LIVE: Robert Cray / Shemekia Copeland @ The Egg, 9/2/16

Photographs by Andrzej Pilarczyk

“Sometimes I wonder what I’m gonna do,
But there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues…”

The end of the summer never sounded as sweet, sassy and soaked in the blues as it did at The Egg on Labor Day weekend when Robert Cray and Shemekia Copeland teamed up for a double-barreled blues blast.

Guitarslinger Cray and his band – keyboardist Dover Weinberg, drummer Les Falconer and bassist Richard Cousins – come from the soul end of the blues spectrum, but don’t let that fool ya. These guys know how to burn, and they were helped out by a superb sound mix.

Blues shouter Shemekia Copeland was back for her second Greater Nippertown concert of the summer, having nearly stolen the show at Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival at SPAC back in June. So she was no mere “opening act.” In fact, she and her band – guitarists Arthur Neilson and Ken “Willie” Scandlyn, bassist Kevin Jenkins and drummer Robin Gould III – tore into it with a take-no-prisons attitude and the chops to match.

And the powerhouse double-bill only kickstarted a month of the blues at The Egg. Albany’s orb-shaped theater keeps the blues rollin’ right along this weekend with John Mayall on Friday (September 16) and Elvin Bishop on Sunday (September 18), both in the intimate Swyer Theatre. GO HERE to read an interview with John Mayall…