Loose Blues News


For three consecutive Tuesdays in October, The Silver Dollar brings us three formidable blues shows starting Tuesday, October 2 with longtime Toronto friend now Baton Rouge resident Kenny Neal, Alvin Youngbood Hart on Tuesday, October 9 and Junior Watson, back by popular demand of every blues guitarist in Toronto on Tuesday, October 16. All shows start at 8:00 pm and there will be the added bonus of opening sets from Raoul and the Big Time for Junior Watson and Harry Manx for Alvin Youngbood Hart. Manx returns to headline at the Dollar on October 11 with Doug Norquay opening.

Eighth Annual Beaches Blues Fest : Toronto Recovery Homes proudly sponsors the Blues Fest to be held Sunday Oct 14th at the Berkeley Church 315 Queen E. from 2 pm to 1 am. Lineup includes The Muddy Guys Blues Band, Cross Fire, Scavenger, The Aces, Kenny MacKlain, Hidden Agenda, Wild Child, and others. Cost $20. Funds go to a transitional recovery program for men recovering from abuse. For more info call Rosalyn Schneider at 416-781-5723.

Sunday Nov 4: Fourth annual Blues on the East Side in Cambridge will be hosting the Electro-Fi Records' Mojo Ramble. Headlining the event will be the one and only Snooky Pryor and Mel Brown on stage together for a rare performance. Other notable performers on the bill will be Morgan Davis, Fathead, Jack de Keyzer and Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne. This annual event is once again a show that should not be missed.

Toronto guitar slinger Phillip Sayce has moved to California and will be sorely missed at his regular evenings at Grossman's Tavern as well as numerous high-profile gigs with the likes of Jeff Healey. The modest and mild-mannered Sayce carved himself a considerable niche in this town but we fully expect to hear great things from the coast as he tackles a larger, more competitive scene. Anyone who's seen him play will agree he's certainly up to the task.

The Sidemen have signed with American blues agent Bluestar Productions and have begun the plan to tour extensively in the US in 2002.

In the studios: In Toronto, Fathead is putting together a new album at Liquid Sound with Alec Fraser. Also coming into Liquid, Mel Brown and Snooky Pryor will be joined by Pinetop Perkins, Bob Stroger, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith for a new Electro-Fi recording commemorating Snooky's 80th Birthday. In Calgary, Johnny V has produced and is in the process of releasing his latest CD, Mustard and Relics with YVR3 - Johnny V on guitar and vocals, Glen Yorga on bass and vocals, and Andrzej Ryszka on drums and vocals - and "sneak preview" performances of Mustard and Relics are occurring this month in B.C. and Alberta (www.johnnyv.org).

TBS's own "Blues Doctor", Julie Hill, has been very busy being interviewed about post-traumatic stress (her area of specialty) by various media outlets in the wake of the horrific US tragedy... Starting this month, She'll be appearing as a panelist on the Life Network health program Diagnosis MD, taped this summer at the Alliance Atlantis studios in Toronto

Changing Jams: While Charley FitzWhiskeys north of Toronto has ceased its live music policy, including its weekly blues jam, east to TO, a new jam has commenced at the Flying Squirrel in Oshawa. "Hosted by veterans Steve Bekessy (guitar, vocals) and Terry Blankley (a.k.a. "The Blues Daddy" on keys), with Alex Paris doubling on electric and acoustic bass and fine drumming by Doug Swain", it's described as "a long-overdue outlet for many a closet player and pro alike... a thoroughly friendly and supportive environment, with players of all levels welcome, starting at 9:00 p.m., making it a little easier for those of us with "real jobs" to suffer through Monday morning".

Further east: The Newlands' Pavilion Summer Concert Series in Kingston was considered a success. The third season of free live music featured fourteen bands performing in thirteen two-hour concerts covering every weekend of the summer from July 1 through September 2. In addition to presenting live professional music concerts in the waterfront parks for Kingston families to enjoy free of charge, the series also increased public awareness of Newland's Pavilion, an important historical landmark, built in 1896 and one of only a few park buildings in this architectural style in Ontario.

From east to west: Trevor Findlay is relocating from Ottawa to western Canada this month, and has been feted with going away parties in Ottawa. His two CDs, the current release Bumpy Roads, and his previous recording "Morning Man, are now available on line from his web site at www.tfband.com, and both online and by toll-free telephone through Indiepool (www.indiepool.com 1-888-88-INDIE or 1-888-MUSIQUE).

At right: Greg Marshak and Paul Reddick of The Sidemen talking blues with Bill Wyman

Blues Books: Recently your (barely) managing editor attended a book launch at the Top `O The Senator where former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman held court in the third floor lounge. The book he was promoting is Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey, an absolutely essential blues almanac, maps and all. After getting it home and flipping through pages upon pages of bios (and great pics) of obscure blues artists and reading amazing quotes and anecdotes mixed with explanations of the genres, beautiful colour pictures of vintage instruments - and I'm not even past the Famous John Hammond "From Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938 - That's the one Robert Johnson was booked to play - if he hadn't been killed. It seemed like a good place to take a pause, since that's considered a bit of a milestone in blues history. But I can say already that this book is indispensable.

I had to guard it with my life, too. There were books displayed throughout the room but the publicist had already said I could take one home, and since I ended up sitting next to one at the bar, I never let it leave my sight (did I mention it's a *big* book) but a few different people asked if it was spoken for, then at one point I noticed it was gone and said to my friend Vic "My book is gone!", but right behind me was a well known music industry honcho who had a less-than-sterling reputation and there he was, caught red-handed, trying to steal my book! Just kidding - I'm sure he got his own free copy.

Gary Kendall, who is not big on writing anything more verbose than a list of artists coming to the Silver Dollar or an itinerary where he'll be with Downchild, was quite prepared to write a review himself - and indeed got to speak to Bill Wyman who wanted to compare hand sizes when he found out Gary was a bass player (Wyman has very small hands - which is why he never played a Fender bass. He reminisced about a tour with Etta James and Tina Turner where they would be sitting on road cases on the side of the stage after their opening sets and tease the Stones as they walked up for their set. They would flirt with Jagger but when Wyman walked by, they would tease him saying "...here come Mr Cool!" So, I guess that's a bit of a nickname.

Wyman was asked the most banal "who's your favourite..." question but he was most gracious in answering with a long tribute to Howlin' Wolf, who (I found out) was over 40 when he took up playing professionally and Wyman is obviously his biggest fan (maybe next to Colin Linden). He spoke of seeing Wolf walking into the studio with someone behind carrying all his gear and Bill asked him "Who's the other guy?" and Wolf said "Oh his name's Son House". And of course the Stones had the privilege of getting to know these famous bluesmen up close and personal. Bill spoke about Wolf inviting the band to dinner at his house, but Wyman was the only one who went - and it was obviously very important to him. This profound devotion he has for the music is very evident in the book.

Eric Alper, on-the-ball record company guy from Koch made sure Bill spoke a bit about his music projects before the end, and though I haven't heard the album, I bet the blues is treated quite lovingly there too. No one in the blues community will ever regard Bill Wyman in the same way after they experience this book.

While we're on the subject of books, two invaluable resource books for musicians have come across my desk (and thereafter stolen off my desk - the true sign of an invaluable resource!): The first is a book called How To Be Your Own Booking Agent by Jeri Goldstein. It is American but has a lot of Canada-specific info and a wealth of information and motivation. I believe it's available through the Folk Alliance office, fa@folk.org.

The eighth edition of Music Directory Canada is now available from Norris-Whitney Communications. There are over 60 categories with all the contacts you'll ever need plus special sections for Artist Contacts, Canadian Chart Toppers, Music on the Internet and more! You can purchase Music Directory Canada at music stores, book stores and record stores across Canada or by phone at 1-800-265-8481, by mail to Music Books Plus, 23 Hannover Dr., #7, St. Catharines, ON, L2W 1A3 Canada or on the web at http://musicdirectorycanada.com.

Brian Blain's Many Blues Hats

It's hard to make a living playing the blues, so it's not unusual for even some of the most talented musicians to do other work to make ends meet. One of Canada's most original and thoughtful bluesmen, Brian Blain, known at various times as "Colorblind," "Nappy" or "Butch," hasn't had a "regular" job since 1970, but has developed an interesting - if not lucrative - sideline as resident desktop publisher and Web guy for several Toronto music organizations.

But now that he's got a recording contract with NorthernBlues Music, Blain is determined to put music first. His new CD, working title: Overqualified For The Blues, will be more acoustic than his previous indie release, showcasing his unique guitar style, combining rhythm and lead. Like many of the blues players from Chicago's West Side, Brian came up without the luxury of a second guitarist or bass player so he had to learn to play both rhythm and lead at once.

On stage, Blain can move an audience to laughter or tears with his original songs, whose lyrics run the gamut from lighthearted to heartbreaking. And his soulful yet quirky guitar playing has impressed the critics and fellow musicians. But, so far, Blain's music hasn't managed to keep the wolf from the door.

For more than three decades, Blain has been making music. Early in his career, he worked with some music-world luminaries. His 1974 debut solo recording, "The Story Of The Magic Pick," included members of the Manhattan Transfer and the Mothers of Invention, legendary drummer Jim Gordon (of Derek and the Dominos) and Blues Brother Tom "Bones" Malone.

Blain toured with April Wine, opened concerts for Lou Reed and Seals and Crofts and opened the legendary 1971 James Bay Benefit Concert, which featured Loudon Wainright, Joni Mitchell and many Quebec superstars. At the same time, he played with and produced the phenomenal 1970s folk duo Fraser and DeBolt.

It would seem Blain's talent had brought him some solid success, if not meteoric stardom. But appearances can be deceiving; to support his music career during the '60s and '70s, he worked in printing and publishing, getting his start at age 15 at the Sherbrooke Daily Record, then owned by media tycoon John Bassett and years later the cornerstone of the Conrad Black media empire.

In 1990, after living in Quebec's idyllic Eastern Townships for nearly a decade, doing his one-man-blues-band shows at ski resorts and keeping up his songwriting, Blain left the rolling hills of the Townships for Toronto, where he began to play guitar for Blue Willow. He hoped that the city's blues clubs would welcome another guitarist but found that his introduction to the T.O. jam scene was not exactly a red carpet.

"I went to jam sessions thinking `I'll just get up and play,' and I would hang around for an entire evening, and still not get to play. And this happened quite a few times. There were a lot of aspiring blues guitarists in this town," Blain recalls.

When it did arrive, his jam-session debut in Toronto, at the Black Swan, was inauspicious, marred by an awkward, unplanned comedic moment worthy of an old Woody Allen movie.

Blain plugged in his guitar, the band was ready to play, and then he realized he didn't have any sound. "A Fender amp has two switches at the back that both have to be flipped up in order for it to work. I had never used a Fender amp and didn't know how to turn the thing on, and nobody was helping me. I was twisting in the wind," he says. "And so the band started without me, and I'm still trying to figure out how to turn on the amp.

Finally, in desperation, I just unplugged the guitar from the amp and plugged it into the P.A. mixer and played that way.

"I guess they thought `if you don't know how to turn on a Fender amp, then you'd better leave the stage and make room for somebody who does.'"

A year or so after that experience, Blain was on that same stage at the Black Swan for another jam. "I'm on stage with a bunch of people I don't know, they decide on "Thrill Is Gone," and someone asks if I want to take the solo," he recalls. "I say `sure, what key?' then as the drummer is counting it in, the bass player (I think it was Gary Kendall) leans over and says `you know the solo's at the top, don't you?' Yikes! I didn't remember that - but I caught it just in time."

Given the obstacles he'd encountered breaking into the Toronto club scene and the difficulties even established local blues musicians have eking out a living, "there isn't hardly a day goes by when I'm not thankful I can do something besides play guitar," Blain says. During the first half of the '90s, except for playing with Blue Willow, he concentrated on desktop publishing, editing and designing newsletters for the Toronto Blues Society and the Toronto Downtown Jazz Society, among others.

The occasion of Blain's 50th birthday, in 1996, sparked his musical revival, leading to gigs and his 1999 independent CD, Who Paid You To Give Me The Blues?

At his birthday-party/jam session, he played with bassist Victor Bateman, who afterward encouraged him to record a demo. With a DAT machine and some good microphones, Bateman and Blain recorded a few tunes. Out of that session, Who Paid You To Give Me The Blues?, financed by a small windfall and a lot of favours, recorded at Puck's Farm and Liquid Studios, was born. "I realized I'm 50 years old and if I don't start playing my own music now, when am I going to do it?" Blain says.

"That's when I made the conscious decision to play, and if you want to play music at any level in this town, you have to have a CD."

His musical background started with a high-school rock band, a bilingual folk trio and a little classical training on string bass. At 15, as a reward for being the top student in his class, he made his debut with the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra, as one of the bassists in a performance of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

But it was blues music that captured his soul, even if his only exposure was a weekly radio show on French CBC, a reel-to-reel tape of Rev. Gary Davis and a mail-order instructional LP called The Art Of The Folk Blues Guitar.

Some of the songs from that record have remained in Blain's repertoire to this day, and he plays them with the raw authority and subtlety that you'll only hear from someone whose style developed in isolation, without the luxury of lessons, mentors or recordings.

"I still rarely buy CDs," he says, "but I get a lot of promo copies and I've seen a lifetime worth of blues greats since I've been in Toronto.

I'm sure I've been influenced, but as I was listening to some old tapes of mine in preparation for the new recording, I could see that my style was set a long time ago and it hasn't changed that much. Thirty years later, and I'm still playing the same licks with the same groove...on the same guitar!"

The BluesBook is Going On-Line!

We are planning an updated web-based version of the BluesBook Directory. Performing artists (solo or bands), managers, agents, venues, festivals, producers, publications, radio stations, specialty retailers, teachers, schools, audio technicians, photographers, should send their contact info to info@torontobluessociety.com.

Please include name, full mailing address, telephone, fax, web site and e-mail. Performers can include a brief description of their music, and if CDS or videos are available (titles are not necessary) Type "BLUESBOOK LISTING" in the subject line.