Ottawa BLUES Society Summer 2010 In this issue: Op-Ed — Blues is Changing 3 DAWG FM 4 OBS Board Bluesfest Picks 7 Blues on the Rideau Retrospective 8 OBS Road to Memphis 13 MonkeyJunk’s Blues Music Award 15 CD Reviews 16 Postcards From The Road 26 Corporate Directory 28 In this issue … … a celebration of our Blues Music Award winners for Best New Artist Debut, MonkeyJunk, a retrospective on the successful past year of the ‘Blues On the Rideau’ series, a thought-provoking Op-Ed column from JW- Jones, a heads-up on the upcoming Blues Cruise and this year’s ‘Road to Memphis’ local blues competition, an update on DAWG-FM, the latest ‘Postcards From The Road’ and CD reviews (a couple of DVD reviews too!) 2 OBS CONTACTS OBScene Deadlines Website: www.OttawaBluesSociety.com Issue Copy Deadline Distribution Date E-mail: [email protected] Fall September 15 Online mid-October CORRESPONDENCE AND ADDRESS CHANGES OBS Mission Ottawa Blues Society Winter December 15 Early January 2011 P.O. Box 8124, Station “T” To foster appreciation, Ottawa, ON K1G 3H6 promotion, preservation From the Editor … OBS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND DIRECTORS and enjoyment of the President:: Liz Sykes The Ottawa Blues Scene has undergone blues in all of its forms Vice President: Mike Graham a significant transformation in the last Secretary: Gary Paradis month with the launch of DAWG FM. Directors : Brent Diab, Ken Fraser, Mike Graham, Local blues is featuring large on DAWG Denis Paquin, Gary Paradis, Roxanne Pilon, Debra playlists and regional and other OBS Mandate Thornington Canadian blues musicians are finally To bring together the blues Treasurer: Gary Paradis being heard on commercial radio on a community in Ottawa through Legal Advisor: Alan Hirsch regular basis. OBS COMMITTEE CHAIRS participation in blues events and Corporate Liaison: Ken Fraser The OBS Board actively supported activities. DAWG’s CRTC applications (both of Membership: Roxanne Pilon To work with the blues community them!) We believe DAWG FM exemplifies Merchandise: Denis Paquin in expanding awareness and our OBS mission of “fostering Community Relations: Debra Thornington appreciation of the blues. Volunteers: Debra Thornington appreciation, preservation & enjoyment OBScene STAFF of the blues in all of its forms”. To publish a newsletter to inform Editor: Liz Sykes We are happy to announce that the OBS the blues community of all aspects Layout & Design: Commeleon Inc. will be venturing onto the airwaves in the of the local blues scene and events Printer: TEKA fall. DAWG has generously offered us a as well as some highlights of the Writers: Brent Diab, Louise Dontigny, James Doran, weekly program (initially a half-hour) on Canadian and international blues Ken Fraser, Mike Graham, Patrick Hertel, JW-Jones, scenes of interest to OBS Denis Paquin, Gary Paradis, Roxanne Pilon, Jim Roy, Sunday evenings at 8 pm and we’ll be Matt Sobb, Liz Sykes, Debra Thornington, Jesse playing local and regional blues and members. Whiteley informing listeners of upcoming blues To provide timely blues information Photographers: Amy Brat, Diane Leduc Doran, events. Watch for more information on to OBS members by a website & e- James Doran, Scott Doubt, Claudio Egli, Horst-Dieter the OBS website and look for OBS Fischer, Michel Hofkens, Irene Ippersiel, Liz Sykes, mail. Member Email Updates. We’ll be looking COVER PHOTO: Scott Doubt for OBS members’ ideas, support and To develop, maintain and increase OBScene is published quarterly by the Ottawa Blues participation. its membership as a means of Society, and is available via OBS membership. fostering and supporting blues. Spring & Fall issues are electronic only; Summer & Summer is here — 32o today — and the Winter issues are printed and mailed. The opinions Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest is on our July To stage or assist in staging events expressed in the articles, reviews and critiques calendar. Please stop in and say hello to that will foster appreciation and contained in this newsletter are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the the Board Members and Volunteers at awareness of the blues. opinion of the Ottawa Blues Society. If you have a the OBS Tent, renew your membership, To present a "Blues Heart" award different opinion, please share it with us. and pick up a t-shirt or tank top; we think to an individual who has made an you’ll like our new design! ADVERTISING RATES outstanding contribution to the Business card size $ 25.00 As always, please get in touch if you have blues. Quarter page $ 35.00 any questions or comments. Third page $ 50.00 Half page $ 75.00 Liz Sykes Full page $ 100.00 [email protected] 10% discount for four issues paid in advance. Although op-ed refers to location in newspapers (opposite the editorial page), it has also come to mean ‘opinion-editorial’ and it is this role we want the OBS Op-Ed to play. We hope it will get you thinking about issues relevant to music and blues in particular. We encourage our readers to submit ideas or articles for future Op-Ed columns. Ottawa blues musician JW-Jones responded to a question intended for his ‘Postcards from the Road’ column, but his thoughts seemed more appropriate here. Music is dynamic … if it is static it becomes, by definition, the same old same old = boring. Do you see blues taking ‘new directions’ and, if so, where’s blues going? 3 Blues is changing. Is this good or bad? It's a good thing 'Sweet Baby' James Meston (a friend from Australia) when it's cool, and it's a bad thing when it's not. I know, said "Blues is what every other type of music wants to everyone's definition of cool is different. be when it grows up". Willie Dixon said "blues is the Unfortunately, for me and others who feel the same, roots, the rest is the fruits". there are fewer and fewer artists that excite me, give If the music an artist plays is not obviously rooted in me chills, make the hair on the back of my neck stand blues, with some indication that they are blues- up and say hello. The artists that move me are those schooled, then for that artist it did not start with the that bring something to the table – their own roots in the first place. Maybe it started with rock, then interpretation, delivered from the heart; their own brand they tried to bluesify it. I'd much prefer hearing a of blues. That's all any of us are trying to do. schooled blues player "rock-out" than hear a rock player Pushing the envelope is cool – Aaron Thibeaux Walker, try to play blues. It's not unlike many of today's jazz McKinley Morganfield, and Riley King all did it – but if musicians who can't get around a basic 12-bar form, you push it too far, it simply becomes something else. but can play the most complex harmonies and odd It's not blues if it's not blues. T-Bone started bending meters. Playing something complicated for the sake of guitar strings. Muddy Waters amplified the guitar. B.B. playing something complicated is exactly like pushing created vibrato with his fingers. What do they all have in the envelope just to push it. If there is a purpose, and its common? They were all playing blues, and pushing the blood line goes back to blues, I'm all in! envelope. Blues is primal. It has to come from the pelvis, and it What are today's blues artists doing to push the has to appeal to an important audience – women. If you envelope? They are mixing it with other genres. The can get the women to dig what you're doing, the men term blues-rock is a shining example of this. If you push will follow. The majority of today's blues artists seem to blues too far towards rock, it becomes rock. If you push be more concerned about how many notes they can it too far towards another genre, it becomes that genre. deliver (whether that's vocally, or with an instrument) Have you ever heard of blues-reggae? How about blues- than what those notes mean. Muddy Waters didn't have adult-contemporary or blues-metal? They all use to sing fifteen-note vocal runs to make women instruments similar to those used in blues, but these scream. B.B. had to play only a one-note vibrato to get sub-genres sure sound silly, don't they? the same kind of reaction. Less is more. What happened to pushing the envelope within the Almost everyone I know who loves blues is passionate same style of music? John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, about it. Like a mother and her child or a lioness and Little Walter, and Magic Sam were innovative blues her cubs, blues is an extension of who we are. We take musicians. They pushed the envelope, and it's all safely this very seriously and very personally. Don't mess with rooted in blues-land. our baby! So, to clarify, is it blues if you take a classic rock song and change the beat to swing rather than rock? I love your [JW’s] cover version of the Bryan Adams hit from 1983, ‘Cuts Like A Knife’ – really great groove . JW posted the . not a blues song . but very enjoyable! So is it blues? How does this impact blues music? Moves it ahead article above on or mocks it? Many purists would argue that you, yourself are pushing it too far by doing this.