Loose Blues News

We remember John Witmer: One of Toronto's great blues singers from the late '60s to the mid-'80s passed on in early July. He fronted Whiskey Howl and later Downchild before moving to Vancouver. At the time of his death, John was the lead singer for The Fabricators. A memorial service was held on July 27 in Toronto.

Buzz Upshaw radio special: Following the report of Buzz's death last month, Toronto community radio programmer Steve Fruitman, of Back To The Sugar Camp on CIUT 89.5 FM at 6 pm on Thursdays, plans to air a special on him. He states: "I actually had his band in our studio ready to perform two summers ago, but, 5 minutes before air time, our transmitter kakked out. We recorded the band anyway for a later broadcast. I went to Buzz's apartment in the meantime and taped an interview with him, which was great! However, the show never got to air due to Buzz's cold feet. He didn't think his singing was good enough, mostly due to the fact that the band was rather loud and he had no monitor in the studio. Personally, I didn't think it was all that bad. But I did what Buzz wanted me to do and shelved it. However, now that he has gone, and I realize that he has left us practically zilch recording-wise, I feel the time has come to air this thing. I haven't yet decided on a date but I'm looking at the latter part of September. Buzz recorded six songs at that session with his band. But the interview is pure Buzz."

"Bluesin' It": On Wednesday, September 8, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith will release this new CD on Electro-Fi Records, at the Dior Lounge, 8 pm, 385 The West Mall (416-621-9010), backed by the Juke Joint Rockers featuring Bob Stroger, Jack de Keyzer, John Mays, Al Lerman, and Michael Fonfara, with special guests to be announced. Tickets are $7 in advance and $10 at the door. As an added bonus, Dania Madera Lerman will be showcasing some of her blues paintings, and will also paint on-the-spot portraits for any takers. For a preview of Dania's blues paintings, visit www.daniaspaintings.com.

"Kiss My Ass, I'm Still Here": Robbie Rox & The Monster Horn Band celebrate one-third of a century of Robbie Rox Music and the 20-year anniversary of The Monster Horn Band in this show at The Silver Dollar Room on October 1, 10 pm, $10 cover.

Pete Schmidt & Shane Scott have a new website for their Ultimate Jam Track CDs, www.ultimatejamtracks.com. As "Blues Approved", they perform Wednesdays at the new Chicago's Diner in Oshawa (formerly the Otter & Firkin).

Big Time News: Following the release of the video for Cold Outside, directed by Andrew Martin, which was featured on Jazzland with Ross Porter on COOL TV and is being broadcast in rotation, Raoul Bhaneja and Jeff Stephenson were awarded a BRAVOFACT grant to produce a video for BRAVO of the Cheong Liu original "Baby Don't Stop", also from the Cold Outside CD. The TBS's Julie Hill plays the role of a prostitute the new video, which, other than Raoul's bandmates, otherwise features professional actors, including both Raoul and his lovely wife Birgitte Solem. The band's debut CD, Big Time Blues, is now available for Digital Download via Puretracks.com. Raoul adds: "Visit it and find out how you can grab songs by artists from all over the globe and still make sure they get a cut!" The Big Time are also featured performing in a new television soap opera, Bang, to hit the air in Canada in the fall. Meantime, Raoul continues in Train 48, which returns to Global television on September 20, and in the feature film Touch of Pink, and he also appeared in the Maya Theatre production of The Cyclist, by Vijay Tendulkar, the world premiere English language production as translated and adapted by Raoul's father, Balwant Bhaneja. www.raoulandthebigtime.com.

Peterborough Flood Relief Concert: Last month, a benefit concert was held at the Peterborough Memorial Centre to help raise funds for this community which was severely damaged by flooding the previous month. To supplement the relief funds pledged by the Ontario government, performers donating their time included the legendary Gordon Lightfoot and Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks, as well as local Jimmy Bowskill, among others. Donations continue to be accepted at the Kawartha Credit Union on Monaghan Road in Peterborough, account #1016062. Singer Ronnie Hawkins was the subject of a new television documentary which aired on CTV last month. Starting with his diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer in 2002, filmmaker Anne Pick spent a year and a half tracking the music legend's treatment and miraculous recovery.

A new musical season begins in Dunnville: Mark Neveu advises that "We may not have as many concerts as we used to, but what we lack in quantity, we certainly make up in quality. Readers is pleased to announce the first three shows of its fall/winter 2004 schedule: Friday September 10, The Shuffle Demons (9.00 pm); Saturday, September 25, Rob Lamothe & Jacob Moon (8.30 pm), and Saturday, October 2, the Sue Foley Band (8.30 pm). Tickets are on sale at 905-701-1919, 1-877-280-1175,and readers@kwic.com. There is always limited seating of 60-65,so reserve early. Doors open at 6.30, with dinner specials at every event." For more information, www.readerscafe.com.

Dale Boyle and the Barburners: The Quebec band's debut album, A Dog Day For The Purists, has been released. For information and audio samples, visit www.daleboyle.ca. There's also a recent article on the record's producer, Dan Levitin, at www.mcgill.ca/news/levitin/, and an interview with Dale Boyle at http://jeremybrendan.blogspot.com. A recent Hour magazine (Montreal's weekly entertainment newspaper) featured an article on Kevin Mark and Dale Boyle.

Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival changes: Lucky Peterson has been signed to headline in Fredericton in September, replacing blues guitarist Bernard Allison, who is unable to attend the event show after Immigration Canada would not allow the American artist to enter Canada for a performance at the Ottawa BluesFest earlier this summer. "This is a coup for our Festival. The planets aligned just right," said Harvest program director Brent Staeben. "When we discovered Bernard Allison couldn't come, we were pretty devastated. But we shot for the stars, and Lucky Peterson just happened to have a free date. For years we've wanted to present Lucky, but we've never been able to make it work. Lucky Peterson is one of the most talented all-around blues artists we've ever presented. He certainly won't disappoint patrons who were looking forward to Bernard Allison." Tickets for the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival are available online at www.harvestjazzandblues.com, toll-free at 1-800-NBLUES and at the festival's store at 494 Queen Street in Fredericton.

Johnny V reports: "Calgary's Home of the Blues has been condemned by the city. The King Edward hotel was officially closed last month, and all the tenants were told to vacate the premises. Some of the blues idiom's finest artists have performed at the King Eddy since the official start on New Year's Eve 1984 featuring John Hammond with Johnny V and the Houserockers. It started out as a weekend gig (Thursday to Saturday), but by October of the first year it had increased to 6 nights. It quickly became known internationally as Calgary's Home of the Blues, and hosted such artists as Son Seals, Buster Benton with the Sons of Blues, Johnny Littlejohn, Gatemouth Brown, Nappy Brown, Hubert Sumlin, Matt Murphy, Lonnie Brooks, Johny Copeland, Eddy Clearwater, Sonny Rhodes, The Mighty Flyers, James Harman, Otis Rush, King Biscuit Boy, Crowbar, Downchild, Lee Allen, Dr. John, Amos Garrett, Maria Muldaur, A.C. Reed, Maurice John Vaughn, Jimmy Rodgers, Hip Linkchain, Eddy Shaw, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, and Paul Butterfield (who played his last gig at the King Eddy), as well as many more greats during the last 19 years. The owner (Jack Carp) also presented special blues nights at the Jack Singer concert hall and then had the artists on the bill come to the Eddy after their show to jam. He stuck it out up until the city bought the place 3 years ago. Since then, Gerry Garvey (the new kid on the block) has been trying to get a long term lease from the city in place so he could apply for a heritage grant from the province, as the structure itself is totally sound. His plan was to restore the building's exterior and totally gut the inside to rebuild the main club with a nice restaurant in the back, and the hotel's rooms would be offered as affordable housing to some of the less fortunate. He then wanted to have it declared a heritage site by the province, which would have protected the building from the same type of parasitic real estate developers that gobbled up all of Maxwell street in Chicago. The hardcore reality is that the city wants the land for expansion/rebuilding of the east village into some kind of yuppie condos and shopping centres. They also have an underpass planned from 9th and 4th into the Stampede ground's new expansion project on the other side of the CN train yard. So the bottom line is that the big money and real estate developers win again, and the dedicated blues fans of Calgary lose".

Remembering Eddie Baltimore

Life is too short. Likewise our reach for the reality of dreams, magical matrix. In life, in music, we have to let ourselves feel, then "grab the mic", and live what we love, in holy howlin'. Eddie Baltimore did it, then vanished, leaving us a spirit of sassified song and unrestrained reach.

When you write, you're supposed to have a great opener - a grabber or hook, - an angle. But all that comes to me is a sort of giggle. I hear it and the mischievous and playful twister-of-words-and-ideas behind it. I hear Eddie Hutchison - aka Baltimore, who died Sunday, May 30, 2004. I hear him and his unique and always refreshing way of looking at life. Smart, busy, always one jump ahead of you, he was a dancing trickster.

In fact, in a conversation I had with Ed not too long before his death, we were discussing numbers, which led to the trickster in native mythology, which then led to spirituality and all the wonderful and mysterious ways of nature. Spirituality was on his mind a lot in the last couple of months, fighting for time with the musical ideas, the recording projects and performances he still gave himself to, and of course the pain that was relentless - conquered only partly and occasionally by the morphine and his crazy sense of humour. Ed said that he identified a lot with the trickster - a serious and seriously essential figure in the game of life. When he died, I felt like the trickster had pulled a very serious number on me.

That May 30 morning I heard the news from Bruce Longman, his very close friend and bandmate for many years with Slowpoke. When Bruce told me, I wept; then tried to calm myself in the very quiet morning sunshine. In the middle of birdsongs and my tears, I suddenly had a strong sense of Eddie's presence and thought I could hear him saying, "Zoeeeeeeeee, it's great up here! I feel so higheeeeeeee". It's something he would say, - and do: try to make me laugh. Laughing, and taking care of others were part of his way.

Eddie was a very generous guy. Enormously talented, he gave more than his all when he performed, continuing his performances right up to the end. But he helped musicians too - inspired them to the best they could be with maximum fun and feeling. He recorded many artists in his basement studio, including the Juno-nominated "Heartstrings", by Willie P. Bennett. He taught at the Harris Institute, informing, exciting, and helping students to embark on careers in music. Everyone liked him; everyone respected his knowledge and abilities; everyone remembered him. He worked in the music business without sacrificing the music to the business. Always the love of it came first - the joy and power that could be expressed were the essentials that motivated the many hours in his studio and on the road.

It all began when he was sixteen years old, or as he said himself in his bio "At fifteen years and three hundred and sixty four days old, Eddie was an honour-roll student playing high school football and hockey, and a very good boy. At sixteen, he got a guitar." The high IQ, high marks, and high hopes of his parents were all abandoned. Eddie was obsessed. He played all the music that had come over radio waves, travelling from the deep U.S. south to the shores of Lake Ontario and his East York bedroom. He played all the sounds of his early heroes: Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, Elvis; the blues, rock, soul and R&B. And six months after he got that guitar, he was out gigging at high school events and parties. Obsessed. He was also committed from that time on - playing with the passion that he had all his life for music, and that was in him whether he had an audience or not.

Two or three guitar years later, Ed left home and widened his playing field, travelling around Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. He also widened his repertoire with the soul sounds of James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, and the influences of the British rock of the time: the Stones, the Animals, Pete Townsend. When he came back to Toronto, he just kept on playing, and except for one brief foray into teacher's college and teaching (where he taught the kids a harmonized version of "Stagolee"), he made music his full-time occupation forever after, either performing, recording other artists, or teaching electronics and recording. Ironically, he also returned to the school system that in those early years had so disapproved of his Stagolee project, and joined the Toronto Blues Society's now valued and appreciated "Blues in the Schools" programme.

From the Humble Sponge, through Big Hand, and the various other bands that he worked with, Eddie made his way, in 1986, to New Orleans where he rejoiced in the roots and birthplaces of the music he loved. There he forged his lifelong bond with the place, the music and the food, adding cajun and zydeco to his already formidable mix of styles. He played guitar; he sang, and eventually, in 1990, he formed the band he made famous - Slowpoke - with guitarist Mitch Wallace. Slowpoke evolved from this original acoustic blues duo into groupings of different numbers, and the music travelled in many directions, as did the band, going from Mariposa to Santa Cruz, from the New Orleans Jazz Fest to Kingston, and with influences from Ry Cooder to Sonny Landreth and Hubert Sumlin. The "Slowpoke Accomplishments" sheet boasts a command performance for the Secretary General of Louisiana, benefits from Greenpeace to a San Francisco Aids Thanksgiving dinner, movie sound tracks, the 'closing' of the Rockpile Concert Hall, and numerous other performances and events, always described with Eddie's wry colouring: "played to a flock of geese" ('Fly Away Home' benefit for the Lake Scugog Wetlands). Oh, and he sat in with Irma Thomas and her band, and opened for Ali Farka Toure. Knowing Eddie, the geese got the same total-energy show. "If you don't love the mic, get off the stage". He loved the mic.

Zoe Chilco is a singer/songwriter and occasional feature writer for Maple Blues; she also hosts "The Blue Canoe" on Haliburton's CanoeFM.

Eddie Baltimore's life and music will be celebrated on Tuesday, October 5, 8 pm, at The Silver Dollar Room, with performances by some of his closest friends, and the release of his first solo CD "The Space Between". The $12.00 admission includes a copy of CD, in addition to performances by the Slowpoke Supergroup featuring Bruce Longman, Mitch Wallace, Steve Grisbrook, Lance Anderson, Denis Keldie, John Meydam, Jim Beck, Maike Sator, and Andy Gavitis, with special guests Norm Hacking, Tony Quarrington, Michelle Josef, Carlos Del Junco, Jerome Godboo, and Zoe Chilco. For more information on Eddie Baltimore and Slowpoke, read the comments and tributes at www.iridescentmusic.ca.

Check out our new and improved merch page. We've got cool t-shirts, mugs, harmonica necklaces, hats, etc.
Also new: Now you can join the TBS online. See our join up page for details.