Building on its successful 40-plus year history, the Fountain Blues Festival comes to Plaza de Cesar Chavez on June 14-15. Award-winning guitarists Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Walter Trout will headline a bill that also includes Kid Andersen’s Greaseland All Stars, Vanessa Collier, Aki Kumar, Alabama Mike, M’Sippi Slide, Mike Zito and more. This year’s lineup builds on the festival’s expansion into “blues-adjacent music,” what Fountain Blues Foundation board secretary and marketing director Dan Orloff describes as “music that brings people closer to the blues, [even though] they may not know they’re listening to the blues.” The festival will also feature artisans, family fun and plenty of regional food trucks and craft beverages.
Keeping the Blues Alive
The Fountain Blues Festival traces its history back to 1981, when founder Ted Gehrke launched the event in conjunction with the Associated Students Program Board of San Jose State University. “He was quite a character; bigger than life,” Orloff says. “Ted was very passionate about live music, and about music having an impact on our lives.” Over the years, Gehrke was a prime mover in growing the annual event, remaining active until his death in 2019.
Board president Suzanne St. John-Crane is a well-known figure in the Bay Area music scene; in the ‘90s she sang with Archie Lee Hooker, son of famed blues legend John Lee Hooker. Since 2000 she has fronted Pearl Alley with husband and guitarist David Crane. St. John-Crane was recruited to the Fountain Blues Foundation’s board by past chair (and founder of ’60s garage rock sensation Syndicate of Sound) Bob Gonzalez. “Bob and Dan Orloff helped keep [the festival] alive for years,” she says.
Orloff is a marketing consultant who advises business and nonprofit organizations. A multi-instrumentalist and founder of San Jose Rocks, for the last decade he has been combining his expertise and passion for music through his work with the Fountain Blues Foundation. “Both Suzanne and I have been deeply involved in what we lovingly refer to as the ‘San Jose condition,’ trying to lift this downtown and create the experience economy.” he says. Orloff believes that live music is central to that mission. “But live music doesn’t stay alive without people keeping it alive,” he says.
Orloff admits that living up to that mission presents challenges. “Frankly, the festival industry is hurting,” he says. The costs involved in producing a festival continue to mount; Orloff cites several contributing factors, including security and the infrastructure that supports crowd visits. “And artists need to charge more,” he says, “because they’re getting less from royalties than they did back in the old days.”
The Fountain Blues Festival does more than provide a great experience for the featured musicians, artists and fans, Orloff believes. “It activates the properties and the individuals around the businesses and residences in the downtown,” he says. “That’s a big part of why we do it.” In Orloff’s view, San Jose is the only place in all of the Bay Area that’s prepared to deliver an experience on the level of the festival, the oldest event of its kind in Northern California.
St. John-Crane says that the mission of the Foundation is “preservation, education and celebration of the indigenous American art for we know as the blues.” From a personal standpoint, the educational component resonates most deeply for her. “As the mother of a couple of young women who are musicians, I’m really interested in that,” she says. “Music is medicine, and our young people need that right now.” She says that educational initiatives will explore “future careers at the intersection of music, touring and technology.”
But right now, everyone involved—the foundation board members and their all-volunteer team—is focused on putting together this year’s festival. In an era where festival ticket prices are soaring, and some events have scaled back, the Fountain Blues Festival is heading in the opposite direction. Advance tickets granting access to all performances are priced at $51.50.
And for 2025, the festival expands to two days. “I was emceeing the festival last year,” St. John-Crane recalls. “Mayor [Matt] Mahan was onstage with me, and he asked, ‘Why isn’t this a two-day event?’” When she explained that a bigger festival would require more funding, Mahan replied, “How do I help with that?” Not long thereafter, a fundraising event succeeded in securing the financial resources to make a two-day festival a reality. “The mayor got the right people in the room,” she says. So while some smaller and mid-sized festivals are going away, St. John-Crane says that the Fountain Blues Festival is “bucking the trend.”
Bollywood to the Blues
Bay Area singer and harmonica player Aki Kumar has one of the more unusual back stories in blues. Born in Mumbai to music-loving parents, he was always immersed in music. “A curious mix of classic Bollywood songs and American pop music,” he recalls. But it wasn’t until he had come to the U.S.—eventually studying at San Jose State University—that he discovered the blues.
He recalls being inspired by Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson. “I remember hearing them and thinking, ‘This is not a style I have ever heard before, with all that wailing and chugging,’” Kumar says. “I had previously thought that [harmonica] was an instrument completely incapable of that.” He started taking harmonica lessons from noted instructor and musician David Barrett. After a lesson or two, on his teacher’s recommendation he went to a show at a blues venue. “I walked in, and the band was playing [the music of] Jimmy Reed.” He was hooked, and dug deeper into the blues.
Kumar eventually hooked up with a local band, Tip of the Top. With them he honed his style and onstage presentation. “I have my mom to thank, because when I was very young, she got me on stage a few times.” But that early foundation only got him so far. “You may have been in a school play 20 years ago, but this is a whole different skill set,” he observes. “You’re proving yourself in a different culture with a different language.”
But Kumar did prove himself, and by 2013 he devoted himself full time to music. He released his first solo album, Don’t Hold Back, in 2014. Kumar would go on to perform at high-profile festivals, and even toured his native India in 2019. In recent years he has cultivated skills on other instruments including drums. And during the pandemic he taught himself recording techniques. His latest album, the sardonically titled God Bless the USA, is a self-produced effort that showcases Kumar’s unique synthesis of Chicago-styled electric blues with a distinctively Indian sensibility.
Kumar’s philosophy on life and music is simple and straightforward: “Rinse and repeat until you can’t fail,” he says. “When you get good at something, the confidence comes with it.”
Adventures in Greaseland
Guitarist, songwriter and producer Christoffer “Kid” Andersen is a blues traveler as well. His musical journey began in his native Norway; taking up the guitar at age 11, he was inspired by the blues when he saw a TV news story on the 1996 Notodden Blues Festival. “It was only about ten seconds of Richard Cousins and Robert Cray,” he recalls. “But I remember seeing it and thinking, ‘That’s blues? That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard!’” His future became clear then and there.
Andersen doesn’t remember when he decided he’d eventually move to the United States. “I just knew that if I wanted to do this in a manner that meant something to me, I would have to go to where it came from.” He noticed that a lot of top blues players came from the West Coast, so after forging a friendship with band leader Terry Hanck, he moved to California in March 2001. “I’ve been in the Bay Area ever since,” he says.
In addition to acclaimed and high-profile guitar spots in a number of bands (playing with Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite and Rick Estrin & the Nightcats), Andersen is the go-to producer in today’s blues scene. With more than 80 production credits to his name, Andersen has established his Greaseland Studios as a premier facility to capture the authentic sound and vibe of today’s blues artists. His schedule is so packed that many years passed between his last solo album and his most recent, Spirits and Soul—half of a double LP with wife Lisa.
With modesty, Andersen insists that he’s still a student of the blues. “If you really want to start learning about something,” he says, “the first thing you’ve got to learn is: You don’t know anything.”
Fountain Blues & Brews Festival Lineup
The 42nd San Jose Fountain Blues & Brews Festival takes place June 14-15 at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, 170 S Market St, San Jose. In addition to music scheduled from noon to 8pm on two stages, the festival offers a selection of beverages from 20-plus regional breweries, wineries and cider houses, paired with Southern-inspired cuisine and local favorites. There is also an Instrument Petting Zoo, interactive games and vendors. Tickets are $31.50 for one day, $51.50 for two. Some VIP tickets remain for June 15. Visit fountainblues.com.
Main Stage
June 14
Noon–1:15pm—M’sippi Slide
2–3:30pm—Mike Zito
4:15–5:45pm—Greaseland Allstars with RJ Mischo & Fillmore Slim
6:30–8pm—Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
June 15
Noon–1:15pm—Aki Kumar Bollywood Band
2–3:30pm—Alabama Mike & the Revelators
4:15–5:45pm—Vanessa Collier with Laura Chavez
6:30-8pm—Walter Trout
Poor House Bistro Stage
June 14
11:15–11:55am—Petrichor
1:15–1:55pm—Kevin Legnon & the American Vandals
3:30–4:10pm—Kyle Rowland Band
5:45–6:25pm—AC Myles
June 15
11:15–11:55am—Sunny Blues Band
1:15–1:55pm—Lauren Halliwell & the Dirty Sound
3:30–4:10pm—St. George & the Sinners with Amy Sarver
5:45–6:25pm—Herb Toor Band with Gleidson Sousa
