Jammin’ Around Calgary
By Lindsay Wilson
Due to a lack of support, several long-standing jams around town have been cancelled, including Sunday nights at the Pig & Whistle, both jams at Fat Jacks and Sunday nights at the Blind Beggar. If you love live music, independent artists or you are a jammer, demonstrate your support by showing up to these jams.
The Shamrock Hotel (2101-11 St SE) now hosts two jams. Thursday nights have an open jam hosted by Black Cherry Perry beginning at 8 pm. Then Saturday afternoon it’s the King Eddy Band Jam hosted by Bill Dowey and the Blues Devils. This is an authentic blues jam that can’t be missed.
The Baja Bar & Grill (460 Erinwoods Dr SE) has an open jam every Sunday afternoon from 3-7 pm. Hosted by 40 Watts, this is one of the most fun jams you can find in the city.
The Border Crossing (1814-36 St SE) has two jams every week: Wednesdays from 7-11 pm and Sundays from 6-10 pm, hosted by Doug Charters. This is an open jam with a rockin’ edge.
Hexters Pub (6404 Bowness Rd NW) has a Motown jam every Sunday afternoon from 3-6 pm; this jam is hosted by Calgary’s only funk brother, Gary Martin and the Heavenly Blues Band.
Mikey’s Juke Joint (1901 10 Ave SW) has three jams/acoustic open mics weekly. On Saturdays, join Mike Clark and some of the finest musicians Calgary has to offer for an afternoon jam. The Pussy Willows (Trina Nestibo, Dawn Desmarais and Heather Blush) host an open mic every Wednesday night. Finally, finish off your weekend with their open mic every Sunday from 3-7 pm.
For a complete jam listing, refer to www.calgarybluesstreet.com or Smokin’ Steve Holesworth’s Facebook Group, Calgary Jam Listings. Special thanks to Dylan MacDonald of Traditional Blues School, www.traditionalbluesschool.com, and Mississippi Mike for their ideas, historical knowledge and contributions to the Blues section each month.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Feb 05, 2010
Calgary Midwinter Bluesfest
By Lindsay Wilson
Just in case you’re starting to clamber at the walls, hoping for the end of short days and that tear-inducing chill that can only be attributed to what most people fondly call winter, there is a saving grace for Calgary blues supporters.
Brought to you by the Calgary Blues Music Association (CBMA), this is a weeklong celebration of da best in da blues. "The Midwinter Bluesfest is a much-needed blues injection in the middle of the long winter months,” says Cindy McLeod, one of the festival’s organizers. “I look forward to seeing the many loyal fans, longtime supporters and our incredible volunteer team.”
The same people who put on the Calgary International Blues Festival each summer, Cindy McLeod and Maurice Ginzer, along with the help of generous volunteers who share a burning desire to support Calgary’s blues community, produce this festival. The 2010 line-up includes Alvin Youngblood Hart, Keith Hallett Band, Carson Downey, Sonny Landreth, Tim Williams and the acoustic duo Bill Hills and Ray Lemelin, who will all be playing from February 25-27 at the Ramada Hotel and Ballroom. The culmination of these players amounts to a fierce fiesta of electrified and acoustic blues, sufficient to please any blues lover’s palette.
Also held during this week will be a two-part workshop series, Singing the Blues Vocal Camp, at the Cantos Music Foundation on February 22 (to be followed by Blue Mondays, all ages blues jam) and the Ironwood Stage and Grill on February 23.
The winners of this year’s CBMA Awards for fan favourite Calgary blues musicians will also be announced on February 24 at the Shamrock Hotel, to be followed by the Twilight Blues Jam.
The Calgary Midwinter Blues Festival takes places from February 22 to 27. To purchase tickets or learn more about this year’s line-up and schedule, visit the official website, www.calgarybluesfest.com.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Feb 05, 2010
Marshall Lawrence: the (blues) doctor is in
By Lindsay Wilson
Edmonton blues artist Marshall Lawrence, also known as “Doctor of the Blues,” is on the brink of releasing his third CD, Blues Intervention, this spring.
Lawrence’s style can best be described as Delta country-blues, a sound which reflects traditional Delta blues artists such as Charlie Patton, Mississippi John Hurt, Eddie James “Son” House Jr., Robert Johnson and – Lawrence’s personal favourite – Tommy Johnson, through slide and acoustic guitar.
Although Lawrence spent the first thirty years of his musical career playing electrified Chicago blues, he made the decision five years ago to learn Delta-style blues and chose to continue playing in this tradition. “I’m still learning, still listening and still trying to get better while respecting the music,” says Lawrence, who is anxiously awaiting the final production of Blues Intervention, which is currently being mastered.
An avid member of the Edmonton blues community, Lawrence hosts a weekly acoustic open mic at the Crown Pub, located at 10709-109 St in Northwest Edmonton, as his personal contribution to fostering the music community in the city.
“We’re a tightly-knit community with lots of electric blues and fewer acoustic blues artists,” says Lawrence of the Edmonton music circle.
Lawrence’s first CD, Where’s the Party? (2003), is a collection of covers from the Chicago blues sound, while The Morning After (2008) better reflects Lawrence’s current Delta country-blues style of playing.
Russell Jackson (stand-up bass) and Sherman “The Tank” Doucette (harmonica) are the other players on the ten original and three cover songs on Blues Intervention, and both also played on Lawrence’s second album.
The Morning After earned Lawrence a Maple Blues Award nomination and a nomination for a Canadian Independent Music Award, and also charted on the Roots Music Report and the Roots and Blues Music Report.
The Doctor of Blues (who actually holds a PhD in Psychology) is looking forward to wherever this next blues bus will take him.
Blues Intervention will be available for purchase this spring – for more information, visit www.doctorblues.com.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Feb 05, 2010
Pam Crawford
By Lindsay Wilson
If you ask the blues boys around Calgary who comes to mind with regard to female blues singers, the name Pam Crawford will undoubtedly come up, time and again.
Depending on what musical circles you travel in, Crawford, a seventh generation Canadian with strong ties to her Nova Scotia roots, is known as a gigging blues or jazz female vocalist, even though her real loves are R&B and Motown.
“I’m a pop girl. Whatever was on the pop charts, I loved…. If it was on a Motown label, I loved it,” says Crawford, who has a strong preference for Marvin Gaye and Al Green of the Motown world, and Roberta Flack and Etta James in the jazz and R&B realms.
Hearing Crawford sing would have one believing she was born with a microphone in her hand. She just makes it look so damn easy, as she carries notes through her expansive range effortlessly, ending the lines in her songs with a natural vibrato that sounds just right and a timely placing on drop notes that is symbolic of experience no amount of money can buy. On the contrary, Crawford only began singing fifteen years ago, when she was hauled up on stage at a karaoke birthday party.
“I didn’t know how to sing until 1994. I was singing professionally one year later,” admits Crawford.
She began gigging with keyboard player Paul Goodman, who had a set of keys and a drum machine to drive the beat, with Crawford filling up the music with her powerful voice.
“I realized after a full year of gigging with Paul how hard I had him working,” remembers Crawford. She soon began playing with Dennis Davies, George Philips and Jimmy Carver, expanding her repertoire until she was singing various jazz, R&B, funk, soul, Motown and even country and reggae favorites. Her tastes are diverse and eclectic, as Crawford believes if you’re going to play the game, you have to be open-minded.
Over the years, Crawford has played with countless musicians, including jazz singer Verna Williams and R&B master, Donald Ray Johnson. She also has several mentors in the music community who she holds close to her heart, most notably keyboard player Perry Kibble.
“(Perry) took me under his wing. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be singing,” she says.
A woman of honesty and integrity, Crawford isn’t shy when it comes to speaking her mind. She doesn’t put up with musicians who devalue the work of their fellow contemporaries, and has little to say of proprietors who don’t support local talent or have enough respect to pay quality musicians what they deserve.
For Crawford, performance is not only a craft and a part of who you are as an artist, but also a job. She takes pride in ensuring her rotating band members are paid for their work, which is why she prefers to perform these days in casinos, private rooms and fine-dining establishments, where she feels there is a level of professionalism that ensures musicians are treated fairly and paid well for their work.
Crawford’s ultimate dream is to start a record label with her son, Jay Crawford, who is a full-time musician and the frontman of the funk, soul and R&B band, Trackzilla. Together, mother and son are making additions to the studio they have built in their home.
“It’s so hard for people to get their start. I want to be able to help other artists do their thing, because in this industry, it’s who you know,” says Crawford.
Although she no longer gigs full-time, Crawford can still be seen laying down the groove in select establishments around town, as well as out in Camrose later in the year. She’s no stranger when it comes to supporting the Calgary jam scene or her fellow performing musicians… when she’s not up on stage herself.
For more information on Pam Crawford, visit www.myspace.com/elacrawford.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Feb 05, 2010
Gary Martin: BeatRoute’s “A” Player of the Month
By Lindsay Wilson
“Blues is the father of all North American music, and Motown is the mother,” states the front man of the Heavenly Blues, Gary Martin.
Travelling from the west side of Chicago to the city of Calgary and all around North America in between, guitar player and vocalist Gary Martin is this city’s uncontested claim to Motown fame.
Nephew of the prodigal guitar guru Hubert Sumlin, Martin immersed himself in the foundational Chicago electrified-blues as a member of the Howlin’ Wolf’s “school of blues” early on in life, lessoned by such notables as Sam Lay, Little Milton and Jimmy Johnson.
He has been taught by the best in blues, funk, soul, Motown and R&B that have ever hit the charts, embodying a musical history so extensive, it makes any writer’s task of fitting his life story and contribution to music in a single article a daunting one.
“All the top Chicago players took me under their wing,” says Martin, referring to the Chess Records era, which sported monster players such as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley, Paul Butterfield and Junior Wells, among many others.
Dressed in his signature sweater vest and slacks, as Martin proudly comes from a time where torn jeans and t-shirts on stage were simply unheard of, he candidly and warmly shares the stories of his life as a working, touring and performing musician.
His time as bandleader and guitarist for the touring band the Funk Brothers (not to be confused with the recording band, the Funk Brothers) is one of Martin’s proudest accomplishments. Through this, he was taken under the wing of “the undisputed Father of Motown,” Walter “Choker” Campbell (director of the touring Funk Brothers) and Joe Hunter (original band leader for the recording Funk Brothers).
“I began to learn the secrets to what made (the Motor City) Sound,” reveals Martin of his time with the Funk Brothers, referencing the explosion of the Motown sound that came out of Detroit beginning in the 1950s. Motown Records saw great success during the ‘60s and ‘70s with artists like Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Diana Ross and the Supremes.
Martin took the secrets of the Motor City Sound on to his work as band member of the Juno-award winning funk band Something Extra, musical director of both Canadian Express and the legendary Platters, and into his own band, Gary Martin & the Borderline Blues (which became the Heavenly Blues in 1991).
Making Calgary his home since 1985, Martin both headlined and ran the jam at the King Eddy in its earlier blues days of the mid-‘80s to early ‘90s.
His current band, Gary Martin and the Heavenly Blues, runs the only authentic Motown jam in town, at Hexter’s Pub in Bowness every Sunday afternoon from 3-6 pm. The members of the Heavenly Blues include Gary Martin (frontman, guitar and vocals), Michelle Goshinmon (female vocalist and percussion), “Marvelous” Marvin Yakoweshen (saxophone and background vocals), Anthony Davis (bass guitar and vocals) and Gep Myers (drums).
Despite his unfailing love of funk, soul and Motown, Martin was brought up in the blues and has remained tied to this genre throughout his musical ventures. “I started in the blues and I always come back to it,” says Martin. “Wherever there’s blues, I show up.”
Show up indeed. Martin believes in the lessons taught to him in his early days. Lesson number one: give back the music to those around you – share the secrets to success.
“You can’t come into a band like the Heavenly Blues led by the calibre of musician that Gary is and not become better as a musician, humanitarian and artist,” remarks Michelle Goshinmon, female vocalist and percussionist for the Heavenly Blues for the last three years. “After seeing Gary Martin and the Heavenly Blues once, I was so blown away. I knew what I wanted to do and who I wanted to work with. I didn’t know how it was going to happen – only that I had to.”
Somewhere along the way, Martin found the time to become an activist; he is known for his work as a youth mentor, his anti-gang advocacy and his countless anti-rape and self-defense programs for women, working in conjunction with various police departments and communities, as is a Master in Martial Arts. This humanitarian involvement stems from his past work in law enforcement, as well as an encounter with a Chicago gang at the age of 16, which nearly cost Martin his life.
Martin is also a heavy anti-racism advocate, devoting a great deal of his time to educational programs to counteract racism. As February is National Black History Month, each year Gary Martin and the Heavenly Blues host a one-night show sometime during the month, which combines black history education with blues musical instruction.
“The only thing I haven’t accomplished is that I haven’t sat down and recorded something myself that I want to put on the market,” says Martin, who has appeared on the recorded tracks of many, but has yet to come out with a full-length CD with his own band.
In late 2008, Gary Martin and the Heavenly Blues completed a recording project in Detroit’s “Studio A” with the last remaining members of the Funk Brothers – Bo Babbitt, Eddie Willis and the late drummer Uriel Jones. This experience for the band suggests there is more recording to come.
In the meantime, Martin and the Heavenly Blues will play on, contributing to the blues music community in Calgary and letting this city know that the roots of all North American music deserves the support that other forms of art and culture receive.
For bookings or more information, contact Gary Martin at gary.martin@shaw.ca or call 403-275-8590.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Feb 05, 2010