Every year, around Valentine’s Day, blues music lovers from India and around the world meet at Mehboob Studio in Mumbai for an annual date. they gather for Mahindra Blues Festival,
It returns on Saturday after a pandemic-induced hiatus of three years, marking its 11th edition, making it one of the longest-running music festivals in the country. It’s an impressive run for a show dedicated to a niche genre that is rarely performed on the regular gig circuit.
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Over the years, the festival has played host to stalwarts such as Buddy Guy, who is returning this time for a record fifth appearance, and the Taj Mahal, who is returning after headlineing in 2012. blues music stars including Johnny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Randolph and the Tedeschi Trucks Band, as well as rising talent like Guy’s protégé Quinn Sullivan.
Guy is, in fact, the official ambassador and the main stage has been named the Polka Dot Parlour, which is part of his signature look. This year his mentor Kristen “Kingfish” Ingram will visit.
friend boy | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
tractors drive in
While the origins of the blues can be traced back to the mid-19th century when former slaves working on plantations in the US Deep South developed the musical style, the Mahindra Blues Festival has much richer origins. It was conceived by the Mahindra Group to help popularize its brand of tractors among farmers in the US
When the organizers realized that there were already many similar events taking place in the US, they decided to hold it in India and position themselves as a cultural export of the genre beloved of their target customer base. “It may seem inconsequential to hold a festival here, but it has even greater significance for the community,” says Jai Shah, vice president of cultural outreach at the Mahindra Group.
To enable them to experience the festivities, the group has rolled out incentive programs for dealers in the US through which they get an opportunity to participate. Till a few years back, it used to give CD recording of the previous installment to every tractor buyer. For the past six years, it has been organizing the annual Mahindra Blues Weekend over two weekends at Guy’s Chicago-based club and tourist attraction Legends, to publicize the initiative and identify upcoming US-based artists for the premier Indian edition. helps to. Indian-origin Argentinian guitarist Ivan Singh was booked for 2023 after being spotted there.
Twelve years after the festival’s launch in 2011, Mahindra is among the top 10 tractor brands in the US
Kabmo’ | Photo Credit: Umed Jadeja Photography
a niche crowd
Limited to 3,000 people, tickets for the Mahindra Blues are sold out. Promoters have consciously resisted moving it to a larger venue in order to maintain a sense of “intimacy”. The relatively low number is also in keeping with the limited audience for the genre in India, which is loyal, and tends towards the older generation. “In the first year, our core age group was 40 to 60,” says VG Jayaram, founder, Hyperlink Brand Solutions. “Now it’s between 30 and 40.”
To develop a following for the genre, organizers introduced the Mahindra Blues Hour, a radio show hosted by Brian Tellis, in 2013, and The Big Blues Band Hunt, judged by musicians Ehsan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa, in 2015. Grab a spot among the winning main shows. Notably, only one of them, the 2018 award to Arinjoy Trio from Kolkata, has graduated to the main stages, indicating that few Indian blues artists manage to establish themselves at a level where to stand alongside more accomplished international exponents.
Dana Fuchs | photo credit: danafuchs.com
no woman we cry
While the Mahindra Blues Festival always features at least one prominent solo female or female-led act, that’s not the case this year, which organizers say Dana Fuchs, who performed in 2013, recently returned to After emerging from the hospital, he decided to cancel his trip. COVID-19. It has promised to fulfill its commitment in 2024.
Among them is Shillong-based Soulmate, widely regarded as the most popular blues band in the country. front of the group, guitarist and composer Rudy Wallang And singer and songwriter Tipreeti Kharbangar has steadily built her fan base since its formation in 2003. Wolang partly credits Soulmate’s rise to Amit Sehgal, the founder of Rock Street Journal magazine and organizer of the Pub Rock Fest and Great Indian Rock concerts. in the mid-2000s. “They really brought us closer to people who hadn’t heard blues,” says Wallang. “We had the opportunity to connect with young people, many of them coming to these gigs with heavy metal band T-shirts but eager to learn and understand more about this music.”
some flak too
Pub Rock Fest took Soulmate to cities like Baroda, Chandigarh, Chennai and Lucknow. A decade later, Sehgal is no longer around and touring prospects have waned for newer outfits like Shillong’s Blue Temptation and Jowai’s Quiet Storm, both past winners of the Mahindra Blues Competition. “They’re a good, authentic band,” says Walang. “Maybe because the organizers of the event have to bring them all the way here, they’re not sure they’ll get [enough of] rush to get their money back. Other festivals, which were put together on a smaller scale during the 2010s, such as An Ode to the Blues in Bengaluru and the multi-city Simply the Blues, lasted only a few editions.
Megan Lowell and Rebecca Lowell from Larkin Poe | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Mahindra Blues Festival, in particular, has drawn criticism for its repetitive line-up of Indian bands. For years, he alternated between soulmate and Mumbai-raised, Auckland-based musician and guitarist Blackstratblues aka Warren Mendonsa. And while some will be disappointed by the chance to see Guy again – Jayaram said he should have him in 2023 as he retires from international touring – in the long run, more contemporary idols like Gary Clark Jr have sought Has been.
“We always have an issue with two huge events, which are the Grammys and the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise. [taking place in the same month] And some of the functions we always wanted to mix in one or the other,” says Jayaram. As for the minimal representation of local talent on the big stages, he believes that “transformation into a world-class act takes time, especially in the blues genre”.
Thanks to the Internet, blues audiences are no longer confined to metros. The event is regularly attended by fans from Baroda and Belgaum as well as from the US, Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. Meanwhile, The Band Hunt receives over 100 entries from acts spread across the country. For example, the first winner in 2015, Ayushi Karnik, is from Surat.
A Mahindra Blues Concert | Photo Credit: Umed Jadeja Photography
But with barely any platform to hone their skills, India’s young blues pioneers find themselves in a chicken-and-egg situation. The lack of tracks remains a challenge for both supporters and listeners of the blues. At ₹5,500 for a season pass, Mahindra Blues is priced on par with other major Indian music festivals, but also out of reach for some younger audiences. “A lot of our fans can’t afford tickets,” Walang says.
Perhaps blues needs the kind of trust that organizers and venues have entrusted to jazz, a genre that is enjoying a continued resurgence.
Left to right: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Rebecca Lowell, Buddy Guy, Keb ‘Mo’, and Megan Lowell | Photo Credit: Umed Jadeja Photography
PR professional and part-time artist manager Schubert Fernandes, who has participated in every edition of Mahindra Blues since 2013, believes that “Mahindra can extend its reach to ‘own’ Blues in a more impactful way.” For example, they could potentially launch a series of mini-editions featuring the top three finalists of the Band Hunt and headlined by a previous award winner. Such a venture would lend further importance to the festival’s tagline ‘The Blues Live Here’.
The author is a Mumbai-based journalist, specializing in the Indian music industry.