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Back in May 2016 Melissa McClelland & Luke Doucet, the Hamilton duo who call themselves Whitehorse, released Vol. 1. It became one of the nominees for the Blues JUNO last year. They had already won a JUNO for Leave No Bridge Unburned. Vol. 2 may well do the same or even better next year. On both EPs, they combine their alt-rock (and laptop) sensibility with a deep understanding of the importance of the blues along with their very contemporary music, in each case adding new insights to the selected blues classics.

Various Artists    Muscle Shoals Small Town Big Sound    RCA
Keesha Pratt Band    Believe    Independent
Eric Lindell    Revolution in Your Heart    Alligator
Boz Scaggs    Out of the Blues    Concord
Keith Stone With Red Gravy    Keith Stone With Red Gravy    Independent
Billy Hector    Some Day Baby    Ghetto Surf Music
Anthony Geraci    Why Did You Have To Go    Shining Stone
Damon Fowler    The Whiskey Bayou Session    Whiskey Bayou Records
Bob Lanza    Kid Dogs And Krazy Women    Connor Ray Music
Billy Gibbons    The Big Bad Blues     Concord
Big Harp George    Uptown Cool    Blues Mountain Records
Tom Hambridge    The NOLA Sessions    SuperStar
Trudy Lynn    Blues Came Knockin’    Connor Bay Music
Russ Green    City Soul    Cleopatra Records
Kat Riggins    In The Boys’ Club    Bluzpik
David Vest *    David Vest    Cordova Bay
Jack de Keyzer *    Checkmate    Blue Star Records
Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar *    Run To Me    Gypsy Soul Records
Ndidi O *    These Days    Independent
Spencer Mackenzie *    Cold November    Gypsy Soul
Elise LeGrow *    Playing Chess    S-Curve Records
Lindsay Beaver *    Tough As Love    Alligator
Suzie Vinnick *    Shake The Love Around    Independent
Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio    Something Smells Funky ‘Round Here    Alligator
Myles Goodwyn *    And Friends of the Blues    Northern Goody Two Tunes/Linus
Gina Sicilia    Heard the Lie    Blue Elan Records
Kara Grainger    Living With Your Ghost    Station House
Bob Corritore & Friends    Don’t Let The Devil Ride    SWMAF / VizzTone
Nicki Bluhm    To Rise You Gotta Fall    Compass
Kat Danser *    Goin’ Gone    Black Hen
Mike Farris    Silver & Stone    Compass
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band    Poor Until Payday    Thirty Tigers
Rachelle Coba    Blink    American Showplace
Buddy Guy    The Blues is Alive and Well    Silvertone/RCA/Sony
Al Basile    Me & The Originator    Sweetspot
Jon Cleary    Dyna-Mite    FHQ/Thirty Tigers
Dan McKinnon    The Cleaner    Independent
Michael Kaeshammer *    Something New    Linus Entertainment Inc.
John Fogerty    The Holy Grail    BMG
Sons of Rhythm *    Sons of Rhythm    Independent

*=Canadian

Rory Block makes a rare Toronto appearance at Hugh’s Room Live on Tuesday, February 12, 2019. Born in Princeton, NJ, Aurora Rory Block grew up in Manhattan in a family with Bohemian leanings. Her father owned a Greenwich Village sandal shop, where musicians like Bob Dylan, Maria Muldaur and John Sebastian all made occasional appearances. She learned her first lessons in blues and gospel music from the Reverend Gary Davis. She swapped stories and guitar licks with seminal bluesman Son House, Robert Johnsons mentor (He kept asking, Where did she learn to play like this?). She visited Skip James in the hospital after his cancer surgery. She traveled to Washington, DC, to visit with Mississippi John Hurt and absorb first-hand his technique and his creativity. Heralded as a living landmark (Berkeley Express), a national treasure (Guitar Extra), and one of the greatest living acoustic blues artists (Blues Revue), Rory Block has committed her life and her career to preserving the Delta blues tradition and bringing it to life for 21st century audiences around the world.

Vernon BC-based Les Copeland is a veteran country bluesman, tracing his path from Fred McDowell and was a regular playing partner for David Honeyboy Edwards on his trips to the West Coast. Honeyboy guested on Copeland’s earlier discs for Earwig, in person on the first and in spirit on the second.

This is a new quartet of local players none of whom have been mentioned in this column before. Their name comes from the phrase ‘Everything is just Jim Dandy’ and it is also a stage persona, a character played by Jim Stefanuk, who handles the vocals and lead guitar.

iss Emily (Fennell) hails from Kingston, the home base of the Tragically Hip and you might recognize Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker as the guitarist and bassist from that famous band. Although she has just celebrated twenty years in the business, it was a chance to open for the Hip that led to her association with Sinclair & Baker.

This is another example of a veteran and very good West Coast band that the rest of us don’t know about; vocalist Deb Rhymer is out to change that with her first album. None other than David Vest calls her the ‘Queen of the Blues in Western Canada’ and she has a hard-working trio behind her plus several guests for the recording.

This young Ottawa area singer/songwriter & multi-instrumentalist has performed here several times to great acclaim. So much so that she was invited to perform at the 2015 Women’s Blues Review and she may perhaps still be its youngest alumna. It is something of a major surprise to hear her write and perform such fresh takes on traditional acoustic blues.

The former Twisters front man has sent along his new, third, solo CD with a cover that reflects its ‘themes of life, love, acceptance, spiritualism and the sixth sense’. You might think that these themes would lead Isaak away from the blues but you would be wrong, he has come up with some very fine originals that are firmly in the tradition.

Joe Bonamassa, who has grown from a young blues prodigy to an international blues attraction finally received his Maple Blues Award trophys from our own upcoming blues guitar prodigy, Spencer Mackenzie backstage at Joe’s recent show at the Sony Centre. Spencer writes, “…a HUGE thank you for organizing the opportunity for me to meet Joe Bonamassa and present him with his multiple Maple Blues Awards at his show. I am also very grateful for the tickets to his incredible show! He was very thankful and so kind and as a young blues musician he was inspiring both on and off the stage. Thank you again so very much to everyone who made this possible.”