By Larry Nager
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Queen City Blues Fest had its mojo working again Saturday, as the thunderstorms that had been predicted all weekend never appeared.

At worst, it drizzled a little during the Campbell Brothers' climactic closing set, the weekend's biggest musical storm.

That group's sanctified blues, an irresistible mix of foot-stomping Southern gospel with the slippery, serpentine sounds of steel guitars, was by far the best in show. It was made even better by the unbilled presence of guitar great Lonnie Mack, who drove from Nashville to play with the Campbells at his own expense.

"These guys are my heroes. I'm so proud to be here with them," he told the cheering crowd of almost 12,000 after he led them through one of signature songs, "Cincinnati Jail."

The Campbells' set closed off an exciting triple play that had begun with guitarist Rick Holmstrom's innovative performance. In such tunes as "Shake It (Part 2)," he mixed fine West Cost-style jump blues guitar with electronic samples. But the quieter sections of his psycho-blues raveup, "Pee Wee's Nightmare," were obliterated by the bleed-over from the gospel stage, which this year was placed much too close to the P&G Pavilion, the main stage of the fest.

Blues icon Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown followed Holmstrom with an eclectic show short on real blues ("Strange Things Happening"), but featuring swinging jazz ("One O'clock Jump"), Cajun/country ("When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again," played on fiddle) and even the easy-listening cha-cha sounds of "Unchained Melody."

The other two stages kept strictly to their mandates, as the gospel stage presented an assortment of groups, the most exciting of which was Sjuwana Byers & the Children of God. Backed by a tight gospel rhythm section, Byers led the vocal group with her huge voice, superstar confidence and brilliant sense of tension and release.

Saturday's Piano Stage featured some fine talents, including local boogie king Big Joe Duskin, the dynamic Rob Rio and ex-Saffire member Ann Rabson, but it's time to change that format.

Friday's acoustic blues lineup was the best yet, and it packed the plaza around the Cincinnatus statue, helping bring the opening day attendance to around 7,000 (for a weekend total of almost 20,000). Mixing it up, alternating piano and guitar acts throughout the weekend, would make the acoustic stage more attractive to a wider audience that prefers quieter blues sounds. And how many versions of the boogie warhorse "Down the Road Apiece" can piano-stage organizers expect people to sit through in one day?

But mix piano with the raw Delta guitar of Rory Block, the hit of Friday's unplugged lineup, and you've got a world-class acoustic stage.

Friday had a good array of artists, ranging from the slick, booty-shaking R&B of Bobby Rush to the potent high-octane gospel of the local Voices of Thunder.

This was the first year the festival charged admission to the Sawyer Point event, but the nominal fee ($3 daily, $5 weekend) seemed to bring more people.

With more attention paid to the overall sound - better stage separation, an improved acoustic-stage sound system - the Queen City Blues Fest has the potential to be a major-league event.

At times, most notably the Campbell Brothers-meets-Lonnie Mack blues jam, the 2003 edition was a state-of-the-art festival, an event people will talk about for years. Great musicians playing powerful, emotionally uplifting music for a wildly appreciative crowd - it doesn't get any better.

E-mail lnager@enquirer.com