The Kinsey Report, 

RBC Ottawa Bluesfest

The Kinsey Report, Monster Energy stage

 Sure, it was stinking hot Sunday afternoon, but the blues never has been about achieving Nirvana.  And Gary, Indiana’s the Kinsey Report — brothers Donald (guitar and lead vocals), Ralph (drums) and Kenneth (bass) Kinsey plus Andy Ogrodzinski on rhythm guitar — plays blues that’s decidedly not about blissful times. Along with tunes about mean women and love gone south, Sunday’s set list included the race relations song When the Church Burned Down. “That’s just about what’s going on in the United States — they burn them down,” said Donald Kinsey bitterly. His later guitar solo on Code of the Street, a social conscience song about marginalized youth, was masterful, a howl of angry and despair ripped from the mean streets. It was the classic reason for playing the blues: singing about bad times actually makes you feel better. Speaking of which, the band then lightened the mood by segueing into bluesy reggae with a cover of Bob Marley’s Stir It Up.