This year’s Chicago Blues Festival has an autumnal feel, or least much of the Petrillo lineup does. To close the fest on Sunday night, the city has booked centennial tributes to departed legends Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon (though recent research has raised doubts about whether Muddy was born in 1915). Most of the other acts scheduled for the big stage are veterans whose glory days were decades ago or younger artists rooted in styles at least that old.
12:45 PM Mary Lane Though Mary Lane has been all too sparsely recorded over the decades, she’s one of Chicago’s earthiest blues chanteuses. Her tough vocal delivery reflects her upbringing in Arkansas, where she sang with slide-guitar wizard Robert Nighthawk as well as Joe Hill Louis and Howlin’ Wolf. She migrated to Chicago’s west side by way of Waukegan and was married to guitarist Morris Pejoe when she cut her mid-60s debut single, “You Don’t Want My Loving No More,” for the Friendly Five label. And on her first CD, 1997’s Appointment With the Blues (Noir), she stayed in that no-nonsense mode. —Bill Dahl
2:30 PM JJ Thames
3 PM Andy T Nick Nixon Band
Crossroads Stage
11:15 AM Jamiah “On Fire” & the Red Machine
1 PM The House Rockers
Fri 6/12 through Sun 6/14, 11 AM-9:30 PM Grant Park, Jackson and Columbuscityofchicago.org Free All-ages
