Jammin’
as printed in beatroute
By Lindsay Wilson
Looking for a way out of the house? Love to listen, play or sing? Want to support local musicians? Get out of the house and get jammin’!
The Boston Pizza in Motel Village (2440-16 Ave NW) is kicking off a new Wednesday open mic hosted by Hashmagandy from 7-11 pm. All genres welcomed.
The Shamrock Hotel (2101-11 St SE) 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.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Mar 03, 2010
The New Blues Witness
your host: harmonica heavy, Dylan MacDonald
By Lindsay Wilson
Last November’s passing of Reverend Ron, CJSW’s beloved host of The Blues Witness radio program for nearly twenty years, left a void in local blues radio. He was a tough act to follow: who would be the next host? And how would the show change?
A handful of names were tossed around, members of the blues community who possess a historical knowledge and personal understanding of the genre that can’t be bought or simply passed down on a script.
The final suitable candidate came down to local harmonica heavy, owner of the Traditional Blues School and long-standing harp player in Bill Dowey and the Blues Devils, Dylan MacDonald.
Knowing full well there’s no such thing as replacing the voice of Reverend Ron, MacDonald comes on the air from 7-8 pm on Wednesday nights with his own voice, sampling of blues favourites and guest interviews.
MacDonald’s focus is on Canadian blues, from Dutch Mason to his son Garrett Mason and everything in between. If you listen to MacDonald’s show, expect to hear nothing less than the innovators of traditional Delta blues and everything that’s evolved in the decades since.
“I’ve been really pleased with the response from the local blues community, along with the much appreciated support,” says MacDonald, who is thoroughly enjoying putting on his radio face and getting into the station on Wednesday nights to talk to his audience about da bluez.
“Old-time callers have called in, wishing me luck – and some of them seem to really like how I’m doing things,” says MacDonald of Reverend Ron’s loyal fan base.
MacDonald welcomes callers who want to talk about the blues and share ideas or suggestions.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Mar 03, 2010
Harpdog Brown
all stripped down and ready to party
By Lindsay Wilson
Edmonton’s Harpdog Brown, known for his gritty, raw style of blues that brings the listener back to the days of packed Friday night juke joints filled with shots of whiskey and clouds of smoke, has decided to strip things down and take his blues vocals and harmonica playing to a more simple place.
His first self-produced album under Dog Breath Records, Above and Beyond, stands apart from Brown’s previous three albums, Home Is Where The Harp Is (the 1994 Juno nominee and winner of the prestigious Muddy Award), Unleashed (recorded in 1995, not released until 2008) and Once in a Howlin’ Moon (2001).
This new collective of classic blues tunes, covering songs from artists such as Fats Weller, Sonny Boy Williamson and even Calgary’s own Steve Pineo, are vocally-driven, honest and simple. There’s no flash and little instrumentation – just the Dog on harp and vocals and the fine piano skills of Graham Guest.
“A lot of times in this world, we musicians add more members to the stage to overcompensate for the lack of individual musicality,” explains the Dog. “In this situation, it’s nice to be honest and true, maybe vulnerable, but strong…it’s almost like performing with your clothes off.”
“Above and Beyond”, which was recorded in Edmonton’s Homestead Recordings late last month, will not have the traditional welcoming onto the Canadian blues scene through a single CD release party, but through Harpdog Brown and Graham Guest’s mini-tour through March and April.
“This is a choice album of classic tunes – more like a vocal offering from me,” explains Brown. “Everywhere we go is a CD release party.”
For more information, check out www.myspace.com/harpdogbrowngrahamguest.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Mar 03, 2010
The Hammond B-3: king of all organs
By Lindsay Wilson
If you listen to blues, classic rock, or jazz on the radio, it’s highly unlikely you’ll get through more than a couple of tunes without hearing the distinctive sound that can only belong to a Hammond B-3 organ.
An electric organ, the Hammond was invented in 1934 by Laurens Hammond. Originally a church instrument, it came into the mainstream music scene, becoming a standard instrument in rock, blues, jazz and gospel by the 1960s and 1970s.
John Leimseider, electronics technician at the Cantos Music Foundation, is a highly respected keyboard player in the international music community. While living in L.A., he played with groups such as Iron Butterfly, the Spencer Davis Group, Blues Image and Robbie Nevil, and continues to play with a variety of groups since residing in Calgary.
Leimseider’s love affair with the Hammond B-3 began in 1968.
“The B-3 is just a different instrument from all the others. There are many styles for playing it, and each player sounds different on the B-3. They may or may not be a good pianist, but they could be a great B-3 player and vice versa. There is also a certain prestige to specializing in one of the kings of the keyboard world,” explains Leimseider.
The main differences between the B-3 model and the earlier Hammond models – such as the CV, BV, C2, B2 and the C-3 – are the style of the case and drawbars. The earlier models lacked what Hammond called percussion – a tonal variation most B-3 players use, specifically the addition of the second and third harmonic overtones. This tonal variation, the improved style of drawbars and the use of the Leslie speaker are what set the Hammond B-3 organ apart from other models.
The Leslie speaker, named after its inventor, Donald J. Leslie (1913-2004), is an integrated speaker/amplifier combo that uses the Doppler Effect to create audio effects. The Hammond/Leslie duo is a favorite among Hammond players, as the instrument and cousin tone cabinet complement each other to produce that distinctive, full sound for which the Hammond B-3 is so well known.
There are many groups out there that just wouldn’t be what they are without the addition of the Hammond B-3.
“The B-3 is the most iconic organ in most modern popular music…. Jazz, rock and blues just cry out for a B-3. Groups such as the Young Rascals, Procol Harum, Traffic and Genesis just wouldn’t have been the same. In the blues field, it’s hard to imagine Booker T or the Allman Brothers playing anything else,” says Leimseider.
The list of rock, blues and jazz groups whose music is entrenched in the B-3 is endless. The contribution this model of organ has made to music history is vast and it continues to be an important instrument to this day.
The Cantos Music Foundation hosts tours of their prodigious vintage music collection, including the Hammond B-3, regularly. Visit www.cantos.ca for more information.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Mar 03, 2010
Amos Garrett
Beatroute’s A Player of the month
By Lindsay Wilson
Revered as one of the top guitar players in Alberta, the reputation Amos Garrett has spent over four decades building spans beyond the geography of the Prairies, reaching into the U.S. and overseas.
Curling up with Garrett’s beloved 14-year-old pointer, Maggie, on his plush sofa, which rests in the living room of his unpretentious country-style home in High River, AB, quickly makes one realize that despite the two-time Juno Award winner’s impressive musical achievements, he leads a quiet home life, centered around his other passions: fly fishing, bird hunting and training bird dogs.
Born in Detroit, but raised in Toronto, Garrett moved through piano and trombone lessons, remarking that neither instrument suited him, before finding the guitar at the age of 14. Within a year, Garrett was gigging.
“I just sort of took to the guitar – it suited me and I guess I had gotten over my awkward years as a teen. I was getting little jobs playing within a year of picking up the guitar,” remembers Garrett.
Although known world-wide as a jazz and blues cat, Garrett’s eclectic style of playing has allowed him to transcend beyond those genres that lie closest to his heart, rooted in childhood, into country-rock, pop and folk.
“Back then, we called everything rock ‘n’ roll. We didn’t call stuff blues, rhythm and blues, rockabilly – it was all rock ‘n’ roll to us,” reflects Garrett. He remembers 1954 as being “the year rock arrived,” catapulting artists such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and T. Bone Walker into a world that would never forget them.
By the time he had reached college age, Garrett began learning about early acoustic Delta blues players from the 1930s such as Robert Johnson and Leadbelly.
And while Garrett was hard at work developing his own sound and playing in bar bands in the Toronto area, including the Dirty Shames (which also included Chick Roberts, Jim McCarthy and Carol Robinson), the acoustic folk duo known as Ian and Sylvia Tyson were conjuring up a new sound of their own.
“My first break and ticket to the U.S. was courtesy of Ian and Sylvia Tyson,” says Garrett.
The Tysons went to work with Garrett, taking their new band, Great Speckled Bird, and their new sound, hard-hitting country-rock, off to Nashville to record and spend the next two years touring.
During this time, Garrett was rapidly developing his own technique: a method of bending more than one string at a time, which he teaches to students and through online lessons to this day. This innovation gave Garrett the ability to sound like a pedal-steel guitarist at times, while remaining rooted as a jazz player.
“Amos does that multi-note string bend like no one else…. You can put on a disc with a dozen world-renowned studio guys and pick his solos out no problem. Totally unique,” remarks contemporary Calgary bluesman, Tim Williams.
Garrett had become a skilled guitar player, one who could be picked up as a hired gun by any type of band and hold the music up. He spent the next number of years moving up through the guitar ranks and contributing his legacy to music history. He teamed up with folk artists Geoff and Maria Muldaur, played guitar in virtuoso harmonica player Paul Butterfield’s band Better Days, later on reunited with a now-divorced Maria Muldaur as her guitar player and band leader and, finally, made the decision to part with Muldaur some ten years later to go out on his own.
Garrett was the player who performed the famed guitar solo in Maria Muldaur’s 1974 hit, “Midnight at the Oasis.”
“I wanted to sing. I loved to sing, but there was no way I could do so being a hired gun for bands,” says Garrett, who has enjoyed a full life-spanning career both on his own as well as sharing the stage with other renowned artists such as Stevie Wonder, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt and Anne Murray (with whom he recorded her first five albums). Over the years, Garrett has recorded with over 150 artists.
Edmonton’s Holger Petersen of Stoney Plain Records has been Garrett’s manager since 1980. Garrett describes Petersen as “the patron saint of roots music in this country.”
When asked what it’s been like to represent Garrett over the last 30 years, Petersen responds, “It’s been an honour and an education for me. Amos gave me, a relative newcomer to the music industry, a chance to represent him internationally and be a part of his musical circle. I’m very proud that we’ve worked together for so long.”
These days, Garrett, who relocated to Alberta in 1989, keeps busy with three bands: his acoustic act, blues band and jazz trio. The Amos Garrett Jazz Trio is the band Garrett is the busiest with, gigging on a regular basis and looking forward to recording over the next few months.
“It’s nice to record things before performing too much and letting things get stale,” says Garrett, who likes the idea of live recording at gigs, letting the genre of jazz shine through its improvisational characteristics.
Garrett’s latest recording, “Get Way Back” (2008), delves this guitarist/vocalist back into the blues as a tribute to the late Percy Mayfield. It received rave reviews from the finest in the music business.
Percy Mayfield’s performance career prematurely dissipated due to a tragic car accident in 1952, but this blues vocalist led a highly successful career as a songwriter up until his death in 1984. Most notably, Mayfield was a songwriter for Ray Charles, writing hit tunes like “Hit the Road Jack.”
At this point, there’s not much Garrett hasn’t accomplished, at least in the music sense. Aside from his work with the Jazz Trio, Garrett plans on doing a 2010 fall reunion tour with his old friend, Geoff Muldaur, in Japan – one of Garrett’s favorite countries to play.
“I’d like to keep walking on this side of the grass…and I’d like to catch an Atlantic salmon twenty pounds or bigger,” muses the guitar guru. Whether or not he accomplishes this goal, Amos Garrett can look back on a musical journey well travelled, proof that hard work and persistence pay off.
For more information, visit www.melmusic.com/amos_garrett.
Posted by Lindsay Wilson on Mar 03, 2010