Pueblo Blues, Boats and Barbecue Festival , June 11, 2005

June 2005 saw a return to Pueblo by Catfish & the Crawlers. This time was even better than the last time (2001) with great weather and thousands of blues fans. The Pueblo HARP authority put on one incredible festival and chose C&C to headline the show from 8-11PM.

The Pueblo Riverwalk is one BEAUTIFUL venue for a festival. Picture the Arkansas River, with the paddle-boat concession on the bay, loads of food vendors, barbecue, barbecue, barbecue!

and most importantly 10's of thousands of blues fans sitting in the sun enjoying the BLUES.

THANKS PUEBLO for having us

and a word of appreciation to Ricky & the Roosters , a local Pueblo band that doesn't get out too much.
These guys were as good as anything I've seen in town. If you see them scheduled anywhere, don't miss your chance.

Young Pueblo blues fan!

Sunday, August 5, 2001

Sunday August 5th was certainly the highlight of the summer 2001 for us. 
The  Fourth Annual River Rock'n Blues Fest at the Greenway and Nature Center of Pueblo, Colorado.
The Fest took place on the River Stage over the beautiful Arkansas River and featured Ricky & the Roosters from Pueblo,
Uncle Irene from New Mexico, Catfish & the Crawlers and Shawn Pittman from Dallas, TX.

Undoubtedly the most beautiful stage we've ever played on. Note the Arkansas River right behind the railing.
Considering the 100 degree heat, a plunge into the River was tempting. Forgive the biologist in me, but note the unique plant
and animal community in the background. Can't wait to go back and explore the center another day.

To say that the guys at DeHerrara Sound made the band sound good would be plainly an understatement.
They made us sound great. Even my son complemented us on being REALLY LOUD.

"Under the cooling Cottonwoods",  the flyer said. Very True. What a great setting for a Festival.
We watched rafters and tubers float down the river groovin' on the blues

Blind Willy Garcia on the drums. Bill is a Pueblo native and the support from his family was overwhelming.
This was the first occasion Bill had had to show off the band to his home town folks. We all looked forward to meeting them.

The Catfish Dancers joined us onstage as Blind Willy sang "You Can Leave Your Hat On". We promised we'd put the pictures on the web. Seriously, the support of this great crowd made this a very special day

Catfish got to use the 350T on a few songs, like here on "God Bless the Child". It sounded great.
There are always a few guitar players in the crowd who want to know what "THAT HOLLOWBODY" guitar was.

Note John (baseball cap) with arm around Cathy. They get married the end of this month and are were instrumental in getting us down to
Pueblo to play the festival. Two of the very important group of fans that keep us going.

Here's Clint Moorehouse on the keys. Our most recent addition and a true bluesman.  One of the big reasons we sounded so good this weekend. His leads were "killer".

Catfish, Loretta and Blind Willy starting off our version of VooDoo Woman

JP Blues Pacheco playin' the T-Bone Shuffle

Loretta, our "Anti-Brittney", with one of the impromptu "Catfish Dancers"

What a great day for the band, the Greenway Nature Center and the blues fans in Pueblo.
We hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did. So many people to thank for the day.
Tim Sandsmark and Deb from the Nature Center staff, Wayne DeHerrara from DeHerrara Sound. The Colorado Blues Society and other sponsors. The operators of the restaurant and food booths, the great crowd especially the Garcia family, the jammers in the tent during the storm..........

OH, did I forget to mention the storm??????

Someone upstairs was kind to the Crawlers, after completing our two hour set and tearing down we felt the first two drops of rain. By the time Shawn Pittman, who had come all the way from Dallas got set up, the skies  opened, the lightning flashed and the thunder boomed.  For the next hour the rain came down as the crowd  huddled under the tent to keep from getting soaked. It surely made it a memorable day. As the sun set and the rain continued a lone acoustic guitar player and harp-man entertained the crowd, who was enthusiastic and not ready to go home,. This was  one of those times you really had to experience and you will likely remember for a long time.  I was dry by Monday morning!