onstage
Big Orange Music Festival Laishley Park Punta Gorda, Florida October 26, 2019
When I first heard about this music festi-
val in the beautiful city of Punta Gorda Florida, I was interested at first because of the line-up and second because of the location. If you have never visited the city of Punta Gorda, you are missing out on a hidden jewel of the west coast of Florida. It is a beautiful old city that has a small town charm with friendly people and a beautiful water front. My son had to be in Tampa for a month the Monday after this festival so it was a perfect ex- cuse to do what we love and catch a great show before his month started. I was lucky enough to have seen the Allman Betts band a few days be- fore this show so I knew them and Blackberry Smoke together made for a show not to be missed. The entire setting for this show was picture perfect, and the entire staff was top notch, friendly and well organized so that things would run smoothly. This festival was set up in Laishley Park,
with the water on two sides. It was truly a dream setting for a rock and roll show. We met up with some people who some might call friends, but to me they are family, and spent some time catching up. This festival did a great job of having a large assortment of vendors and all of them pricedon their goods so that it made it fun and affordable. My favorite venor was a group of ladies who did Hoop fitness. It was a blast watching folks hoola-hoop and the ladies were both good at it and so much fun. check them out at
www.peaceloveandhoopiness.com and tell them Beaver Dam girl sent you! The line-up for this show featured sev-
eral bands like Cat Ridgeway and her band The Tourists from Orlando, who brought a high en- ergy and soulful vocals to the crowd who en-
dured the heat to hear her set. They had a smaller stage set up, kind of in the middle of the crowd, with a band playing favorites during set changes, and this was a perfect set up to keep the crowd into the show, and still allow the time needed to switch bands. The next band was J D Simo, a three-
piece band who is out on tour in support of the Allman Betts band. Simo's guitar work reminds me a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan with that Texas bues feel. Next up was British Blues guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor. This guitar player can bring it! Her set was full on energy, with face- melting guitar licks. Her voice is strong and powerful and her energy really drew the crowd into her performance. Next was the Allman Betts band made up
of Devon Allman, the son of Allman Brothers founding member Gregg Allman; Duane Betts, son of Allman Brothers founding member Dickey Betts; Berry Oakley, Jr, son of founding Allman Brothers bass player Berry Oakley. They added slide guitar player John Lum; per- cussionist R. Scott Bryan; and keyboardist John Ginty. The biggest thrill for me came when I
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