If it is Easter in the North of England, it is time for the Burnley Blues Festival. Now in its nineteenth year, the festival and its expanding fringe hosted an estimated 15,000 people over the weekend, attracted by acts all eager to parade their particular version of three chords and the truth. Walking down Church Street on Friday night was a bit like being in Austin, Texas — a band in every bar and a drink in every hand. Here, guitar trios with names such as Tin Pan Alley and Tony Dowler’s Hellhounds were the norm, their repertoires built around blues-rock standards such as La Grange and Rock Me Baby .

The nerve centre of the event was the Mechanics theatre. Here bands performed continuously both downstairs in Oliver’s Bar and upstairs in the main 450-capacity auditorium. Big guitar solos may have been the calling card of the modern blues era, but this was the year of the harmonica star. From the feelgood western swing grooves of Harmonica Mac and the Groovecats in the downstairs bar to the muscular gutbucket blues of the Californian star Johnny Mastro & Mama’s Boys on the big stage, the harp heroes were everywhere.

But none was more startling than Sugar Blue, who headlined the main stage on Saturday. Best known outside blues circles for his contribution to the Rolling Stones record Miss You , Blue is one of the vituoso players of this deceptively simple instrument. Indeed, his playing was at times more like a bop jazz musician than a blues blower, mixing influences from Charlie Parker to James Cotton as he skated with incredible speed and fluency across the upper register.

But for all the high velocity musicianship on offer it was the authentic R&B tunes and old-school showmanship of Earl Thomas and the Blues Ambassadors that stole the show on Saturday. Thomas, a latterday Otis Redding from Tennessee, performed brilliantly. He brought on the aptly named Hornettes, a two-woman horn section who performed a version of Etta James’s I’d Rather Go Blind during which time stood still.

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