Toronto Blues Society | » Doug Cox Hosts Toronto Blues Society’s 21st Annual Guitar Workshop, February 25

Doug Cox Hosts Toronto Blues Society’s 21st Annual Guitar Workshop, February 25

Published February 15, 2007 in Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / PLEASE UPDATE LISTINGS

Who: Host Doug Cox with guests Sam Hurrie, Lance Reegan-Diehl, Mel Brown, and Suzie Vinnick, with Bucky
Berger on drums.
What: A practical workshop for all guitar players and blues enthusiasts and featuring the Six String Nation guitar.
Where: Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas St. West, Toronto
When: Sunday, February 25, 2pm – 6pm
How much: $10.00 TBS members / $12.00 non-members. Tickets available at the door.

The Toronto Blues Society will hold a special workshop for Toronto area guitar players on Sunday afternoon, February 25 at Hugh’s Room (2261 Dundas St. West, Toronto).

The informative and entertaining workshop will be hosted by Vancouver’s slide guitar and dobro master Doug Cox, Doug will be joined by some talented guests including long-time musical partner Sam Hurrie, Blues With a Feeling winner Mel Brown, guitar ace and instructor Lance Reegan-Diehl, making his return to Toronto after living and working in South Korea.

The workshop also features Suzie Vinnick who was the big winner at this year’s Maple Blues Awards, picking up three trophies. Vinnick has been featured nationally on CBC Radio on Holger Petersen’s show Saturday Night Blues and on Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café, and has performed across Canada and the US, and for Canadian Peacekeepers in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.

Workshop host Doug has carved out an amazingly diverse career as a recording artist and touring musician. He’s also an acclaimed educator, and has produced a series of instructional video-CD-book packages to teach slide guitar, dobro and blues playing. He was the first Canadian Dobro player to be invited to perform at the prestigious ‘Dobrofest’ in Slovakia, and has fronted many groups and worked as a sideman with Canadian Bluesman Ken Hamm, American Songwriter Chuck Brodsky, the late British Blues Icon Long John Baldry, and most recently guitar string-bender Amos Garrett

Sam Hurrie has been playing acoustic Delta and Piedmont style blues for almost forty years. In his youth, Sam played R&B in Toronto, toured the U.S.

playing college gigs, opened for super bands Blood, Sweat and Tears, and jammed with many of the greats of the period including Jimi Hendrix. Sam has just released two CDs: an electric Blues album with The Sam Hurrie Band and his acoustic, mostly original album, Goin’ Down Camp, his first solo CD.

Best known for his decade-plus stint in support of Bobby “Blue” Bland, Mel Brown channels elements of soul, funk, and jazz to create one of the most distinctive guitar styles in contemporary blues. Since moving to Canada in 1990, Mel has steadily toured the southern Ontario nightclub circuit.

Brown’s Electro-Fi label debut, Neck Bones & Caviar, won the W.C. Handy Award for Blues Comeback of the Year. Brown is also a recipient of the Toronto Blues Society Blues With a Feeling lifetime achievement award.

Lance Reegan-Diehl is a musician and producer native of Vancouver who today makes his home in Seoul, Korea. The guitar workshop marks his return to performance in Canada. A powerful blues and rock guitarist, Reegan-Diehl is also a music teacher and lecturer who has regularly taught concepts such as understanding of the written note, how music is perceived by listeners, the fret board, and playing for the group and for the song.

The workshop is designed to include both novice and seasoned guitarists as well as blues enthusiasts. The assembled line-up will talk about and demonstrate techniques, styles, and influences, and answer questions. They will also perform using the Six String Nation guitar, made of more than 60 pieces that are significant aspects of history or culture from across the country.

The guitar workshop is part of the Toronto Blues Society’s ongoing programme. It is made possible by the generous support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council. The Toronto Blues Society would also like to thank sponsors Long & McQuade and D’Addario Strings.


Media Contact:
Toronto Blues Society
416-538-3885
[email protected]

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The Toronto Blues Society acknowledges the annual support of the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage, and project support from FACTOR< and the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Broadcasters, The Canada Council for the Arts, the SOCAN Foundation, SOCAN, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.