Catch a cool blast of blues and jazz

A breezy blast of cool musical mood and attitude is coming this way, courtesy of the 12th Annual Blues & Jazz Festival, Friday in downtown Rock Hill. It’s a crawl from venue to restaurant to club to hangout winding around the Main Street area from 7-11 p.m.

Sponsored by the City of Rock Hill and the York County Arts Council, this annual event has gained gusto with each year, taking on new locations, participants, and fans. For 2016, there are nine sites in all, offering up a cool collection of artists, bands, and performers spouting the blues and jamming on jazz plus a bit of rock rolled in for good measure.

One of the longest running participants for the Blues & Jazz Festival is singer/songwriter/guitarist Scott Bristow – better known to some as Bristo Blue. He is also one fifth of the Spiral Eyes Band. Both incarnations can be found mid-crawl in the Courtroom at Getty’s Art Center on Main Street.

In a phone conversation, Bristow agreed he’s performed “at least 10 years in the festival, starting in a back room somewhere as a solo act, then as a duo, then a band.”

From that start, he said the event has expanded with “more acts, more venues, all growing with a steady audience. Oh, yeah, it’s a fun audience,” he continued, “and all very authentic. They really come to hear something.”

What does he believe they find? “I think you get to hear some of the true South, especially here, then around from Georgia to Florida. There’s a strong Southern presence in the music when played by homegrown people,” he said. “It’s the real South that comes out – the raw actual performance of real people with their imperfections, mistakes, power and magic all rolled into a song.”

From Rock Hill by way of Fort Mill, Bristow is a talented, popular musician with a longstanding following, thanks to multiple band credits. Known for dedication and deep immersion into the sound, he believes “it’s all about the inspiration and the creativity.”

Bristow’s brand of blues combines classic rock with a British Invasion edge and offers as example how a bluesy rock song can go from a simple three-chord progression into something different, thanks to interpretation.

That same spark of inventive musicality also finds its way into the music of the band Spiral Eyes, which also features Bristow along with Anni Zawila Loggins, Chris Rowe, Dusty Singleton, and Lou Lambruschi. Inspired by classic rock from the late ’60s to the mid ’70s, the band puts its own special touch on tunes.

Encounter the creative bluesy ingenuity of Bristo Blue plus the Spiral Eyes Band live Friday in the Getty’s Art Center Courtroom, 2nd Floor, 201 E. Main Street as part of the 12th Annual Blues & Jazz Festival in downtown Rock Hill.

Venture through all of the sounds, styles and scenes from start to finish live Friday at the 12th Annual Blues & Jazz Festival in downtown Rock Hill, including Southern Avenue Band at McHale’s On Main, 122 E. Main Street; Adrian Crutchfield at the City Club, 140 E. Main Street; Phillip Howe at Five & Dine, 135 E. Main Street; Stolen Hearts with Pam Taylor & Robert Johnson in the Black & White Alley behind Jimmy John’s, 147 E. Main Street; Frost-Meccia Duo at Amelie’s, 157 E. Main Street; Pat ‘Mother Blues’ Cohen at Millstone Pizza, 121 Caldwell Street, Suite 103; Bristo Blue with the Spiral Eyes Band at Getty’s Art Center Courtroom, 2nd Floor, 201 E. Main Street; J’Michael Peeples Duo at Thi’s Place on Main, 210 E. Main Street; winding down to Letron Brantley Duo at The Flipside Restaurant, 129 Caldwell Street. For more info, go to yorkcountyart.org.

Coming up

Friday: Khaos Kings at Sandbar Grill, Rock Hill; Shotgun Saints at Luke’s Sports Bar & Grill, Rock Hill; Just 4 Fun at The Handle Bar Tavern, Catawba; Mike & Chase at The Craft Stand, Lancaster.

Saturday: Matt Tucker at Revolutions at The Galleria Mall, Rock Hill; David Williams at Sandbar Grill, Rock Hill; Delta Fire at Original Empire Pizza, Rock Hill; Chubby Knuckles, Catawba River Monster, more at WingBonz Live, Rock Hill; Elvis Production, an evening with a legend, starring Austin Irby & Taylor Vaden at Sylvia Theater, York; The Oneppo Brothers Band at John’s Place, Fort Mill; Lipstick on a Pig at T-Bones on the Lake, Lake Wylie; Southern Experience at Pineville Tavern, Pineville.

Sunday: Khaos Kings at Handle Bar Tavern, Catawba.

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Catch a cool blast of blues and jazz."