Maple Blues Online - Loose Blues News

It's been a good year for musician/actor Jim Byrnes. After winning two Maple Blues Awards (for Male Vocalist and for the Recording, House of Refuge) Byrnes has taken a Juno for best Blues Album of the Year, again for House of Refuge. The Sisters Euclid, which features guitarist Kevin Breit, also won a Juno for Instrumental Album of the Year, Run Neil Run.

Honourable Mention: Congratulations to Rick Fines and Suzie Vinnick for their honourable mention in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) for their song "How'd You Know I Missed You." Kevin Mark (of the Kevin Mark Blues Band) of Dorval, Quebec also got a mention for "So Blue Without You." The ISC received almost 15,000 entries from 88 countries throughout the world. The winner in the blues category was Jeff Turmes and his song "Eat The Lunch You Brought." Second place went to the late Paul DeLay for "Fourteen Dollars In The Bank." More than $150,000 in cash and prizes will be shared among the 56 winners.

Pat Carey Releases CD: It may not be a blues album, but many of the city's leading blues players will be out to the Rex Hotel May 3 to celebrate the release of Pat Carey's Jazz Navigators' new CD, South By Southeast. Pat has won the Maple Blues Award's Horn Player of the Year five times and is best known as horn player for The Downchild Blues Band. The show at the Rex will feature Sophia Perlman on vocals, Ted Quinlan on guitar, Howard Moore on trumpet, Jason Jestadt on piano, Garth Vogan on bass, and Tom Jestadt on drums. www.myspace.com/patcareymusic

New EP Coming Up: David Owen just finished recording a four-track EP of his own material, 4 on the floor, which should be available in May. It was recorded at Euphonic Sound Studios in Toronto and produced by Gary Kendall. Owen also has two local gigs coming up: May 7 at the Now Lounge where he will be the feature for the Groovy Mondays and June 21 at the Free Times CafÈ where he'll play with special guest Michael Smith.

Blues Benefits: The BluesLINK benefit at Healey's Roadhouse raised over $5000.00 for YOUTHLINK, an agency that supports vulnerable youth and families throughout Toronto. Organizer Roger Smith reports "A good time was had by all. Many thanks go out to the band leaders who organized and supported the event musically: Gary Kendall, Brian Blain, Rick Zolkower, and Mark Bird Stafford. Special guests included Paul Reddick, Dr. Nick, Mike "Shrimp Daddy" Reid, Jani Lauzon, and a new young performer, Lucian Thomas. Side players included: Lily Sazz, Darren Poole, Wayne "Shaky" Dagenais, Mike Fitzpatrick, Michelle Josef, Steve Katz, Pete Schmidt, James Rasmusen, Geoff Daye. The staff and crew at Jeff Healey's Roadhouse also deserve a nod of thanks, along with ongoing supporters Northern Blues and Electro-fi records." If you didn't make it to the show and still want to contribute to the work of YOUTHLINK, feel free to contact 416-967-1773 or go to www.youthlink.ca

On March 25, York Region musicians raised about $2,500 for two area musicians battling cancer, Jimmy Thompson and John Butcher. Thompson is well known in the Aurora and Toronto areas as a recording engineer and guitar player, and Butcher is an aspiring blues singer, now living in Barrie. People attended from as far away as Toronto, Barrie, Stouffville, and Orangeville.

New Blues Baby: Silver Dollar Room owners Dave and Elsa Yarmus are celebrating the birth of their second daughter, Niah, born Apr.12, weighing 7lb. 4oz. She's a sister for for two-year-old Kiera.

2007 Youth Legacy Showcase: The Kitchener Blues Community Inc and the Grand River Blues Society are hosting a 2007 Youth Legacy Showcase to help young musicians develop skills in blues music. The showcase takes place May 6 at 1 p.m. at The Still Restaurant, 125 King St. W. in Kitchener. Musicians (who must be under 21) will be asked to give a blues-based performance between 10 and 15 minutes long. The winner will perform on the Main Stage of the Kitchener Blues Festival on Aug. 11. and have a song recorded in a studio with a producer. Showcase organizers are open to all forms of blues, including acoustic, electric, blues with a jazz edge, blues with a rock beat, or even blues moving towards funk... it's all good. If you know of a talented young musician or a band please let them know about the showcase -- and do it quickly. The deadline for submission is May 2. Visit www.grandriverblues.org to register..

Anniversary Bash: The Kingston Blues Society (KBS) will celebrate their first anniversary (yes, a whole year!) with a blowout bash, featuring Big Bill Morganfield with the Marg Bass Band opening the show. The event, which also includes a silent auction, takes place May 25 at 8 p.m. at the Portuguese Cultural Hall on Division Street in Kingston. Some who have travelled through eastern Ontario will recognize this venue as the old bus station -- but forget the vinyl seats and coin-operated loos -- the hall has been completely refurbished. www.kingstonbluessociety.ca

Crossroads Guitar Festival:The ultimate Eric Clapton collaboration will take place July 28 at Toyota Park in Chicago, when Clapton gathers the past, present and future of guitar music onto one stage for a full-day musical event. In addition to Clapton, some of the artists who have confirmed that they will play at the second Crossroads Guitar Festival are: Jeff Beck, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, BB King, Hubert Sumlin, and Steve Winwood. Sure to be a cornerstone of this year's summer festival season, the audience can expect unrivaled entertainment, brilliant guitar work, surprise guests and impromptu jams. You can buy the $90 tickets at www.ticketmaster.com. The first Crossroads Guitar Festival, in June 2004 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, was an unprecedented collection of guitar icons from blues, rock and contemporary music. The sold-out show was chronicled in a two-disc DVD that has become one of the world's top-selling music DVDs. www.whereseric.com/news/2007/03/eric-clapton-crossroads-guitar-festival-chicago-28-july-2007.html

Award Show Moves to Memphis: The Jus' Blues Award Show has announced an Aug. 16 date and a move from Atlanta to Memphis' historical Daisy Theater on world famous Beale Street. The nominees for Best Traditional Blues Woman are: Sandra Hall, KoKo Taylor, Betty Lavette, Francine Reed, Shemekia Copeland, Tia Carroll, Trudy Lynn, and Sista Monica. Up for Best Traditional Blues Man are Lonnie Brooks, Phillip Walker,Taj Mahal, Lucky Peterson, Guy Davis, Kenny Neal, Bernard Allison, and Chick Willis. For a complete list of nominees and to cast your vote visit www.jusbluesmusic.com:80/JBBALLOT.htm

Chicago Blues Tour: Relive the evolution of Chicago blues with the man who was there when it all began -- Chicago blues legend, Buddy Guy. The Chicago Blues Enhanced Audio Tour is narrated by Guy, who provides listeners with an entertaining and educational perspective, complete with his first-hand experiences. Travel to the neighbourhoods where the great players once lived; discover the studios where electrified blues was first captured; and see the sites where the players plugged in, jammed, and changed the country's musical landscape. The tour highlights such locations as the former home of the famous 708 Club, where Guy began his career playing for Muddy Waters; Maxwell Street, where thousands of Southerners were drawn when they first arrived at the old Illinois Central Depot; and 2120 South Michigan Avenue, the former home of Chess Records and current location of Willie Dixon Blues Heaven Foundation. This free tour can be downloaded at www.downloadchicagotours.com. Guests can listen and view the tour online or download the tour to a MP3 player and take it with them to explore. The visuals combine maps and directions for each tour stop, backstage photos of today's blues scene, and rare archival photos.

Robert Johnson Film: HBO Films is developing a movie about the life of Robert Johnson. Love in Vain will look at the life of the "King of the Delta Blues," partly from the point of view of his son Claud Johnson. Johnson was an iconic blues musician from Mississippi who died in 1938 at the age of 27 and has been recognized as the grandfather of many musical genres, including rock 'n' roll. Claud Johnson, who waged a court battle for years to be acknowledged as the musician's son, was raised by his religious grandfather and taught that his father practiced the devil's music. HBO Films hasn't yet decided whether it would release the Johnson movie theatrically or on the pay network.

Muddy's Cabin May Get New Home: The Delta Blues Museum will use a $1.5 million grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation to add 2,700 square feet of permanent educational exhibit space. Part of the new space likely will be used to house Muddy Waters' cabin, which had been too tall to display in the current building. The museum has been housed in the former Clarksdale railroad depot since 1999.

Brian Kipping 1953-2007: Brian Kipping, bass player for the Paul James Band for 27 years, died April 1. During the time that Kipping played with Paul James, the band played with Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Lightnin Hopkins, Bo Diddley and John Hammond Jr. Kipping had been fighting non-Hodgkins Lymphoma for the past 3 years. The musician was also known as a painter, especially of scenes of Toronto. An exhibit at Harbourfront in 2006 captured Toronto's greasy spoons and the nature of Toronto light at night. The show travelled across Canada and was exhibited in New York. An exhibition of Kipping's work scheduled for this October at Toronto's Bau-Xi Gallery is expected to go ahead. An endowment fund to help other artists has been set up in Kipping's name. For more on Kipping's life, check out www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2007/04/05/brian-kipping-obit.html?ref=rss . Also, if you're interested in his paintings, go to www.briankipping.ca/paintings.html

Haywood "Little Sonny" Warner : "Little Sonny" Warner died April 12 from complications arising from prostate cancer at age 77. The Falls Church native is best known as vocalist on Big Jay McNeely's gold record There is Something on Your Mind. Influenced by Ray Charles, Warner was a fixture on the Washington, DC blues scene for the past several decades. His last performance was in early July 2003 .

Here is another in our ongoing series of revealing portraits of relatively obscure artists who dared to be different written by Blues aficionado and reporter Gary Tate. Gary welcomes your comments at gmtgt@yahoo.com.

Richard Berry: He gave the world "Louie Louie", but Richard Berry was also a chief protagonist on the Southern California R&B/Doo-Wop scenes of the 50s and early 60s. His contemporaries included Cornel Gunter, Arthur Lee Maye, Jesse Belvin, and Young Jessie.

Berry sang with the Flairs ("I Had A Love"), Crowns ("Set My Heart Free"), Rams ("Rock Bottom"), Robins (Riot In Cell Block #9), Dreamers ("At Last"), and Pharoahs ("Have Love Will Travel"), and recorded on labels like Modern, Flair, and Flip.

Berry's stylistic influence on Barry White was profound. That deep-voiced male response voice on Etta James' "Roll With Me Henry" belonged to Berry. Interestingly, he had also recorded "At Last" ten years before Etta's definitive 1964 version.

Louis Prima & Sam Butera would record Berry's "There'll Be No Next Time", while Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys would reprise "Yama Yama Pretty Mama" albeit 50 years later.

"Louie Louie" was released in 1957, experiencing only modest success, but then it began to assume a life of its own. Covered by sundry Northwest bar and garage bands, it exploded internationally with 1963's version by Seattle's Kingsmen.

The song's notoriety became so pervasive that it became the subject of numerous articles and even an entire book. Over a thousand versions would be recorded, but it took nearly 30 years (and many lawsuits) before Berry began to reap his deserved financial dividends. Richard Berry passed away in 1997 at age 61.

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