Blues is Booming in the Bay Area

NOTE: This feature was written to preview the festival that took place in mid-June 2025. — bk

Well into its fifth decade, popular Fountain Blues Festival expands to two days

Building on its successful 40-plus year history, the Fountain Blues Festival comes to Plaza de Cesar Chavez on June 14-15. Award-winning guitarists Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Walter Trout will headline a bill that also includes Kid Andersen’s Greaseland All Stars, Vanessa Collier, Aki Kumar, Alabama Mike, M’Sippi Slide, Mike Zito and more. This year’s lineup builds on the Festival’s expansion into “blues-adjacent music,” what Fountain Blues Foundation board secretary and marketing director Dan Orloff describes as “music that brings people closer to the blues, [even though] they may not know they’re listening to the blues.” The festival will also feature artisans, family fun and plenty of regional food trucks and craft beverages.

Keeping the Blues Alive
The Fountain Blues Festival traces its history back to 1981, when founder Ted Gehrke launched the event in conjunction with the Associated Students Program Board of San Jose State University. “He was quite a character; bigger than life,” says Orloff. “Ted was very passionate about live music, and about music having an impact on our lives.” Over the years, Gherke was a prime mover in growing the annual event, remaining active until his death in 2019.

Board president Suzanne St. John-Crane is a well-known figure in the Bay Area music scene; in the ‘90s she sang with Archie Lee Hooker, son of famed blues legend John Lee Hooker. Since 2000 she has fronted Pearl Alley with husband and guitarist David Crane. St. John-Crane was recruited to the Fountain Blues Foundation’s board by past chair (and founder of ‘60s garage rock sensation Syndicate of Sound) Bob Gonzales. “Bob and Dan Orloff helped keep [the festival] alive for years,” she says.

Orloff is a marketing consultant who advises business and nonprofit organizations. A multi-instrumentalist and founder of San Jose Rocks, for the last decade he has been combining his expertise and passion for music through his work with the Fountain Blues Foundation. “Both Suzanne and I have been deeply involved in what we lovingly refer to as the ‘San Jose condition,’ trying to lift this downtown and create the experience economy.” he says. Orloff believes that live music is central to that mission. “But live music doesn’t stay alive without people keeping it alive,” he says.

Orloff admits that living up to that mission presents challenges. “Frankly, the festival industry is hurting,” he says. The costs involved in producing a festival continue to mount; Orloff cites several contributing factors including security and the infrastructure that supports crowd visits. “And artists need to charge more,” he says, “because they’re getting less from royalties than they did back in the old days.”

The Fountain Blues Festival does more than provide a great experience for the featured musicians, artists and fans, Orloff believes. “It activates the properties and the individuals around the businesses and residences in the downtown,” he says. “That’s a big part of why we do it.” In Orloff’s view, San Jose is the only place in all of the Bay Area that’s prepared to deliver an experience on the level of the festival, the oldest event of its kind in Northern California.

St. John-Crane says that the mission of the Foundation is “preservation, education and celebration of the indigenous American art for we know as the blues.” From a personal standpoint, the educational component resonates most deeply for her. “As the mother of a couple of young women who are musicians, I’m really interested in that,” she says. “Music is medicine, and our young people need that right now.” She says that educational initiatives will explore “future careers at the intersection of music, touring and technology.”

But right now, everyone involved – the foundation board members and their all-volunteer team – is focused on putting together this year’s festival. In an era where festival ticket prices are soaring, and some events have scaled back, the Fountain Blues Festival is heading in the opposite direction. Advance tickets granting access to all performances are priced at $51.50.

And for 2025, the festival expands to two days. “I was emceeing the festival last year,” St. John-Crane recalls. “Mayor [Matt] Mahan was onstage with me, and he asked, ‘Why isn’t this a two-day event?’” When she explained that a bigger festival would require more funding, Mahan replied, “How do I help with that?” Not long thereafter, a fundraising event succeeded in securing the financial resources to make a two-day festival a reality. “The mayor got the right people in the room,” she says. So while some smaller and mid-sized festivals are going away, St. John-Crane says that the Fountain Blues Festival is “bucking the trend.”