John Németh oozes the blues. Nearly everything he says sounds like a lyric or a song title. “I’m drivin’ – halfway to Little Rock,” he says as he picks up a call.
The Boise-bred, Memphis-based singer/songwriter/blues harp master has blazed a trail from Idaho to San Francisco to Tennessee with eight albums to his credit. He returns to California with his band The Blue Dreamers to headline this weekend’s Father’s Day Blues Festival at Poppy Hills.
Németh displays considerable harmonica chops, but it is his stage presence and a soulful tenor voice that has fueled his rise to the top of the blues charts. But how does a white kid from Boise find a voice that sounds like a cross between James Brown, Robert Cray and Marvin Gaye?
He recalls hanging with friends singing to old blues and soul records. “I listened to the Delta guys – Charlie Patton, Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, all of ’em,” Németh says. “They’re the basis of it all, you know. My mom loved the crooners and tried to get me to like them, but you don’t hear Perry Como trying to pull off the Delta blues.”
Also appearing is longtime Santana alum Tony Lindsay and The Soul Soldiers, smooth R&B singer Al James and his band, and both the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Star Combo and the Monterey Jazz Youth All-Stars.
The event features food trucks from Kuki’s, Choke Coach, Tacos Don Beto, Sideways Street Food, Chef Johnny’s Great Wall of Grill and Revival Ice Cream Sandwiches. Galante, Scheid and McIntyre wineries pour, together with Mad Otter Ale and Ketel One, Bulleit and Don Julio.
An expanded Kids Zone hosts obstacle courses, rock climbing walls, face painters, balloon twisters, and magicians. And proceeds benefit the Monterey Jazz Festival’s educational outreach.
“Blues in the Forest has become one of the premier music events on the Peninsula in one of the most beautiful settings,” says Jazz Fest Education Director Paul Contos, who just received a DownBeat magazine Jazz Education Achievement Award. “We treasure the relationship with Poppy Hills in providing support for our programs.”
Poppy Hills general manager Brad Shupe adds another youthful note. “This is a unique music festival because it is so family-focused,” he says. “Dads get some of the best blues artists in America, while kids have a special playground.”
BLUES FESTIVAL IN THE FOREST 11:30am-5:30pm Sunday, June 18. $30; free/12 and under. Poppy Hills Golf Club, 3200 Lopez Road, Pebble Beach. 622-8239, poppyhillsgolf.com/blues
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