The lineup included soul icon
Isaac Hayes, Charlie Musselwhite,
Phoebe Snow, Canned Heat,
The Mannish Boys with special guests
Kid Ramos, Kirk Fletcher and
Finis Tasby, Joe Bonamassa,
Elvin Bishop, James Hunter, Eric Lindell, Ruthie Foster, Arthur Adams,
Curtis Salgado, Portland Soul All-Stars, Carolyn Wonderland, Back Door Slam, Fred Wesley & Groovesect,
Robert "Wolfman" Belfour, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue,
Classie Ballou, Paul Thorn,
The Legendary Shack Shakers,
Tribute to Freddie King with
Phillip Walker, Sherman Robertson and Andrew "Jr. Boy Jones and zydeco
with Rosie Ledet,
Christ Ardoin & Nu Step Zydeco,
Cedryl Ballou & the
Zydeco Trendsetters,
Dikki Du & The Zydeco Krew
and more.
The 21st Waterfront Blues Festival turned out to be another fantastic celebration of the blues in beautiful, downtown Portland, Or. With the usual gigantic list of superb national talent and the equally talented home grown talent, all playing to four days of massive crowds, the '08 Waterfront was truly a blues experience on a world class level.
Highlights for this blues fan included the 3 Texas guitar slingers with their Freddy King presentation and the true blue, authentic blues renderings of Fiona Boyes, among others.
This 2nd largest blues festival in the country is just one of the reasons why Portland is such a major force in today's blues scene.
