Another photo-and-review report from Ottawa Bluesfest 2024

[Ross MacDonald and Karen Coughtrey are covering this year’s festival pretty much every night. – AC]

When the Bluesfest dates and lineup were announced at the end of February, Tuesday July 9 was to be a dark night, a no-show night, but in mid-June an announcement was made that an extra night was going to be added to the festival. And man, what a night it was! Crowds came from near and far as Dax, Shaboozey and Jelly Roll took Ottawa to church.

Nigerian-Canadian rapper who grew up in Ottawa’s east end (Orleans) was the first to take the stage and he promised from the start that his goal for the night was to have a whole lot of fun in his hometown and he had nothing but good things and immense gratitude for his upbringing in this city. The night was also a special one for him as it was the first time both his parents were having the chance to see him perform live.

Dax’s performance was energetic to say the least, spitting impossibly quick rhymes, leaping from side to side of the stage and telling stories between songs one might wonder how he managed to find a moment to breathe and therefore was no surprise when the shirt came off and he requested water. His energy was catching and he made it hard not to be drawn into his performance and his words.

He opened with ‘Dear God’ and told the crowd to let it all go before moving into ‘The Devil’s Calling’. As with any good songwriter his songs are clearly very personal to him and he shared parts of his life that led to ‘Dear Alcohol’ and about turning 30 for ‘To Be A Man’. He wrapped up his fantastic engaging set with ‘My Heart Hurts’ and ‘Joker’.’

A short while later music, as if from a modern western, filled the air and Shaboozey took the stage. Many worried he only had the one song in his repertoire, but he had no trouble filling the set and keeping the large crowd’s attention. He opened with ‘Horses & Hellcats’ before asking the audience to raise their beers for ‘Tall Boy’.

Despite his recent success, the Nigerian-American is very humble and very grateful for the opportunities granted to him, and sang about having to leave his hometown to chase his dream in ‘East Of The Massanutten.’

His music is easy-listening country with a hip-hop vibe, but he turns the urban way up on ‘Drink Don’t Need No Mix’, which he predicts will be his next single. Shaboozey has been working at music for years and knows something about being Black in the Country & Western world and spoke, while introducing his next song, about the importance of knowing the history, the song ‘Beverly Hills’ having been inspired by a Black outlaw. He then announced that due to unforeseen circumstances they would be cutting the set short and wished the crowd a wonderful evening.

This of course was a trick and he would return to the stage, and on the day Shaboozey cemented his name in music history as the first Black male artist to simultaneously top both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country charts, the audience in Ottawa got to sing the song of the summer, ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’ with the star not once but twice.

The crowd excitement was palpable as the huge numbers of people awaited the main event of the night. A special night, being the first time Jelly Roll would perform at an international summer music festival and only his second performance in Canada (The first being the night before at the Meridian Centre in St. Catherines, Ontario: a fundraiser for the Heather Winterstein Foundation supporting Indigenous Youth with mental health and substance abuse issues, for which he donated all of his proceeds).

The audience (which Jelly Roll would later declare was 25,000 strong) did not have to wait as long as anticipated as he took the stage ten minutes earlier than expected. He opened with ‘The Lost’, ‘Halfway To Hell’, and a medley of ‘Same Asshole’, ‘Son Of The Dirty South’, and ’Wild Ones’, marvelling and delighting in-between songs at performing an international show and being in Canada. He also shared a story of taking the advice of Canadians and having visited Smoke’s poutinerie earlier in the day. Of course the poutine was delicious and he was not disappointed.

He was even brought to tears expressing his sense of awe around his life leading him from such a dark time and set of experiences to a place where he was able and so enthusiastically welcomed to headline a music festival, outside of the US, of this size.

Clad in black with a shirt reading “Talk To God” in large bold print on the back, it is clear his faith is important to him now, and the weather gods were certainly shining down on the artist and crowd at the riverside festival grounds. The beginning of the set was illuminated by the most beautiful painted sky sunset.

Jelly Roll talked about his family, his mother, his father, his brother, his “white trash” upbringing, and his struggles. Clearly grateful for where he has ended up and his success. You’d struggle to find a more genuine artist or a stronger advocate for ending the stigma surrounding substance abuse and mental health, in the industry. Earlier in the day he continued a tradition he started in the US of working with the local community of his shows. He went to the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre where he spoke about substance abuse and mental health and participated in a Q & A with the overall message of “It’s Ok to not be Ok”; and then performed a surprise secret concert in the winter garden room for the patients.

The set would also include some covers, chosen for the musical preferences of his family (father and brother in particular) and the crowd enjoyed his renditions of Lynyrd Skynard’s ‘Simple Man’, and a mash-up of old school hip-hop hits including ‘Boys in the Hood’, ‘Ruff Ryders’ Anthem’, ‘Lose Yourself’, ‘Ms. Jackson’, and ‘Just a Friend’. There was also one special moment where mentioned that it was his mother in particular who played a lot of country music at home and dedicated his cover of Toby Keiths ‘Should’ve Been A Cowboy’ to her, “it was her favourite song.”

Although he may have started early he played right until the scheduled time ending, closing with his chart-topping hit ‘Save Me’. The day closed out with the crowd screaming “Jelly! Jelly! Jelly! Jelly!” The consensus was that Jelly Roll gave the best show of the Bluesfest festival.