Back to the Waterfront Blues Festival, July 5, at the FedEx Crossroads Stage

You could hear him before you could see him. The stage, the smallest, most intimate one at the festival, sat beneath some trees off to the south side of the Hawthorne Bridge, enclosed in a chain link fence. Intrigued, I entered through the opening in the fence and found a seat on the front row of the portable metal bleachers. Am I ever proud of myself for doing that!
 

Mesmerized, I stayed and witnessed Lloyd Allen, Sr. gather us all up in the palm of his hand, playing the blues with classy skills honed through the years. Here's what I found on the Waterfront Blues Festival Web site: Lloyd Allen Sr. is a charming, smartly dressed blues practitioner with over six decades of experience with the blues. He began his performance career at age 13 with the Vibratones and later became one-quarter of the blues foursome, the Cannonballs. Allen's guitar and vocal chops have yielded opening slots for the likes of B.B. King, Dinah Washington and more.
 

I took 78 photos. These are my favorites.
 

Easy to see why, right? And how's this for way cool. Mr. Allen played at the Blue Diamond on Friday, August 2! Right near where I live, as some of your realize. I am blessed.