Live review: FitzGerald's American Music Festival

Times have been tough recently for the Hacienda Brothers. Chris Gaffney, who co-founded this incredible country-soul band with Dave Gonzalez, died three months ago of liver cancer at 58, just before just before the group finished its new self-released album, Arizona Motel. No word on whether the band will continue on from here, but its highly emotional performance last Saturday at FitzGerald's American Music Festival in Berwyn definitely had Gaffney's memory hovering over the show like a cloud. At one point, Gonzales gave a moving spoken tribute to his fallen friend; right then I heard somebody behind me, at the very back of the tent, yell, "Yeah, we know he wrote some good songs, now could you play them!" Thankfully his friend shushed him down: "He's eulogizing him!" And then they went on to play the moody country-soul they're known for—Texas barroom shuffles with background vocals touched by Philly soul.

This performance was one of many highlights of this year's American Music Fest. While there weren't many real surprises—no one with the "lookee there!" appeal of previous festival performers like swamp-rocker Tony Joe White or jump-blues jokers The Treniers—it was still a good time all around, with three stages of continuous music.

For me, the biggest highlight was seeing keyboardist Ian McLagan go through the paces with his Bump Band on Friday night. McLagan was a key member of UK mod-rockers the Small Faces back in the '60s, and his current music sounds about like what that same band did when they dropped the "Small" from their name in the '70s: stomping blues-rock without the excesses of the competition. McLagan himself looked great and played soulful riffs from a big ole purple organ.

The Victory Travelers have become elder statesmen on the local gospel scene, showing up in non-religious venues like the Chicago Blues Festival as well as FitzGerald's shindig on Friday. Sweet-soul singer John Boutte, who appeared on Thursday, evidently made a lot of friends from his last area visit (Chicago Blues Festival last month), because everybody sang along right on cue with songs like "I'm A Good Neighbor." The New Orleans native was joined by guitarist Joel Guzman on songs like Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" and Annie Lennox's "Why?" (Boutte teased "Why y'all gotta mess that up?" when the audience sang along). Boutte and Guzman later performed to a packed, sweaty house in FitzGerald's Sidebar with Susan Cowsill, but Boutte's best performance might have happened when I spied him dancing with a taller woman outside of the Sidebar while Tributosaurus played the Allman Brothers Band's "Ramblin' Man."

Zydeco accordionist Gino Delafose played two sets on Wednesday; It didn't feel right seeing him play to a relatively slim daytime crowd that was still nursing their po'boys. But Sarah Borges' set was a humongous revelation: You could call her alt-country, except she packs a lot more punch than the typical weeping troubadours of the genre. At a time when most alternative twang sounds closer to James Taylor than Lefty Frizzell, Borges sharpens the hardest edges from both country and roots-rock. I'd even call it "cowpunk," if that wasn't such an absurd moniker.

On a side note, I have to give it up to the kids running the soda pop stand. Unless you have a time machine set for 1954, how often do you get to drink orange and grape Crush straight from a longneck glass bottle?