After the dust settled from our crazy Canada Day weekend festivities, Jody and I decided to get to the next order of business in our Ottawa summers. The Bluesfest! This event is the second largest Blues festival in North America (after Chicago), and probably one of the largest overall festivals in Canada. Essentially, the party goes on for 10 days, and plays host to over 150 different acts. This year was another stellar year for performances, and we definitely got more than our fill of many different musical stylings, not just Blues. If you’re curious about this years’ performances, you can still check out the listings on the website. Of course, if you’re reading this after 2006, well, you’ll be out luck, but will see who’s supposed to be on in the current year 😉 I’d love to get into full details of all the shows we saw, but there are far, far too many to list. Personally for me, some of the highlights were on the smaller stages, which often have a more intimate setting, and you get to see some great acts. A partial list of my faves would be Chicago Blues Reunion, Detroit Women, Dickey Betts & Great Southern, Elmer Ferrer Band, Eric Lindell, Etta James, Jake Shimabukuro, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Sam Roberts Band, Solomon Burke, Walter Trout & the Radicals, and finally Wilco. Click any of the links to learn more about them, or check out their music.