance to spend a little time there on Saturday. It's a three-day event, and was able to squeeze in a visit Saturday afternoon and evening. I especially wanted to catch … and then the Mannish Boys.

Mannish Boys
The name comes from an old and very classic Muddy Waters tune, co-written, in case you didn't know, by Bo Diddley.
The band comes from another era, too -- an era when men were men, women were women, blues were blues, and the men and women who sang them drew the music from a deep well of soul, R&B and sweet and sexy inspiration. 
 I hope that comes close to describing what the Mannish Boys do on stage. They are all blues veterans with hearts rendered purple by their electrifying music. From the searing opening guitar riffs by Kid Ramos, you know they mean blues business. The band was tighter than Ana Popovic's jeans, with great harp by Randy Chortkoff and more great guitar from Kirk Fletcher.

But the highlights of the set were two fine old blues and soulmen, Bobby Jones and Finis Tasby, both just a little shy of their 70th birthday. But there's nothing shy about their music.

Jones is a mainline Chicago blues belter, with gritty, sensuous pipes that let the blues flow, and in his sharp blue threads, a flair for the kind of stylish vocal showmanship that's hard to find these days. He crooned, he testified, he got down on his knees, he laid on the floor (yes, he did) and just generally sang his heart out and worked his gluteus maximus off.

Finis Tasby is Texas blues crooner, as smooth looking as he is smooth sounding. He didn't bend his knees that much, but bent the right notes with his voice, in an old, traditional soulful blues style.

Their set was a living history lesson in this classic soulful style, and if anybody was paying attention, how to look the part. These men represent a vital link to a music in short supply, at least performed in the manner in was meant to be sung.