The Shams Band break out act of Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival

There cannot be a more appropriate venue for the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues festival than the Congress Theater. The theater, constructed in 1926, combines the Classical Revival and Italian Renaissance styles. Marble arches and domes, ornate chandeliers and gilded ceilings: the old styles became new during construction and over the years have evolved through deterioration and restoration. The theater looks and feels the way bluegrass and blues music sounds.
One expects airtight, rocking performances from headliners Béla Fleck & the Flecktones and Dr. Dog. Both bands delivered. The true joy of these festivals is in seeing bands that are just breaking, just arriving. These bands were playing the Pavilion stage, rocking the lobby and welcoming everyone to the festival.
The Shams Band—last year’s “Last Banjo Standing” winners—stepped up and supplied this year’s breakout performance. Their energy, passion and damn-good songwriting captured the crowd’s attention, set feet dancing, and triggered more than one sing-along.
The band features three songwriters, each with their own unique voice and style, each fitting perfectly alongside the other. The set opened with Donnie Biggins picking out the descending chord progression of “Shelly,” a folk song caught up in the contradictions of holding onto innocence while growing up.
Then comes the straight blues of bassist Brian Patterson’s “Pour Me a Drink.” This ode to not needing anything but a drink poured at the end of the day calls to mind The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” in the best of ways.
“In The Sun” is the first song we hear from electric guitarist Paul Gulyas, and it’s the first song that bucks description. It builds with calm and cool bass and drums—the snare echoing off the marble walls of the Congress Theater lobby—before it erupts into a climax of crashing electric chords and desperate vocals.
Unfortunately, the band had to cut two songs from the set list due to time constraints. Fortunately, they cut straight to the epic hymnal sing-along “The Des Plaines River,” replete with pleading harmonica lines, soaring solos, thumping drums, and a giant chorus.
The closer, “Working Man,” shows the band doing what it does best: trapezing the line between blues, country and folk music with lyrics that are both genuine and tongue-in-cheek and musical craftsmanship that is both classic and unique.
The Shams Band blend styles together into something new, while calling back to the classic forms they were born out of. They showed they belong in a venue like the Congress Theater, at a festival like the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues fest. It’d be no great surprise to see them on the main stage soon.