Loose Blues News
The ever-busy Stony Plain recording artist Duke
Robillard (right) makes his slightly delayed return to The
Silver Dollar Room on February 19. The date, re-scheduled from last fall, will feature songs from his new
album, New Blues For Modern Man. He'll be watching The Grammy Awards carefully on Feb. 23 as, while his
own albums aren't up for any awards, Traditional Blues album nominee
Ruth Brown's A Good Day For The Blues features plenty of his guitar work. We have it on good authority that
Gordon "Sax" Beadle has rejoined Duke for this tour.
The Blues Foundation has announced the nominees for the 21st Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards. The awards will be presented on Thursday May 25, 2000 at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, and will be followed by a two-day Blues Festival on Beale Street. Ruth Brown and Rufus Thomas will host the evening, which will include star-studded Blues appearances and performances. Nominees include newcomer Shemekia Copeland, campus favourite R.L. Burnside and world-renowned B.B. King, for Blues Entertainer of the Year. Tickets and more information about the Handy Awards are available online at: www.blues.org or by calling The Blues Foundation at (901) 527-2583.
Michael Pickett is working on another CD which will be released mid-May, and celebrated at The Silver Dollar. Guests include Doug Riley, Bill McCauley, Shawn Kellerman, Steve Chadwick, Kevin Breit, Gary Craig and John Johnson. Michael and Doug Romanow who co-produced the award-winning and critically acclaimed CD Blues Money have joined forces again to co-produce the new project. Watch www.michaelpickett.com for breaking information.
Sue Foley
(left) will be our special guest at the Third Annual
Maple Blues Awards. She has just completed
work with Grammy-nominated producer Colin
Linden (Bruce Cockburn, Blackie & the Rodeo
Kings) on her brand new recording entitled Loving Coming Down. The CD was recorded at The Tragically
Hip's Bath House studio, which provided Foley with a unique and relaxed atmosphere to work, almost like
home. Linden enlisted the talents of drummer, Brian
Owings (Delbert McClinton), and bassist,
Richard Price (Lucinda Williams), both Nashville natives who added a real southern feel to the session. Not
forgetting the wealth of our own talent pool, Linden called on
Richard Bell (Janis Joplin, The Band) to play
organ and keyboards. Miche Pouliot (k.d. lang, Jann
Arden), Terry Wilkins and Ken
Pearson pitched in on drums, bass and keys, respectively. After hearing a few of the new Sue Foley cuts via her bassist,
Richard Price, multi-platinum selling roots darling, Lucinda Williams joins her on an
original track called
"Empty Cup". Distortion Studios in Ottawa provided the backdrop for an overdub session before the crew headed
to Daniel Lanois' infamous Kingsway Studio in New Orleans to create the final mixes. The album is due
for release on Shanachie Records in May.
Blues on Bellair is creating a deja-vu of the Golden (Hazy) Days of Yorkville with the reunited Luke and the Apostles as the house band and now there are other reunions in the works: Mike Fonfara and Peter Hodgson are busy rehearsing with The Checkmates, and coming soon, The Lincolns and Mainline. Greg Godovitz, who has been appearing regularly on Thursdays, is recuperating from surgery and will be back in a week or so. Tuesdays The Toronto Blues All Stars with Jerome Godboo, Danny Marks, Tony Nolasco, Michael Pellaran and Peter Jermyn perform. With Danny in the line-up, just yell out those requests! Wednesdays features Shakura S'Aida with Brook Blackburn and Eric Soostar. Fridays and Saturdays it's the Apostles (with or without Luke) and now on Sundays they are presenting an early evening Blues Jam hosted by Danny Marks. This Monday, January 31st, there will be a CD Release party for Lance Anderson's 2B3 a new CD with two Hammond Organs on each cut. They'll be bringing in a second B3 for this night and it will be very special with all the hammond players taking part. This event has a $10 cover.
Thor Kristinsson of Vancouver Island's Thor & The Thundercats sadly informs us that their sax man Wayne Diggins passed away on Dec. 27th. Originally from Toronto, Diggins spent the last decade or so on Vancouver Island, B.C. with stints to various worldwide destinations. His latest destination was Thailand where he died at the age of 45. The T-cats were scheduled to hook back up with him this spring. They were working on a live recording project before he left, and feel fortunate to have captured some of his amazing talent prior to his departure. According to Kristinsson, "There's musicians, and then, there's those that define the term. I always felt that Wayne was a true musician's musician. He always made me strive for something higher, and definitely made me a better musician and person."
The Big Daddy G band has been working on their follow-up to the 4 Blues CD. Guests on this new release include Pat Carey, as well as guests Dutch Mason & Tony D. Big Daddy G and Tortoise Blue will be headed back into the studio in March to record another 5 tracks (mostly originals) and complete the yet-untitled CD. The expected release date is May/June. The band will be coming back to Toronto on Friday, February 11th appearing at The Silver Dollar Room. Watch for Big Daddy G & Tortoise Blue on City-TV's Breakfast Television the morning of Tuesday, February 8th.
Jake and the Blue Midnights (Jake pictured at left) begin a regular Thursday night house gig at The Silver Dollar. It's called "Jumpin' at the Jubilee" . The spacious dance floor
at the Dollar should provide lots of space for those swing dancers that need lots of room and the band will be providing a variety of styles for dancers of all
stripes. No cover and the the night is sponsored by Guinness. Doors open at 8:00 pm and the music starts at 9:00 pm.
In September we told you about Fuzician, a new Canadian music magazine emerging that is offering 100% music content. Their contact info changed (must be growing pains), so we're telling you about it again. It's created in Ottawa but will be distributed in Montreal and Toronto shortly. It features music news, local/Cdn band features, CD reviews of local artists, classifieds, monthly local area club/concert listings as well as out of town concert listings etc.. all related to the local & Canadian music scene. If you are a musician/band interested in being featured in an upcoming issue, forward your press kits to: Fuzician Magazine, 60 Daly Ave., Suite 502, Ottawa, ON K1N 6E5. If you are the owner/manager of a venue and are interested in being listed in our monthly club listings (the club listings are free of charge and are available in both print and online), or even if you are an artist who would like to have your shows listed, send your listings and contact information (to the same address as above), or contact us for more details. You can also reach editor April Callin via email at grip@sprint.ca, and tel (613) 230-8390.
Blues artist Charlie Musselwhite has been recovering in a Mexican hospital from injuries suffered in December when a tractor trailer broadsided his car: "Ain't no broken bones going to keep me down," Musselwhite told his hometown newspaper in Mississippi by phone Monday. The Grammy nominee and six-time W.C. Handy Award winner for his harmonica mastery suffered broken ribs and a bruised kidney and spleen. Musselwhite said doctors told him there was some internal bleeding. "The people here at the hospital said I came as close to death as you can get," he said. "I've had broken bones before and been in wrecks, but I've never felt anything like this pain." Musselwhite said he was driving the car when the truck slammed into his vehicle's side. His wife Henrietta, who was in the passenger seat, was not seriously hurt. Musselwhite said personnel at the Cancun hospital have been wonderful. "My Spanish has improved, too," he said.
deLay Does Canada! Portland Oregon's harp wizard,
Paul deLay (left) comes to the Silver Dollar on February 12 with dates at Montreal's Cafe Campus
February 9, Ottawa's The Rainbow Room on the 10th, Peterborough's Red Dog on the 11th and The Poor Folk's Deli for the matinee on the 12th. This Evidence
recording artist visited Chicago for his most recent, 11th, album,
deLay Does Chicago, joining up with Rockin' Johnny
Burgin and his band and they will support him on this tour. This date is re-scheduled from last March, when deLay had border crossing problems.
New on DVD: The famous and famously hard to find Deep Blues documentary by Robert Mugge will be available once again. The Digital Video Disc version will contain new interviews and performances but the VHS version apparently will be the version shown in theatres in 1991. The equally famous soundtrack is "in negotiation" but will probably also be re-released, with additional songs. Mugge's new project, Hellhound On My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson, will be released at the same time on DVD and VHS. It is based on the symposium on Johnson that was held at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in September 1998 and features performances and interviews from participants there, including Henry Townsend, Robert Jr. Lockwood and Rory Block. The documentary was debuted in New York on January 21 and the reviewer found the performances very good. Mugge concentrates on the Johnson legend, not his biography and includes presentations from Peter Guralnick and from Steve LaVere who has, perhaps, benefited most from the legend. It apparently spends quite a lot of time on the film footage that was thought to be of Johnson but was shot four years too late, a discovery made just before the conference took place. Mugge also went back to Mississippi and Helena AR to interview Willie Coffee, Johnson's childhood friend, who gently debunks the crossroads myth. All this from a Billboard story on Fox Lorber CentreStage/Winstar Home Entertainment.
Blues At The Grammys:
The biggest music awards show in the US is on Wednesday, Feb. 23 on CBS at 8pm. The nominees in the blues categories:
BEST TRADITIONAL
1. Memphis Monday Morning/Bobby "Blue"
Bland/Malaco
2. A Good Day For The Blues/Ruth Brown/Bullseye Blues
3. Blues On The Bayou/B. B. King/MCA Universal
4. Blues Everywhere I Go/Odetta/MC
5. Legends/Pinetop Perkins and Hubert Sumlin/TelarcBlues Universal
BEST CONTEMPORARY
1. Live In Chicago/Luther Allison/Alligator
2. Take Your Shoes Off/Robert Cray/Rykodisc
3. Wander This World/Jonny Lang/A&M Universal
4. Welcome To Little Milton/Little Milton/Malaco
5. Continental Drifter/Charlie Musselwhite/Pointblank Virgin
Other nominations of interest are: Tone Cool Recording Artist Susan Tedeschi for Most Promising New Artist, Etta James whose Heart Of A Woman, on Private Music, is nominated in Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Bill Morrissey's Songs Of Mississippi John Hurt on Philo Records for Best Traditional Folk Album and our own Rob Bowman with his fourth nomination (with one Grammy) for his liner notes to the Malaco Box, The Last Soul Company.
Rumour of the week: Watch for a local appearance in April by the seldom-touring John Lee Hooker.
- Brian Blain, Jacquie Houston, Lily Sazz, John Valenteyn
Musicians Take Note
Showcase Opportunity: The Canadian Arts Presenting Association has an annual showcase designed to put touring acts before presenters from across the country. The deadline for applications is February 25. For information contact Peter Feldman at 613-562-3515.New Kingston TV Show: If you have a gig in the Kingston area, local musician Kevin Head is the host of an arts TV show in Kingston, Ontario featuring live music. The show is taped on Friday mornings and the band receives a $100 honorarium. Get your gig promoted and get paid too! Contact headsup@kingston.net for more info.
Free Instrument Clinics: If you are a wind or brass player and want to participate in a free clinic featuring top instrumentalists, educators
and instrument makers, then come to Long & McQuade on the following dates on Saturday from 2-4 pm:
Feb 5 Paul Brodie (saxophone); Feb 12 Steve
Crowe (trumpet); Feb 19 Jim Phelan (flutemaker). Location: 925 Bloor Street West (band dept). Call
(416) 588-7886 or email
band@long-mcquade.com for more info.
- Jacquie Houston, Barbara Isherwood
Toronto Blues Society Copyright _ 2000