GUITARIST, SONGWRITER, PRODUCER

Colin Linden’s tale is the stuff of legend, the kind told in the Coen brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou or Inside Llewyn Davis, both of which featured his guitar playing on the soundtracks. That film would begin with an 11-year-old meeting his musical idol Howlin’ Wolf at a matinee show in his native Toronto, accompanied by his mom, who took a picture of the two during a nearly two-hour long conversation before the gig, the legendary bluesman idling over coffee and cigarettes.

“I’m an old man now, and I won’t be around much longer,” Wolf told him. “It’s up to you to carry it on.”

Linden still carries that frayed photograph in his wallet, along with a Sears 5/8” socket wrench in his pocket to play slide guitar. He has taken Wolf’s plea seriously, performing since he was 12 years old, leaving home as a teenager to travel the south at the invitation of Mississippi Sheiks delta blues guitarist Sam Chatmon which took him to Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Memphis and Hollandale, Mississippi, meeting and visiting the sites of his heroes – Brownie McGhee, Muddy Waters, Sippie Wallace, Tampa Red, Blind John Davis, the Rev. Robert Wilkins, Sleepy John Estes and Son House, visiting the landmarks and juke joints, many of which he’s played in during the course of a 45-year career producing and playing blues and roots music. As a singer/guitarist, he’s accompanied everyone from Bruce Cockburn (as his producer and touring musician) to Bob Dylan, Greg Allman, Rihannon Giddens, Pistol Annies, John Prine and more.

He was the main contributor to the music for the Nashville TV show and subsequent live tours. Along the way, Linden played on over 500 albums and produced 140, including his first-ever actual Grammy in 2020 for producing Keb Mo’s Oklahoma, winner for Best Americana Album. He has also nabbed a staggering 25 Juno Award nominations and nine wins.

Linden’s latest solo album, bLOW, the first outside artist on longtime friend Lucinda Williams’ Highway 20 label distributed by Nashville-based Thirty Tigers, is his 14th in 40 years, but first electric blues release. The title song comes from being stuck inside a flimsy motel after a casino gig somewhere in Oklahoma or Texas as a tornado was about to hit, waiting for the walls to cave in, with his wife, the novelist Janice Powers, providing not only the opening verse quoted above, but the gurgling Hammond B3 organ left to him by his former bandmate, the late Richard Bell, played, in her own words, “like a deranged church lady.”

Linden came up with six of the tracks while creating instrumental production music for a TV show that was set on the Texas-Louisiana border in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Although these weren’t initially intended to be full songs, after they were recorded, Linden felt they were actual tracks that inspired the lyrics.

Indeed, bLOW offers a blues travelogue much like the odyssey he took in his youth, with Bo Diddley-inspired boogies such as the churning, slide guitar of leadoff track “4 Cars,” the glorious Sun Records homage of “Boogie Let Me Be,” inspired equally by early John Lee Hooker and Floyd Murphy, guitarist for Junior Parker with Colin playing his 1961 Harmony Stratotone with the original strings still intact, the Texas roadhouse blues of “Houston” and the apocalyptic, psychedelic roar of “Change Don’t Come Without Pain.” Other songs, like “When I Get To Galilee” recall a gospel vibe, while the closing “Honey on my Tongue,” reflects on life during and after the lockdown.

“Roots music and blues do speak to a lot of people right now,” acknowledges Linden. “Much of the healing and release you get from listening to this music, the power and form of expression, has shown itself to be so vital in these times. It feels timeless because it’s such a raw nerve.”

Linden has been mesmerized by music since hearing his older brothers’ records, not realizing Cream’s “Spoonful” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Killing Floor” were originally recorded (and the latter written) by Howlin’ Wolf. Hearing Wolf sing them on record for the first time on Labor Day 1971, shortly before seeing him live a few months later, irrevocably altered his life.

“Those songs had a gravitas unlike any pop music of the era,” he recalls. “I could hear that even as a kid.”

Linden willingly took the torch from Wolf, launching a career that has seen him not just as a singer, songwriter and guitarist, but as a producer, sideman, film/TV music supervisor and score composer. Meeting T Bone Burnett through artist Sam Phillips – who was the opening act for Bruce Cockburn, with whom Linden was playing – was another life-altering event, leading him to gigs with the Coen brothers and the Nashville TV series.

“I couldn’t ever have had a better mentor as a record producer and music maker,” says Linden about his longtime friend.

With a full schedule that includes fronting his other band, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Linden hasn’t missed a beat during Covid, recording tracks in his 1,000 square-foot, standalone home studio in his backyard, dubbed Pinhead Recorders. The new album features contributions from his lifelong Toronto collaborators, drummer Gary Craig and bassist John Dymond (the three refer to themselves as the Rotting Matadors), as well as Dave Jaques, a former member of John Prine’s band, on bass and Paul Griffiths on drums, who worked on the tracks originally for the movie. The album cover features a picture of Linden at age 22 onstage enraptured in the moment. (Linden says bLOW is the type of album he would have made if the era allowed).

The album’s title came from a drawing of an imaginary album cover done by his young nephew many years ago. Colin claimed, “I figured I’d wait until the right music came along to use the title... and this is it!”

“You’d like to think what once rang true is still relevant,” says Linden, who says the variety of different musical styles is a tribute to his admiration for rock legends The Band. His association with the group began when Rick Danko and Garth Hudson guested on Linden’s 1987 A&M album, When the Spirit Comes. Linden continued to work with The Band through their later incarnation and also wrote “Remedy,” one of their biggest hits and one of Linden’s proudest moments as a songwriter.

Although following in the footsteps of his heroes was the beginning of Linden’s story, with bLOW he continues a journey that began even before he met Wolf. That magic moment and so many others continue to live on in the music.

Tickets : CLICK HERE

Excerpt taken from : www.colinlinden.net

This is be the last show of our 29th season.

While still a young teenager, Jones played guitar in various blues bands in his home state. A little while later he spent some time living in Europe, developing his skills and building an admiring audience. In the mid-80s he relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he greatly expanded his audience, offering a potent mix of classic urban blues songs alongside his own compositions, which maintain the mood although dressed in powerful rock-influenced concepts. He played with guitarist Zac Harmon’s band and others before forming his own group in the mid-90s. This blending of musical genres is reflected in the name of his company, Blue Rock Records, for which he began recording in the early 00s. Included in his band for his second album, 2005’s Passion For The Blues, were Kenny ‘Boudro’ Gray (bass) and Michael Turner (drums), while among the guests were Jimmy ‘Z’ Zavala (blues harp/saxophone), Marshall Thompson (keyboards) and Harmon.

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Excerpt : https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dennis-jones-mn0000330499

The Legendary Downchild Blues Band - The Longest 50th Anniversary Tour Ever! with Special Guest 2022 Juno-nominated Miss Emily

Costume Halloween Bash

Downchild, one of the planet’s foremost, most fêted, longest-running blues outfits with quite possibly the best back story ever told.

Roaring through bracing, high-octane performances since 1969, the band founded and continuously steered by harmonica and guitar ace Donnie “Mr. Downchild” Walsh is as vibrant today as when Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi went sniffing around for inspiration for their brilliant Blues Brothers venture back in the 1970s. The pair elevated Downchild’s “Shotgun Blues” and Walsh’s “(I Got Everything I Need) Almost” to smash status on their 1978 Briefcase Full of Blues record.

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The Legendary Downchild Blues Band - The Longest 50th Anniversary Tour Ever! with Special Guest 2022 Juno-nominated Miss Emily

Costume Halloween Bash

Downchild, one of the planet’s foremost, most fêted, longest-running blues outfits with quite possibly the best back story ever told.

Roaring through bracing, high-octane performances since 1969, the band founded and continuously steered by harmonica and guitar ace Donnie “Mr. Downchild” Walsh is as vibrant today as when Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi went sniffing around for inspiration for their brilliant Blues Brothers venture back in the 1970s. The pair elevated Downchild’s “Shotgun Blues” and Walsh’s “(I Got Everything I Need) Almost” to smash status on their 1978 Briefcase Full of Blues record.

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Doors Open at 7:30, Show Starts at 8:30

There’s a trail that runs from the dead heat of the Mississippi Delta, through the winding alleyways of Havana to the smoky confines of a cigar club in Edmonton. Kat Danser has spent most of her life trawling the backstreets of the blues and her sixth album ‘One Eye Open’ reflects the fruits of her explorations. From an old string band melody passed down from the twenties, to a lyric written the night before the Covid pandemic shut the world down, the past rides shotgun with the present on everything Kat Danser sings and plays.

Jimmy & The Sleepers are a gritty, genuine house rockin’ blues band based in Edmonton, Canada. For years Edmonton has had a modest, but reverent blues scene which has fostered a blues sound a little more traditional…. Blues is alive in Edmonton and Jimmy and the Sleepers are disciples of the sound and dedicated to it’s roots. After smouldering like an underground fire for close to 15 years they are more ready than ever to burn out of the frozen Alberta North and showcase their Edmonton-styled blues to the world.

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A TRIO OF VETERAN CANADIAN BLUES MUSICIANS, BMW ARE DRUMMER KEVIN BELZNER (AMOS GARRETT, JOHNNY V, SUZY VINNICK, BACK ALLEY JOHN AND MORE) ON A STAND-UP, “COCKTAIL” DRUM KIT; BIG DAVE MCLEAN (ORDER OF CANADA MEMBER, MULTIPLE JUNO AND MAPLE BLUES AWARD WINNER) ON VOCALS, GUITARS AND HARMONICA; AND TIM WILLIAMS (DOUBLE WINNER AT THE INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE IN MEMPHIS, TN, AND MULTIPLE JUNO AND MAPLE BLUES NOMINEE) ON VOCALS, GUITARS, AND MANDOLIN. THE GROUP PERFORM VINTAGE TO MODERN BLUES FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA AND HILL COUNTRY TO THE WEST COAST ON A MIX OF VINTAGE AND CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTS, AND THEIR DEBUT CD, “CATFISH”, SPENT TWO WEEKS IN THE NUMBER ONE SPOT ON CKUA RADIO.

AS A UNIT THEY HAVE PERFORMED AT SEVERAL WESTERN CANADIAN BLUES FESTIVALS AND ARE CURRENTLY EMBARKING ON A LENGTHY TOUR OF THE THREE WESTERN PROVINCES. MORE TOURING IS BEING BOOKED FOR SUMMER 2022 AND BEYOND. A GREAT SHOW FULL OF FIRST CLASS MUSICIANSHIP. FOR THE SECOND SET AT BLUES AT THE BOW, THEY WILL BE JOINED BY FORMER SONNY RHODES BASSIST, BILL PRICE.

Doors open at 7:30, Show starts at 8:30

Website : Click Here

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Due to an overwhelming response we have added a second night.

Doors open at 6:30, Show starts at 8:00

With his 19th studio album, Miles to Go, Colin James is getting back to the blues.

Blues at the Bow will be following the ‘Restriction Exemption Program’ You must follow all requirements under the Government of Alberta program in order to be admitted into the show. (Vaccine QR code, Negative test, or proof of medical exemption. Mask to enter.

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE NOVEMBER 1st @ 8:00AMTICKETS : CLICK HERE

WEBSITE : CLICK HERE

Doors open at 6:30, Show starts at 8:00

With his 19th studio album, Miles to Go, Colin James is getting back to the blues.

Blues at the Bow will be following the ‘Restriction Exemption Program’ You must follow all requirements under the Government of Alberta program in order to be admitted into the show. (Vaccine QR code, Negative test, or proof of medical exemption. Mask to enter.)

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE NOVEMBER 1st @ 8:00AM

TICKETS : CLICK HERE

WEBSITE : CLICK HERE

Sue Foley has cancelled her tour as her partner was diagnosed with Covid-19 delta variant. Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne has graciously stepped in to fill her spot. Kenny is a Juno winner, multiple Maple Blues Award winner as “Keyboard Player Of The Year,” a member of the Boogie Woogie Hall of Fame and just last month winner of the Living Blues Critics poll as “Outstanding Musician.” We are thrilled to have him here.

Duke Robillard summed it up best a few years ago when he said, “Kenny Blues Boss Wayne is a monster piano player, imaginative songwriter and soulful singer who captures the essence of old school blues and boogie, while simultaneously sounding totally fresh and contemporary.”

Colin Linden is a genuine renaissance man of roots music. He’s a singer and songwriter of great skill, an in-demand and prolific record producer (Bruce Cockburn, Tom Wilson, Colin James), a sideman to the stars as guitarist for the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and, for the past decade-plus, a member of the highly successful trio, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.

Colin’s songs have been covered by The Band, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Keb’ Mo’, and Colin James, and his well-stocked trophy case includes eight JUNO Awards (the Canadian Grammy), multiple Maple Blues Awards, and a Toronto Arts Award.  He was nominated for a Grammy Award for the star-studded A Tribute to Howlin’ Wolf CD, and was nominated in 2002 for Lucinda Williams’ track on the Timeless (Hank Williams tribute) album, which won for Country Album of The Year. That same year his involvement in the O Brother, Where Art Thou project was rewarded, as “O Brother” won for Best Album and the Down From The Mountain soundtrack won for Folk Album of The Year  (Linden and Chris Thomas King had a song credited together on that one). Linden has a well-deserved reputation as a slide guitar virtuoso of true originality and his riveting slide work can be heard both on albums from numerous artists as well as on his own sizeable solo catalogue.

Opener Papa King Cole Website : Click Here

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With nearly thirty years of experience, Junior Watson has reached cult status. Junior has done what all great artists have done: melting diverse styles to create a style all his own. With influences as diverse as Tiny Grimes, Oscar Moore, Bill Jennings, Rene Hall, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Guitar Slim, Earl Hooker and others he has truly created one of the most unique and original guitar voices to come along in years. Besides his mastery of blues and swing he often adds his own cartoon-like twist to everything he plays. You'll never know what he will do and when asked he doesn't know himself. His energy and playing gives you a feeling of reckless abandonment. As he was once quoted "like a train off the tracks".

Opening Performer: Harrison Kennedy (Show starts at 9:00 pm)

Shane Dwight

Loaded with his six string gun, Shane Dwight fires away his own mix of blues-rock and soul to create a swagger sound. He astounds other players with his prowess and his confidence oozes out showing the crowd he’s boss.

Big Dave McLean

A masterful guitarist and top notch harpist, McLean’s raw and gravelly vocals bespeak of a life lived to the fullest, and a career spent performing in and around those countless small towns that dot the Canadian prairies. When it comes to the blues, however, McLean’s heart firmly beats to the ghosts of the delta greats--especially the incomparable Muddy Waters, with whom he toured over two decades ago.

When blues-rocking, soul-singing drummer, songwriter and bandleader Lindsay Beaver takes the stage, she makes an immediate and unforgettable impression. Standing front and center at her kit, singing every song from the depths of her soul, she delivers blues, R&B and old school rock ‘n’ roll with punk rock energy, and sings with a voice brimming with attitude and soulfulness. She comes at every song with urgent intensity, soul-baring emotion, a distinct swagger and a take-no-prisoners confidence. With influences ranging from Little Richard to The Ramones, from Billie Holiday to Queens of the Stone Age, Lindsay has crafted a timeless sound and personal style that simply cannot be denied.

Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Beaver possesses an old soul at the young age of 33. She is a classically trained vocalist and a jazz-trained drummer with a deep love and knowledge of roots music, from blues to jazz to R&B ballads to raucous rock ‘n’ roll. Live and on her recordings, she lays it all on the line, performing her signature mix of unforgettable originals and dance floor-filling versions of songs by artists as diverse as Sam Cooke and The Detroit Cobras. Her Alligator Records debut, Tough As Love, introduces her as a true force of nature with a sky’s-the-limit future.

Tough As Love, produced by Beaver, was recorded in Lindsay’s current hometown of Austin, Texas. She wrote seven of the album’s twelve tracks, the striking originals melding seamlessly with the perfectly-chosen covers. Her deep understanding of blues and roots rock traditions is a launching pad for her songs, combining electric urgency with skill and finesse. Tough As Lovehonors some of Beaver’s inspirations (including songs by Little Willie John, Angela Strehli and Art Neville) while introducing her own instantly memorable songs. Along with her touring band—guitarist Brad Stivers and bassist Josh Williams (“they are the glue that holds it all together,” she says)—well-known friends including Marcia Ball, Dennis Gruenling, Laura Chavez, Eve Monsees and Sax Gordon all add their talents to the proceedings. According to Beaver, “These are all folks that I’ve admired or wanted to perform with for years. It was important for me to highlight people that have inspired me.” From the first song to the last, Tough As Love is rough and raw, fearless and moving. “Signing with Alligator is a true stamp of approval for any roots music artist,” says Beaver, who has been releasing her own recordings and performing professionally for 15 years, first as a singer and then as a band-leading vocalist and drummer. “It’s like a dream come true.”

Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer is thrilled to bring her into the fold. “I’m very excited to welcome Lindsay Beaver to the Alligator Records family. She’s a great young talent. Her songs evoke the spirit of 1950s and ‘60s R&B and blues, but her singing and playing infuse them with a raw, rocking punk energy. Her music is full of unvarnished emotion and power.”

Beaver grew up in a working class family surrounded by music. She loved to sing around the house (especially soul music), but she was a shy kid and only sang when she was alone. She discovered the music of Tupac Shakur at age 11 and fell in love with hip hop, which started her on a path back to soul, blues and jazz. At 14 she heard Jimi Hendrix and then, in her words, “everything changed.” She got a guitar and learned to play. She was finally convinced by her friends to sing in public in her high school talent show. From there, she sang in school musicals and at open mic events around Halifax. But when she first heard Billie Holiday sing Don’t Explain at age 17, Lindsay found her true musical direction. “I was floored,” she recalls. “Her voice had more soul and emotional depth than any singer I had ever heard. Billie led me to lots of other jazz, and jazz led me to blues.”Immediately after graduating high school, Lindsay took voice lessons and began a self-described “crash course” in classical music. A quick study with obvious talent, she received a scholarship to train as a classical soprano. Around the same time, she put together a small jazz band featuring her vocals. “My drummer didn’t want to keep bringing his drums over to my house for rehearsal,” she recalls. So my dad scraped together enough money to buy a drum set to keep in the house. As soon as I sat down at that set, I got it.” Her biggest drumming inspiration is the immortal Earl Palmer, who recorded with everyone from Little Richard and Fats Domino to Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, Dizzy Gillespie and Tom Waits. “He was the perfect drummer,” she says. “He understood how to play for the song.”

At the age of 19, Beaver saw Canadian blues icons The Garrett Mason Trio perform. Between the hordes of happy, dancing fans and the band’s fiery-hot performance, Beaver came to a realization then and there. “I want to do that,” she decided. “Have a band, actually be a real musician.” Later that week she went to the local Sunday night blues jam. “I didn’t tell any of the blues guys about my singing. I figured that if I told them that I sang, nobody would take me seriously as a drummer. So I did my jazz gigs in town singing and then would go to the blues jam on Sunday as a drummer."

Wanting to broaden her horizons, Beaver headed to Toronto to study jazz drumming, with the desire to take her percussion skills to a whole new level. “I got in,” she recalls, “because I was the only applicant who could play a shuffle.” She started a blues and soul group—the acclaimed 24th Street Wailers—and began making a name for herself in Toronto and across Canada. She befriended guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, who recognized her talent instantly. She started making regular pilgrimages to Austin to jam with locals beginning in 2014. When she relocated to Austin permanently in 2018, she formed a new band featuring her own soulful vocals and dynamic drumming and the talents of fiery guitarist Brad Stivers and rock-solid bassist Josh Williams.Over the course of her career, Beaver self-released five albums by her band, the 24th Street Wailers, producing three of them. Tough As Love is her first release under her own name. She has toured Canada, the United States and large swaths of Europe, and will be back on the road bringing her new music to places far and wide, earning new fans at every stop. “I like music with drive and passion,” she says. “I write what I know and I sing what I know. At my shows, I want people to have fun and to be moved. I want everyone to be inspired to dance and I want at least some people to be moved to tears. And I definitely want every person to go home saying, ‘I’m never going to forget this.’”

“When I first started out, I couldn’t find a singer I liked and I couldn’t find a drummer I liked, so I decided to do both.” –Lindsay Beaver

“She’s like the love child of Amy Winehouse and Little Richard.” –Bruce Iglauer, Alligator Records president