7-05-2025 4:04am

On the Common, Mike Crandall Franklin Blues Festival

Alan Earls Editor

Ed Peabody, just one of the talented blue musicians who will play the Fifth Annual Mike Crandall Franklin Blues Festival, on July 5th at Franklin Town Common.

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION from Franklin Local Town Pages

By J.D. O’Gara

It began as Mike Crandall’s idea.

Crandall, a blues artist himself, was working on Joe Carmignani’s house. Carmignani and Paul Kortick were planning musical acts for the annual Franklin 4th of July celebration, and conversation simply came up, says Joe.

“(Crandall) was really the driving force behind this, and the first four years (Crandall) did it all, he was really well-connected,” says Kortick.

Brandt Taylor, just one of the talented blue musicians who will play the Fifth Annual Mike Crandall Franklin Blues Festival, on July 5th at Franklin Town Common.

“When Mike started this, he had one rule,” says Carmignani, “We’re not going to have any divas in this, just great people who love to play the blues. He said, ‘If you do this right, a lot of people will come to you.’”

That advice seems to ring true. The Franklin Blues Festival was a hit with attendees and blues artists alike. Five years later, Crandall has passed on, and to honor his memory, last year, the Franklin’s Blues Festival became known as the Annual Mike Crandall Franklin Blues Festival. This year, it will take place on Saturday, July 5th, from noon to 9:45, followed by fireworks.

Many of the blues artists return each year, says Kortick, noting that the musicians are world-class acts. “They love the venue, love the experience, love to see one another, hang out, and listen to one another play, and that’s what we wanted. It’s really a fun environment for them as well as for everyone listening to them.”

“We have people play an hour to an hour and half of their best stuff, so no one is on stage for three hours, and they can play hard for that whole hour,” says Carmignani, “Each band wants to do well for the other bands that watch them.

The organizers explain that many of these musicians hail from Connecticut and are part of a blues society there, but this year one group is coming from Korea and the two preceding are coming in from Chicago.

Ed Peabody will be returning from Connecticut to play in Franklin’s Blues Festival for the fourth time. Praising the organizers as some of the nicest people he’s met in a long time, Peabody, who’s been in the blues circuit since he was 17 and has played with James Montgomery and sang with Room Full of Blues, as well as his own band, says joining in the festival is a pleasure.

“I get to play,” says Peabody, “I love it. It’s the way I was raised.”

Peabody played with Brandt Taylor last year, because his own band wasn’t available, and he has played with other acts like Sugar Ray and Neil & the Vipers as well.

“It’s such a unique thing. I’m very fortunate to know so many talented people, and it’s all interchangeable,” says Peabody, “Everyone knows their songs so well it doesn’t have to be rehearsed. Everyone feeds off everyone else, and I think that’s a complement in itself. If you take someone else’s music and you make it your own, your feel goes into it, and if somebody out in the audience is enjoying it, we did something good.

“The lineup they’re bringing in … they don’t get much better. It’s amazing that they’re here and we get to hear them.”

Brandt Taylor, too, comes from Canterbury, CT, and he has been involved from the get go.

“Mike was one of my dear friends, and I miss him every day. He was a great friend and a tremendous musician, one of the few real deal blues men I’ve ever met and a consummate artist.” Taylor, who’ll not only play the festival but backline the guitar amps, bass amp and percussion for musical acts the whole weekend, says, “I love that it’s a wide cross section of people, being that it’s a town fest. You get people from all ages, and it’s bringing in (blues) names, also. It’s nice to have a venue for that. They’re getting fewer and farther in-between.”