Rotella tribute to open annual Niagara Falls Blues Festival

Mark Scheer, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·4 min read

Sep. 15—This year's Niagara Falls Blues Festival will kick off in the only way possible — with a tribute to the annual event's hard-working, dedicated and blues-loving founder Thomas Philip "Toby" Rotella.

The former owner of the Imperial Garage, who was for more than a decade the driving force behind the city's annual blues fest, passed away in March at the age of 82.

The annual downtown event dedicated to the music he loved carries on this weekend on Old Falls Street.

His life partner, Sherry Kushner, vice president of Niagara Falls Festival and Entertainment Group, which presents the festival each year, will start this weekend's show with a memorial to Toby starting at 5 p.m. today. Others will join in honoring the legacy of Rotella, who held his first blues fest in the Falls in the parking lot behind the former Niagara Falls Convention Center, now Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino, back in 1983.

The festival is now in its 14th year.

"This is his invention," Kushner said. "The Niagara Falls Blues Festival is what it is today because of Toby. it's an actual thing because of him."

Thanks to Rotella, Kushner and other supporters, including the City of Niagara Falls itself, the festival has become an annual late summer staple on Old Falls Street where it has been held since 2014. Over the years, the festival has drawn thousands of people downtown, many coming from other parts of the state, the country, from Canada and other locations worldwide.

This year's show will cover two days, starting today and ending Saturday.

Both nights of the festival will give blues fans the chance to see and hear a wide range of blues music and styles and will wrap up with a pair of top-flight headliners.

Friday's show will be headlined by Joe Louis Walker, also known as JLW, who is regarded for his electric blues guitar playing and his affinity for older materials and playing styles.

On Saturday, blues vocalist Shemekia Copeland will close out the festival. Copeland made her first on-stage appearance at age 10 at the famed Cotton Club and started her career in music at age 16. She is the recipient of eight Blues Music Awards, including 'Album of the Year,' 'Contemporary Album of the Year' and 'Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year.'

The full rundown of scheduled Blues Festival activities today is as follows:

—Tribute and memorial honoring festival founder Toby Rotella starting at 5 p.m.

—Cleveland's Back Street Blues Band kicks off the music, taking the stage at 6 p.m.

—Spencer Mackenzie, a young Canadian blues rock artist, follows at 7 p.m. In 2023. Mackenzie was nominated for a Juno award.

—Headliner Joe Louis Walker will wrap up the first day of the festival with a performance from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the lineup of events looks like this:

—The Imperial Garage Classic Car and Bike Cruise, which honors the memory of Rotella's late nephew, David Rotella who was killed in a motorcycle accident, starts at noon at Hyde Park.

Participants are asked to meet in the Hyde Park lot nearest to the veterans memorial. Cruisers will leave the park at 12:30 p.m. and head down to Falls Street for the start of day two of the festival. The music starts at 1 p.m. with a performance by Tommy Z, an award-winning guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer from Western New York. Z will be followed on stage by Studebaker John & The Hawks at 3 p.m. "Studebaker" John Grimaldi started playing harmonica at age 7 and he and his band have been staples of the Chicago blues scene since the 1970s.

—Mike Morgan and the Crawl, a blues band out of Texas, will take the stage at 5 p.m.

—Lurrie Bell, the son of famed blues harmonica player Carey Bell, will follow at 7 p.m.

—Copeland will end the festival with a performance from 9 to 10:30 p.m.

All performances for the blues festival will take place on Old Falls Street in downtown Niagara Falls. Admission is free. Beverages and food will be available for purchase. Several vendors will be on hand selling T-shirts and other items.

Kushner stressed that there will be dedicated motorcycle parking during this year's festival. Motorcyclists are invited to park their bikes on First Street, between Old Falls and Niagara streets, during festival hours.

This year's event is sponsored by the county's lead tourism agency, Destination Niagara USA, which manages Old Falls Street, and the City of Niagara Falls.

"It's a wonderful time. It's free. It fills up two blocks of Old Falls Street, wall to wall. It certainly attracts thousands of people and they are from all over the place, not just Niagara falls and Buffalo and WNY," Kushner said.

For full details about this year's Niagara Falls Blues Festival, follow the event's Facebook page or visit its website at www.niagarafallsbluesfest.org.