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Monkey Junk wins Blues JUNO

On March 22 the Canadian blues community has learned the sad news about the passing of Vancouver Island guitarist Jason Buie when he was only 47. In memoriam of Jason Buie, a fundraiser concert will be held on Friday, April 6 at Hugh’s Room Live including names like Suzie Vinnick, Jenie Thai, Gary Kendall, Mark Stafford, Terry Wilkins (Sinners Choir), Bucky Berger, Raha Javanfar (from Bad Luck Woman & Her Misfortunes), Dan McKinnon, Lance Anderson, Andrew Scott, and Brian Blain. Doors are at 6pm, concert will start at 8:30pm. Advance tickets are $25, tickets at the door are $30.

This month’s recommended listening by John Valenteyn, host of John Valenteyn’s Blues on ciut.fm, 89.5 and CD reviewer for Maple Blues.

JUNO Nominees: The JUNO Awards have announced their 2018 nominees. The selections for Blues Album of the Year are: Time to Roll, MonkeyJunk; No Time Like Now, Steve Strongman; Big City, Back Country Blues, Williams, Wayne and Isaak; Better the Devil You Know, Big Dave McLean and Something I’ve Done, Downchild. The winners will be announced on Sunday, March 25 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver and televised on the CBC . For a complete list of nominees and ticket info go to www.junoawards.ca. Good luck to all!

‘The Ice Queen’ certainly does not refer to Sue Foley’s relationship with her friends in Texas, particularly the ones she made during her lengthy sojourn at Clifford Antone’s famous club. She went back to record her first solo album in some time and the result proves how smart a move that was, even if she has moved to broaden her musical palette from straight ahead blues.

Hard on the heels of a “best of” collection, Jack pays homage to the masters and Checkmate is one stomping, roaring collection. Otis Rush is represented by three songs; Howlin’ Wolf, three; Elmore James, two and Robert Johnson, two. We also get some early BB, Blind Willie McTell and Aretha Franklin. While they stick fairly close to the originals, Jack and the band don’t try to imitate any of the masters, they perform these songs as the Jack de Keyzer Band.

Shake The Love Around’ was the end of a mealtime blessing in rural Saskatchewan where Suzie Vinnick grew up – everyone around the table shook hands before digging in. She said she wanted use that analogy to do an album of happy songs as an antidote to the darkness in the world. The sense of community is also evident in the songs here, as many of them are collaborations, a method of songwriting that is yielding very good results.

Vancouver’s Khari Wendell McClelland was here last February at the Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre for a ten-day run of the ‘documentary theatre musical’ that the songs on this album were written for. He ‘collected and interptreted songs that likely accompanied his great-great-great grandmother Kizzy as she fled US slavery into Canada’.

Suzie Vinnick will release her brand new album at Hugh’s Room April 4th

Soul bluesman/harmonica player Curtis Salgado and his lead guitarist Alan Hager decided to record an acoustic album and a fine decision it was. They’ve worked up a program of originals and newly arranged covers that’s a delight to hear. Salgado has had rather more health problems than any man should endure but he’s back, a fact celebrated in the opening “I Will Not Surrender”. Hager, who is a graduate of the Berklee School and of the New England Conservatory, brings a unique sophistication to the music.