Blues has always been a passion of mine so when Music on McLean hosted Doug Cox and Sam Hurrie in my livingroom a couple of weeks ago, it was sweet music to my ears.

These Vancouver Island acoustic blues musicians picked their vintage guitars, mandolin and handcrafted Weissenborn (a double neck lap steel) for almost 4 hours in 2 - @ 2 hour sets, sharing histories of the instruments, songs and road stories.  Doug Cox is a renowned, veteran dobro player who also is also the Artistic Director for Vancouver Island Musicfest.  Sam, it turns out, a few years older than I, grew up in the vicinity of my old stompin’ grounds of west end Toronto and was in a house band back in the 60’s in New York with none other than Jimi Hendrix.  Though I treasured all their tunes, they happened to close their first set with Weather Report’s classic ‘Birdland’ , by coincidence, one of Sue and my favourites which always adds to the magic.

 

I slipped over to the Thirsty Moose in Cartoon Place last Tuesday where the Mississippi Blues Society (www.missblues.ca) hold a monthly blues jam the first Tuesday of each month.  Barry Buse ably hosted, playing bass and the odd guitar tune. My night was made early when none other than Rick Denis was up playing harp and vocals.  Music lovers of Perth will remember Rick playing solo guitar several times in local venues a couple of years ago and also hearing he had been struck with a brain tumor.  Apparently, though they were able to remove the tumor, it was close to his cerebellum and it was affected so he isn’t playing his guitar publicly, but is working on it and hopefully it will come back to his previous prowess.  Just wonderful to see him out playin’ again!!!

 

Perth’s own Dave Lintaman not only wowed the congregation at St. Paul’s United recently with his solo of Eric Clapton’s ‘Presence of the Lord’, he showed some good chops playing harp at the blues jam.  Peter Brown was impressive on keyboards and, from talking to him later found out he toured with Mick Taylor, ex-Rolling Stone and several other successful players.  He stayed in the background, filling holes and taking the odd lead when given.  A quality player who also plays with Steve Lunns’ Mumbo Jumbo Voodoo Combo. 

 

Perth folks will remember Lou Rye who played around town for awhile, a couple of years ago.  It is unfortunate, but he continues to be up to his old trick of joining a jam and invariably taking over.  This time he brought with him a drummer who must have learned from the same ego school because he felt the need to do a 5 minute plus drum solo which I’ve never felt was kosher jammin’ etiquette.  The other person he brought along was stylish, jazz guitarist who hails from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.  This lad, Israel Martinez, apparently met a French Canadian lass in Paris and they now make their home in Hull.  The irony is the ticket drawn to win Lou’s cd was none other than yours truly.  Feeling obliged, I went up to get it autographed and Lou was telling me he’s heading out to Calgary to seek his fame and fortune, hoping to gain enough recognition to get into Vancouver’s Olympic event.  We all need goals to shoot for, eh.

 

I was introduced to Jarhead, an Ottawa guitarist who also ended up playing some keyboards throughout the night.  His caustic “edge” riffs were enjoyable.  There were a total of 4 harmonica players during the night.  One near the end was a relatively new player identified only as Buffalo who showed real promise.  Of one other player, my only comment would be a fedora does not a harp player make.  Though I respect anyone just getting up and exposing themself to their peers wrath, from what I heard that night some more work was needed in the privacy of his abode. 

 

All in all, I got a good fill of the ol’ 12 bar blues, with all its primal rhythms, heard some old standards done by a variety of capable players in a place packed with blues lovers.  Remember to support

 

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