On Friday evening, amidst sweltering heat and the push of a packed house, Jalacy (Screamin' Jay) Hawkins strolled onstage at Temple Bar Music Centre, shook his voodoo stick at us and cast the type of spell that only the very canny or the very talented can get away with. It was corny, and it was a one-trick act, but it worked. Thus began the Guinness Blues Festival, which proved over three days and nights that age really can make all the difference.
Now 70 years of age, there was a time in the Sixties when Screamin' Jay Hawkins played nostalgic one-nighters and tired cabaret shows. Shunned by the media (but not by the public) for his then shock tactics of utilising ghoulish props in his stage act, he continued on his idiosyncratic, decidedly non-commercial way through the Seventies and Eighties, influencing the likes of Alice Cooper.
His band, the Chicken Hawks, provided a backing of tight, chugging blues music, allowing Screamin' Jay to play to the crowd as he messed around on piano, screamed into the microphones and arranged his Joke Shop props around him. In the end, however, his performance (which included his classic hits I Put A Spell On You and Constipation Blues) was more amusing than scary.
