John Herdt Photos

THE 2002 TOMMY BOLIN MUSIC FESTIVAL

The 2002 Tommy Bolin Music Festival was held on Saturday, August 10, 2002 at Chautauqua Park in Tommy’s home town of Sioux City, Iowa. I drove out from Denver to play guitar in the Bobby Berge Project. The headliner that year was Rick Derringer. We had one rehearsal on Friday night, just a couple of hours after I got in from Denver. Here are some photos from the rehearsal, a motel room jam, the show, a trip to Tommy Bolin’s grave and the Sunday afternoon post-fest jam at John Nash’s Crosstown Cafe.

THE 2007 TOMMY BOLIN MUSIC FESTIVAL

The 2007 Tommy Bolin Music Festival took place on August 11, 2007 at The Chesterfield in Sioux City. I was supposed to play in the Tribute Band on Saturday but it didn’t work out so I’m going to mainly post pics here from the three days previous to that when I was playing promotional shows and having adventures around town. On Wednesday night I played at The Chesterfield with Johnnie Bolin, Jim Dandy Mangrum, David Hare and a few other fellows. On Thursday and Friday night I played fan jams at Stryker’s Grill with different lineups including Johnnie Bolin, Jim Dandy, David Hare, Craig Adams and others. Stryker’s was built into the hotel where all the Bolin heads stayed. That building at 1401 Zenith Drive is now the Rodeway Inn & Conference Center and the lounge is known as Gavin’s Place. It was the beloved Bolin Fest fan central up until a couple of years ago when it gained new ownership and frankly went downhill in ways that aren’t cool. Before that it was Bolin Valhalla, a place of legend. Also included are pictures of Roger Rothwell (RIP) who was a guitar mentor to Tommy Bolin, and George Larvick who played bass in Patch of Blue with a very young Tommy Bolin.

Fest organizer Trace Keane and I also did a radio interview conducted by the great Big Daddy on KKMA Kool 99.5 FM as part of the promo for the fest. I took my Taylor Big Baby acoustic travel guitar and played parts of some Tommy Bolin tunes in the second half of the show.