Location: Ljubljana / Ljubljanski grad / Slovenia
Date: Thursday, June 27, 2019
Let’s head straight to the venue. It’s a little before eight and we’re at the start of the very first Bluesland, the rightful heir and successor to the former Motörcity festival in Tolmin. Day one, first act: Bad Notion. Slovenians. The only Slovenian act at this year’s edition of the international blues festival. Bad Notion are, as I’ve written more than once, an incredible outfit, both by today’s standards and for the Slovenian music scene. Grega Smola Crnkovič is the man who, as the herald of a new generation of rockers, has taken on the doctrine of the world’s blues heritage and, alongside two no less polished virtuosos in a hard-hitting trio setup, carried it over and transformed it into a gorgeous new blues rock adventure. A new generation for new times, in other words. Over the hour-long set the band mostly ran through original material (Gunkoza, Cikorija, Arabia, Bossa Noga,…) that’s supposed to find its home on a studio debut soon, threw in covers of Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and once again won everyone over, full-blooded, with a seriously tight and polished performance where there wasn’t a single flub to be found. Alongside Grega, the trio is filled out with incredible agility and technical polish by drummer Žiga Korenčič and bassist Rok Skoliber, and the energy is distributed fantastically well within this trio. Even though Grega grabs the attention, as he provides the lead vocals and a marathon landscape of bravura soloing (for which he must have spent a good while sleeping with a book of Steve Ray Vaughan tabs and sheet music, among other things), the contribution of the other two partners in crime in this punchy blues rock trio is concisely, clearly felt. Grega is fast, resourceful, in control, precise, and has a fine sense for building drama within longer instrumental passages. Despite the short time he’s been at it, his mastery of six-string theory is already seriously honed. The band gets better and better from gig to gig, and, considering they’re newcomers, the guys, with their unbridled talent, are already hitting such potency and performance brilliance that there’s a real little “badnotionmania” going on, similar to the one Prismojenci sparked just a pinch of years earlier, which makes them, next to Prismojenci, the leading group carrying the torch of a true mini blues revival in Slovenia today. Modest guys, sure, but they’re taking giant strides into the essence of the blues. They add rock sharpness to it, plus funk kineticism, and in Arabia there’s no shortage of arabesques either. A band loudly knocking on the door of the hot groups of the new blues revival, and a band we’ll be hearing and reading plenty of good things about. An excellent choice to open the festival, then, and guys, we’re impatiently waiting for your studio debut.
After Bad Notion came French blues rocker Manu Lanvin, who definitely gave it everything to win over a handful of visitors. Among other things, he strolled out into the crowd below the stage with his gleaming blue guitar. Even though Lanvin is a French artist, the influence of the American blues school was unmistakable. The energetic Lanvin, backed by just a bassist and a drummer, was more than convincing with his playing, where the influence of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan shone through. Lanvin already has a dozen albums behind him. With what he showed here, he definitely deserves more attention. He was greeted by a view of a decimated venue, with a dozen people listening, but he didn’t lose any sleep over it. Instead he jumped off the stage and ripped off a nice chunk of soloing in one of the numbers right among the crowd, where he was met, among others, by our “incorrigible” blues lover Neisha, of course with her finger permanently on the trigger of her “smart” phone.
Next up was Mike Sponza, who brought a pretty sizable crew onto the stage. A guitarist who claimed he was a product of the sixties, he showed plenty of experience with his performance. Sixties-style blues came to the fore here too, which was later confirmed by two covers of the legendary Cream, placed toward the tail end of the show. It was all bouncier overall, though of course there was the odd slower, more laid-back number too. Mike Sponza is an old acquaintance who’s well connected with the contemporary Slovenian music scene too, having played here many times already. He’s an immensely experienced and respected musician who has worked in his career with names like Bob Margolin, Ian Siegal, Georgie Fame, Pete Brown, Lucky Peterson, Louisiana Red, and last but not least with the Slovenian ace of jazz guitar Primož Grašič. Sponza is open to all sorts of challenges and doesn’t care whether he’s on stage solo or in a duo, and teaming up in expanded lineups of musical collectives is nothing new to him either. With Sponza’s arrival, Bluesland got that extra spice of playfulness, and Sponza, who cracked plenty of jokes between songs, was a real pleasure to watch. As mentioned, Sponza has tried just about everything in his career, and collaborations with “big band” orchestras are especially familiar territory for him. That’s exactly why he aims for his current backing band to have a lot of members too, with two additional backing vocalists and a horn section woven in! The octet with Sponza at the helm built a stately, rich and punchy sound on stage, one that bent under a flirty “groove”! Sponza is also a very solid vocalist, and then some. For an Italian, singing in English comes to him remarkably well, and that’s his trump card, the one that always opens the doors of international stages wide for him.
The headliner of the day, Ana Popović, took the stage on the first day of Bluesland, and this was by no means her first stop in Slovenia. She last played in Ljubljana four years ago at Kino Šiška, and the day after that at Lent in Maribor. Popović picked up the guitar in her teens, inspired by her father. Within a few years she loved it so much that she decided to study guitar in the Netherlands, which is also where her career took a turn, as she started playing bigger and bigger shows and festivals. Today, after many albums, Popović is practically the peak of the modern blues rock scene, while proving at the same time that a woman can be a top-class blues musician too.
Ana Popović, who came to Bluesland with a new album in her pocket called “Like It On Top”, doesn’t take gigs lightly. She makes sure the sound is full, so she’s always accompanied by extra musicians who are also “flawlessly” trained technically. Besides a drummer and a bassist, a keyboardist, a trumpeter and a saxophonist provided a richer sonic picture. Popović’s professionalism also showed in the crew that accompanies her on tour. With every member you could see what their role was. The synchronization between the band members was on an excellent level, which makes it easier for the main attraction to perform her songs.
Popović came on stage after the opening number, where she showed off her skills. There was no shortage of soloing here, but it never went overboard like with some virtuosos. And of course, hats off for performing in high heels, which she also used to control her effects. Ana Popović played plenty of her hits from her repertoire, and the odd cover too. With the songs she played, she swam in blues waters, but of course there was also the odd funk or jazz-tinged number. The many layers of her playing are one more reason to appreciate her all the more. An undoubtedly top-class performance that the audience will remember well.
text: Primož Novak & Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
