Concert of blues rebounds in Orono

In the south, the porch is a place where music happens – under a sultry sky, within earshot of the crickets and lit by the moon. That was the projected mood Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono when “Front Porch Blues,” a packaged tour of dexterous musicians blazed through the neighborhood.

The headliners were veteran guitarist Elvin Bishop and harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite, both of whom proved that you don’t lose the blues. Musselwhite, whose “She May Be Your Woman (But She Comes to See Me Every Night)” was one of the popular hits with the packed house, guided the second half of the concert with suave and seasoned friendliness. He’s a champ on guitar and at vocals, but his juke-joint gift is with the blues harp and he literally blew the audience away.

Bishop, who is 60 this year, clearly qualifies for Rolling Stone retro-rocker status with boyhood volume and wild rhythmic insistence. He still has his licks but leaping into the audience to find a pretty girl to bring onstage to strum his guitar walked the fine line between crowd-pleasing and creepy.

The first half of the show introduced additional porch-worthy talents in virtuoso guitarist Deborah Coleman, rocket (not to mention rock-it) pianist Henry Butler and swift-picking guitarist Corey Harris.

Of the three, Butler is the seasoned performer. A regular on the New Orleans circuit, Butler makes notes cascade from the piano. Verbose though he is between songs – he loves to make jokes about his blindness – he can muscle that magical combination of funk and form from the keys. He played a jazzy “Orleans Inspiration,” tipped his hat to Cab Callaway in a call-answer session, and laid out a syncopated version of “Great Balls of Fire.”

For “The Game Has Just Begun,” the title song from one of his recordings, Butler was joined by Deborah Coleman, the revelation of the evening. Coleman, who is also a singer-songwriter, has been called a combination of Jimi Hendrix and Tracy Chapman, but the truth is that she ignites a fire all her own with earth-core vocals and sophisticated riffs. Her slow wind-out of “The Dream” and textured “I’m a Woman” displayed her star-power richness.

A capable soloist, Coleman also shined in a trio set with Felton Crews on bass and Bobby Cochran on drums, both of whom throughout the evening framed the lead performances with discerning sportsmanship.

A graduate of Bates College, Corey Harris returned to his alma mater state with a sense, he said at intermission, of coming home. “I like it here. It’s peaceful,” he said. Harris’ work keeps him elsewhere these days, but the fusion blues musician caressed a radical reggae, gospel, jazz, R&B, slide sound from several guitars.

The concert got off to a slow start but that’s to be expected on the last night of a 20-city tour that began a month ago. These musicians were tired – and, unfortunately, they bothered to tell the audience. The jam session in the second half of the three-hour-plus event more than made up for it, however. That is to say, the lucky-seven ensemble rocked the porch into the night.