Today The RaveUps left the comfortable environs of the San Francisco Bay Area and headed for the Gold Country of California. The destination was the 12th annual Fire On The Mountain Blues Festival in Sonora. After a rendezvous at the studio, we caravaned for 2 hours or so into the Sierra Nevada mountains just north of Yosemite Valley. Being a Yardbirds tribute band, The RaveUps weren't quite sure how they would be received at a blues festival, but The Yardbirds were blues based so what the heck.

Russ Garrett, host of the Yardbirds website forum, told us there would be some fans there who had heard of us from our YouTube videos and The RaveUps web site. Going on just before us was another big Yardbirds fan, MICK MARTIN. Mick has his own blues band, and does a radio show out of Sacramento, CA. After Mick got the crowd worked up and dancing, it was The RaveUps turn.

We started out with “What Do You Want”. The audience knew it wasn’t blues, but they were nodding their heads and tapping their feet. Then we broke into “I’m Not Talking”. Now we had them, and it was a love fest from that point on. Dancing in the aisles to “Rack My Mind” and “I Wish You Would” we then went back to basics with “Drinking Muddy Water” and got a big cheer for “Heart Full of Soul”. Everybody sang along to “For Your Love” and started having flashbacks with the psychedelic “Shapes Of Things”. The RaveUps created their own raveup on “Lost Woman” and treated the crowd to a non-Yardbirds song, “Becks Bolero”. Finally we closed with “I’m a Man” and the crowd was brought to it’s feet for a standing ovation.

For being at a “blues festival”, British rock was received with open arms. The RaveUps hopefully brought some new fans into the British rock fold, to help spread the word of what The Yardbirds did over forty years ago.

That’s all for now,

The RaveUps