We arrived Wednesday morning and headed straight for the North Side to see a game at historic Wrigley Field and wouldn't you know it, "Cubs Win, Cubs Win!"

That night, we went to a NARAS show at Buddy Guy's.  We had a great time seeing Ronnie Baker Brooks and many others.  Buddy did his thing and was joined onstage by Shemikia Copland.  It was great to have Ronnie's dad, Lonnie,  there too and just to prove Blues is international, We got Briggy (USA) to pose with Jos (Holland), Henry (Australia), and Wade (England).

Thursday began the Festival at beautiful Grant Park.  We tried to see as many folks as we could, but of course couldn't see everyone....so here's the highlights!  We really enjoyed Tommy McCracken, but my favorite was Nick Moss and the Flip Tops.  What a tone!  After that was an old fashioned Blues Revue from Linda's Lounge where Holly B. Maxwell definately stole the show. Speaking of Maxwell, we discovered a love for the Maxwell Street Style hotdogs with the grilled onions and hot peppers.

Thursday evening, Bridget and I delved into the deep dish with a gloriously fattening stuffed crust pizza from Bacino's with the Wrigley Building in the background!

Friday, back at the festival, among others, we always enjoy seeing Robert Lockwood, Jr., and really enjoyed the sets of  Eddie Burns and then Eddie Kirkland.  The evening ended with the show at the Petrillo Shell with  a several of my favorites:  Jody Williams, then Bob Margolin and Hubert Sumlin, along with Pinetop Perkins, followed by another of my favs, Koko Taylor.  After the show, we wound up at Andy's Jazz Club for a real treat:  Steve Freund and Dave Spector.  They were absolutely perfect!  Just to prove it's a small world, the drummer, Marty Binder asked me if I'd ever heard of one of his favorite pickers, Eddie Pennington!  My buddy Eddie's talent is only exceeded by his kindness.

Saturday, we began with the Sunnyland Slim tribute at the Front Porch stage where we saw Freund again,and later, the great Homesick James.  At the Best Buy stage, we took in Michael Powers and he put on a great show.  Next up was Lattimore.  Bridget and I really enjoy the Soul-Blues so we had a great time at Lattimore's show as it reminded us of our Maalaco favorites.  After a brief stop to check out promising young guitarist Noah Wotherspoon, we hopped back on the El and headed north to Horseshoe to pay a surprise visit to our friends Blue Mother Tupelo, who we learned was in town.  Nobody sounds like them!  They're a special treat!  Speaking of treats, Horseshoe really has some of the most unique hot wings we've ever had....we gotta get that recipe...

Sadly, Sunday was time to head home, but we made a quick stop by the Navy Pier to do a little sightseeing before hopping the City of New Orleans back south and home again, home again.....

All in all, we found the Chicago Blues Festival to be quite different from the King BIscuit festival in Helena, AR, which we attend each year, but enjoyable in it's own way.  We had a great time with the sights, the sounds and the tastes of the Windy City and we thank all the nice folks with the City of Chicago for showing us such a good time.