The thirty-third annual Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival was held from July 24-July 27. Artists from all around the world made appearances in a variety of genres including but not limited to blues, Americana, folk, ska, country, rock, pop and a multitude of other sub-genres. Happily, one of our local musicians, Jeremy Kneeshaw was chosen to do two shows at the festival. I caught his first show at the Barn Stage on Saturday afternoon.

The band used the name Jeremy Kneeshaw and the Velvet Groove. For this appearance, Kneeshaw included Kris Ruston on keys and Darrin Cherewayko on drums. They both provided backing vocals and each sang lead on one song.

Kneeshaw and friends played a variety of rockin’ blues and soul tunes. They borrowed from the catalogues of B.B. King, J.J. Cale, Bill Withers, Lowell Fulson and others. Some of my favourites were “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “They Call Me the Breeze,” “Downhearted,” and “My Baby Can’t Be Found.”

The early afternoon crowd was a bit sparce in the beginning. As soon as the band played one song the area began to fill up and soon it was very full! There was plenty of dancing going on and the audience knew the words to many of the songs and sang along. It was a fun, hot, early afternoon party.

To the delight of the audience, Kneeshaw played amazing guitar and danced all over the stage. Both Rustin and Cherewayko are talented veterans of the music world and it showed. This trio, at times, sounded like there were many more players on a number of songs.

There were quite a few people from the Kamloops area in the audience. Everyone I talked to was very proud of this performance. Jeremy Kneeshaw and the Velvet Groove were a fine addition to the iconic Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival.