Waterfront Blues: Young Guns, Part One

When I think of blues musicians, the picture that immediately comes to mind looks like a cross between Muddy Waters and Elwood Blues. A grizzled old black man in a dark suit, tie loosened and shirt wrinkled. He has arthritic hands from years of playing, eyes bloodshot from thousands of smoky roadhouses. Throw in some feathers, a pair of snake skin cowboy boots and a little Dr. John hoodoo and you have the stereotypical zydeco musician.

Certainly there are still cats out there who fit this profile but, as this year's Portland Waterfront Blues Festival proves, the new musicians of roots and blues are as likely to be wearing Nike's and baseball caps as headdresses or porkpie hats.

Take Chris Ardoin, for example. Though it's hard to refer to a 5'11", 250-pound man as precocious, relative to his peers he's that young kid who wows Uncle Jack and Aunt Hattie at all the family reunions.

Barely in his 20s (and still a student at McNeese State), Ardoin and his band, NuStep, take the roots of New Orleans Cajun and Creole musics and inflect them with rock, jazz, blues, gospel and even a little hip-hop (if only in attitude). The result? A set at the WBF that drew an easy thousand people, 999 of them dancing in the aisles. From the Jerry Garcia look-a-like handing out Mardi Gras beads to the 20-something college girl on summer break, Ardoin showed them how young cats worldwide are bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary.

Blues music is alive and well and the young guns have arrived.

Check out Chris at his website or on his MySpace page. Dig his cut, Holdin' On, at last.fm.