At Deer Lake Park on Saturday, August 11

Roots music doesn’t have to be old to make a connection; it can also be relatively recent. Three songs by living masters of popular music drew cheers of recognition at the Burnaby Blues & Roots Festival on Saturday, touching both performers and audience members, drawing them closer together.

Against the gorgeous backdrop of Deer Lake Park, shaven-headed American singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello put down her electric bass to sing Leonard Cohen’s nostalgic paean to New York of the late ‘60s “Chelsea Hotel”. It made for a powerful moment in the festival’s opening set on the main Lake Stage.

Afterwards, up the slope at the Garden Stage, all-bearded quintet the Deep Dark Woods, from Saskatoon ended with Dr. John’s spooky swamp-anthem “Jump Sturdy”. And the festival came to a gorgeous close when Georgia’s the Indigo Girls delivered a superb and upbeat interpretation of Bob Dylan’s melancholy ballad of a broken heart, “Tangled Up In Blue”.

As for the blues, Jimmie Vaughan—brother of the late Stevie Ray—poured them out like a torrent. The slick-haired Texan guitarist, dressed in black for maximum contrast with his white-bodied Fender, performed straight-ahead blues-rock, backed by a band that included an economical brass section of saxophone and trombone and singer Lou Ann Barton. Vaughan was the penultimate act, and by this point the sting was out of the sun, the indisputable star of the day. There were dedicated dancers in front of the stage, but most of the crowd remained happy to picnic, which prompted Vaughan to challenge them, good-naturedly with “What about you on the hill—are you all drunk or something?”

Vaughan isn’t a flashy player, but he did have a couple of party tricks. At one point he made his guitar sound like a chicken, and he performed an extended solo with the instrument lodged behind his head. He grimaced horribly throughout and it wasn’t completely clear if this was down to showmanship or muscle pain.

Such a bravura display would have worked well earlier in the afternoon to rouse the baskers on the grass. Ndegeocello performed skillfully, but stayed seated and sang with eyes closed throughout her set of largely introspective songs. As a result, the crowd felt largely unengaged. She seemed to acknowledge this, saying “I’m not much of a talker, hope it doesn’t come across as rude”. It didn’t, but the vibe was subdued for her music, which blended folk, funk, soul, jazz, and R&B.

It was left to Amadou & Mariam, the next act on the Lake Stage, to draw the dancers and get some limbs flinging. The blind couple from Mali, resplendent in West African robes, gave the crowd a visual focus, a big sound, and a beautifully delivered set. The grooves were based on traditional Bambara music but infused with rock. Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia split the vocals between them, the former playing hot electric guitar on a gold-bodied axe that brought out the colour of their sunglasses and bling. Powered by a quartet that included two percussionists—a djembe-player and a heavyweight kit-drummer—the couple gradually increased the pace, building to a climax with their hit song “Dimanche à Bamako”.

The pair were followed, on the Garden Stage, by solo Vancouver, Washington guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps who brought back the introspective mood with songs from his soon-to-be-released Brother Sinner & the Whale. As the title suggests, the references for his bluesy Americana compositions are old-time Biblical and righteous, but not without humour and irony—he introduced one instrumental piece as “Spit Me Out Of The Whale”. Phelps’s superb technique, especially on slide guitar, and his soulful, sweet yet rough-edged voice, was compelling.

Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, celebrating their 25th anniversary as recording artists, rounded off the musical feast with material from their back pages and current album Beauty Queen Sister. Their songs are intelligently constructed lyrically and musically, and performed with verve, with Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue” bringing the strongest response. Backed by the younger and energetic five-piece Atlanta band the Shadowboxers, Ray and Saliers opted to give each verse of the long ballad to a different singer, and to perform it a brisker pace than the original.

The classic sounded more anthemic than melancholic, and left the crowd in a thoughtful but upbeat space on a velvety summer night. That no one exactly walked with the blues didn’t matter in the slightest.