Suzie
When Suzie Vinnick first began listening to the blues, she didn’t think she would be a singer. “Much too complicated,” she thought. “Better stick to the bass.” These days, with the 1995 Ottawa Blues Vocalist of the Year award on her mantel, Vinnick is singing quite a different tune.
Originally from Saskatoon, Vinnick grew up, as many children of the ’70s did, listening to the top Canadian bands of the day including Heart and Supertramp. The big difference was, as most of us were screaming the words and driving our parents and neighbours crazy, she was playing guitar and singing along with her teacher in a duo that toured the clubs of Saskatoon. By the time she reached high school, she was so comfortable with the guitar, that when the opportunity was presented to learn bass for the school band, she jumped at it.
That jump landed her in the local blues scene and jamming with “these really cool musicians” who didn’t seem to mind that she was “this chick blues player”. By her eighteenth birthday, she was running the blues jam sessions at Bud’s on Broadway in her hometown.
Although the owners of Bud’s changed last year, Vinnick is still regarded quite highly by both the new owners and her old fans.
“The fans love to see hometown people come home.” says Ken Mellquist, the new owner. “Suzie has always been well received and supported here.”
Vinnick first stepped foot in Ottawa five years ago when she came to work with local blues musician, Tony D., for the summer. They met back in Saskatchewan through Back Alley John (an Ottawa-born harmonica player now based in Calgary), enjoyed each other’s music, individually and collaboratively, and decided that the fun was too much to stop. She never returned to Saskatoon.
Her star began to rise soon after her arrival in Ottawa. After playing in the local blues clubs, most notably, the Rainbow Bistro in the Byward Market, and at the blues festivals in town and surrounding areas, Vinnick released her first CD in June, 1994. Two of its “more bluesier” tunes were played in heavier rotation on CHEZ 106, one of the local classic rock radio stations.
“That, coupled with all of the other media exposure I got from playing around town,” says Vinnick, explaining her success, “people have come to know my name in Ottawa.”
One of those people who definitely knows her name is Mark Monaghan, the executive director of the Ottawa Blues Festival, and one of Vinnick’s biggest fans. It was Monaghan who decided that she should have the honour of opening this year’s blues fest.
“She is one of the top blues singers not only in Ottawa, but in all of Canada,” says Monaghan. “She has a terrific blues feel in terms of vocal styling.”
In addition to the Ottawa Blues Festival, Vinnick has toured quite extensively throughout western Canada, Ontario and Quebec. She recently finished a 21-concert tour with Rick Fines, travelling to Vancouver Island and back in 25 nights to help him promote his new CD.
Over the next few months, she will continue to play at festivals and local community events in the Ottawa area and Quebec..
For most musicians, frequent travelling is a normal part of their life’s chosen work. Vinnick sees it as something more, though. Travelling is necessary to stir her creative juices, and without it the doors to her blues music will not open as much or as far.
To make sure her creative juices continue to flow, she will be taking some time off this summer to get away and write more of her own material. Her musical interests are very eclectic, she admits, and not limited to the blues.
Vinnick also makes a point to give credit for her musical development where it is due, especially with some of the people she met growing up at Bud’s in Saskatoon. Among them, she mentions one of the legends of blues, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, a recent performer at the Ottawa Blues Festival.
She has a lot in common with Brown, both of whom picked up a guitar and started playing at blues clubs in their teens. Given her rising popularity and her obvious mastery of “complicated” blues vocals, does she expect to be touring, like Brown, well into her 70s?
“I don’t know,” she laughs. “We’ll just see how it goes and take one year, and one album at a time.”
– Bev Pasian