John’s Blues Picks is the monthly album review column originally launched by the late Toronto-based blues historian and broadcaster, John Valenteyn. Submission can be sent to the TBS office for consideration and will be circulated to a pool of journalists and others for review in the monthly Maple Blues newsletter and placed at the Spotify playlist.
Say Somethin’ is David Clayton-Thomas’ call to action on a number of social issues. From a failed justice system to gun control to climate change and immigration, we get his bluesiest album in some time.
Veteran rocker Sass Jordan has won numerous awards and sold over a million albums. She maintains that all her work is influenced by blues and has decided to go all in for her new album, her first for Stony Plain.
Montreal-based blues rocker Dwane Dixon calls his style ‘rocking roadhouse blues’ in the manner of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Billy Gibbons. The idea for his third album came from a story he heard about his father.
Jimmy and the Sleepers is a new band for me out of Edmonton and yet it is their third album and it’s been out for almost a year such are the regional difficulties we work with.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Rob Lutes has numerous nominations at the MBAs: several times for Acoustic Act of the year and as male vocalist of the year and as songwriter of the year.
Rott’n Dan may be better known to you as the front man/harp player for the excellent blues rock outfit Boogie Patrol, based out of Edmonton. Lightnin’ Willy (Ryan) is not in that band but is a very good singer and acoustic guitarist, with a background in folk as well.
Fuel Junkie is a young, Montreal-based horn band, none of whose players have featured in this column before.
Harmonica ace Mark Hummel sets the wayback machine to Chicago in the 1940’s to re-introduce us to the “Bluebird Beat”, the sound that producer Lester Melrose developed that was hugely popular at the time.
Veterans all, the Durham County Poets hail from the Eastern Townships of Quebec and call themselves a ‘folk and roots’ band. For their fourth album, though, they have chosen to pay homage to the blues. To do that, they have come up with a set of seven originals by the band, separately and together, and several covers
Manitoba Hal (Brolund) is a ukulele player based in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, although he was born and raised in Winnipeg. He has raised his profile recently with a couple of fine albums but if you check his web site you’ll find that he has some fourteen in his discography, so prolific is he as a songwriter.
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