Over the years, the city's one-day wine and music festival had drifted into other genres, but this year, it's back to pure blues.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published September 23, 2004
[Times photo (2003): Lara Cerri]
Sarasota Slim, performing here in Treasure Island last January, helped wine festival organizers with their musical lineup.
After 12 years, the organizers of Dunedin Wines the Blues thought the event needed a little tweaking.
It wasn't that the annual one-night festival hadn't been popular. In fact, 20,000 to 25,000 people turned up every year to sample some wine and hear some live music from local blues, rock and oldies bands.
"We just wanted to make it a more upscale event this year," said Bill Coleman, president of the Downtown Dunedin Merchants Association. "Even though it's called Dunedin Wines the Blues, there were other kinds of music, and we wanted to get back to the blues. And we also wanted to upgrade the wine selection, to have things that people can't buy at a supermarket."
Coleman realized neither he nor anyone else in his organization (which co-sponsors the event with the city of Dunedin) had enough expertise in the local blues scene to find the best players. But he knew of someone who did: Sarasota Slim.
Coleman "didn't know the blues, but he used to live in Sarasota so he knew my name and he called me," said blues singer-guitarist Sarasota Slim, now a Pinellas County resident. "I told him I'd be glad to be involved as little or as much as he wanted me to be. Turned out I was involved a lot."
Slim had the knowledge and the connections to make sure the lineup was all blues. But he also took care to make sure diverse styles were represented.
"You've got Nitro, who plays old-time, down-in-the-alley blues," Slim said. "But there's also Dwight Champagne, who's more of a R&B front man kind of guy."
Because Sarasota Slim plays out-of-town gigs regularly, he also knows the blues scene in surrounding areas. That helped him attract Rick Lollar, a 17-year-old guitar wizard from Tallahassee.
Lollar is often compared to Derek Trucks, who started gaining national attention a decade ago while he was still a teen.
But Slim thinks Lollar is more polished than Trucks was at the same age.
"I think he's approaching the point where Derek Trucks is now," Slim said.
Besides a more intense helping of the blues, longtime festival fans will notice some other changes this year.
Instead of having food vendors, the merchants association has arranged for downtown restaurants to set up tents outside their establishments to sell food to festivalgoers.
Because downtown Dunedin has so many good restaurants, Coleman said, that should lead to a better variety of food. It also helps downtown businesses, which are footing part of the bill for the festival, attract potential new customers.
The wine selection will concentrate on higher-quality offerings, and representatives from four wine merchants will help educate aspiring oenophiles.
Organizers had also hoped for a slight change of venue, but that looks like it will be delayed until next year.
Each year, the bands set up in a parking lot at Main Street and Douglas Avenue, though most of the crowd is in adjacent Pioneer Park. The park is being renovated, and Coleman said organizers had hoped that a new bandshell would be open in time.
"Because of the hurricanes and all the rain, the contractors were delayed and the bandshell just didn't get done," Coleman said. "So this year the bands are in the parking lot one more time, and we've got about half of Pioneer Park, which is right next to the parking lot."
PREVIEW
Dunedin Wines the Blues is scheduled for 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Pioneer Park, Main Street and Douglas Avenue. The rain date is 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free, but a $1 "wristband donation" is requested from patrons older than 21; the wristband allows them to purchase beer and wine.
