When we heard that Black Joe Lewis was coming to the Portland blues festival, our ears immediately perked up. Jimi Hendrix and James Brown are dead, but Black Joe is carrying on spectacularly in both traditions. With his band, the Honeybears, he's been known to blow out clubs all over the country. And here in Portland, he was allotted two sets at the tightly choreographed blues fest -- a main stage hour coming up this afternoon at 5, and an "after hours" set last night at the Marriott, across the street from the main event.

We fumbled the ball in getting a ticket for last night's show, but our good friend Chris was on the case, and next thing we knew we were in the hotel ballroom waiting for Black Joe to step up on the stage.

As expected, based on the previous time we saw him, Black Joe tore it up. His band appears to have lost a keyboardist, but at least for last night, it gained a dancer. Her name was Ruby. This seemed to fit right in with the title of the band's new album, "Scandalous." The highlights of the night were "Bobby Booshay," "She's So Scanadalous," and "Booty City," but you could tell these guys were holding the even better stuff in reserve for the big crowd this afternoon. God bless 'em, they made a righteous noise.

By the way, please forgive the quality of the photo at the top of this post. It was taken on a cheap cell phone, and the floor on which we were standing was bouncing up and down, in time with the music, pretty vigorously.

We're proud to say we attended the very first Portland blues festival, when it was held up toward the other end of the park. The logistics of what it's morphed into in the 20-plus years since are pretty complicated, and if memory serves, it's been nine years since we last ventured down there. But sneaking in and out of the Marriott for one band was easy, and so rewarding. We're definitely going to be feeling a pull in that direction this afternoon.