BIG DAVE
Big Dave McLean recently released For the
Blues...'Always' on Stony Plain, produced by Colin
James. Dave says "Muddy Waters has been one of the biggest influences in my
life, and I wanted to get at least one of his songs on this record; he recorded several versions of this one over the years. He was a wonderful man, and knowing him was one of the
most memorable things in my life. Years ago, I made a record to sell off the stage called
Muddy Waters for President; this is the second album I've made, and there had to be a Muddy
tune on it, because he was, indeed, 'The Man.'"
Big Dave McLean is in Toronto for a special appearance at the Maple Blues Awards presentation February 8th at the Phoenix (he is nominated for the "Blues with a Feeling" (BWAF) award). Richard Flohil, TBS board member and long time publicist for Stony Plain Records provides this profile of a Canadian blues pioneer.
Big Dave McLean has been playing great music for almost 30 years, and it's taken almost all that time to begin to build a national reputation in Canada. In fact, it took until 1998 before his first major album was released on a nationally-distributed label.
You can't blame that on the blues which he plays damn near every night of the week but you could blame it on the man's lifestyle, his affection for his family, and the strong support he enjoys in his hometown.
He still lives in Winnipeg, a Manitoba city on the eastern edge of Canada's prairies. It's a part of Canada noted for its miserably cold winters and the warmth and hospitality of its residents.
Many Winnipeg artists have left from Neil Young to Loreena McKennitt to seek so-called greener pastures. But Dave McLean has always stayed, and when you ask him why he explains that everyone, even a blues player, needs a home. 'Look,' he says, 'I love to play in Vancouver and Toronto and the big American cities. But I've had a steady circuit here for years, and if you play the blues, it's hard to find a place where you can afford to buy a home and raise a family, and I like being home in the day with the kids.
'And you can do these things here in Winnipeg; you can have a house and a yard and all those normal things.' He pauses, and grins: 'Of course, it's a tough place to work out of because the next gig in any direction is 600 miles away.'
That's a slight exaggeration; it's only 367 miles to Regina, 440 to Thunder Bay, and 463 to Minneapolis. (But it is 1340 miles to Vancouver, and 1208 to Toronto, and they're the big markets for blues artists in Canada). So blame geography, not talent, for the fact that the man isn't as well known as his skills and talent deserve.
That's why Colin James - himself a prairie boy who's now based on the west coast, and certainly one of the best-known Canadian blues artists there is - put himself into the picture.
'Dave McLean has been stalwartly keeping up the blues tradition for years,' says James. 'I first heard him when I was nine, and he blew me away then, and he still does today. He's one of the great undiscovered bluesmen, and people ought to hear him.'
As good as his word, James took McLean into his home studio in North Vancouver, called up a bunch of players who have worked with both artists, and cut this record in three days.
Said Colin: 'Dave has spent his whole life dedicated to the music, and what you hear is pretty well what happened. We used the band in different combinations to fit the songs; sometimes you'll hear all of us rocking out behind him, and sometimes it's just him and I working out on tunes we both know. Everyone who got involved had a ball, and everybody can hear what a good time we all had. Dave is a singer and player that just makes everyone want to do their best.'
McLean was introduced to the blues through his brother's record collection, coming to the music through the folk resurgence of the '60s. 'I heard Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. I picked up on Wes Montgomery, too, but then I heard the Delta guys - Robert Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachel and others, and I was hooked. Then I found Muddy Waters, plugged in in Chicago. From there I discovered all the different styles of blues.
'I still like those old records. Tell you the truth, I sometimes wish they'd get back to vinyl and stop all this modernistic farting around with CDs; I think they sometimes sound too clean....I grew up listening to surface noise, and I kind of miss it now.'
Meanwhile the man who triggered his love of music now lives in England. 'I was just his dumb little brother, but I loved the records he had, and he played amazing ragtime stuff on his 12-string guitar. He still plays around the house over there, and keeps his chops up. I just want him to quit, so he can give me his Martin so I can play it!'
In the 30 years he's been part of the Canadian music scene, McLean has, surprisingly, only made a couple of albums prior to this. 'We did one live at Bud's on Broadway in Saskatoon, back in '89, and we called it Muddy Waters for President; I sell it off the stage at the gigs; it's out again on CD, and people will be able to compare that with what we've done with Colin on this. And there's a neat acoustic set, called Fellow Travelers, that I made with my Calgary buddy Tim Williams that we both sell off the stage at our gigs.'
The range of music on the Stony Plain record speaks for McLean's own eclectic blues tastes; he's a player who gives equal justice to Elmore James, Mississippi John Hurt and Little Walter. It's the sort of thing he does every week in his hometown, sometimes solo, and sometimes with a solid little four-piece band.
'I love those old Delta guys who made their music with one voice, one guitar, and one foot stompin' on the floor. That's very special music, and I love to do it,' he says. 'At the same time, I love the way a band can get people moving.' And that's what Big Dave McLean does, and has done for nearly three decades.
'You do what you have to do,' he says, simply. 'And I have to play blues.'
- Richard Flohil