News

Kim Richardson will be a featured vocalist at theTBS Women’s Blues Revue, November 30 at Massey Hall

The veteran Calgary soul bluesman <strong>Donald Ray Johnson </strong>released his first solo CD in 1994 after many years in the trenches. There have been four more since then and a career retrospective that gathers together his compositions from them is a very good idea. Each of his albums contained favourite songs by others and a couple are here, like <strong>Al Green</strong>’s “Ain’t No Fun To Me”, <strong>Johnny Taylor</strong>’s “Last Two Dollars” and <strong>Hazel Dickens</strong>’ “Working Girl Blues”, but the ten he wrote belong in this company: “These Blues”, “Here To Stay”, “Me &amp; Jack (Daniels)” and “It’s Time” to name just some. If you haven’t yet heard Johnson’s rich, warm baritone, you’re in for a treat.

A straight up CD of traditional electric blues next and a good one it is too. The 2008 winners of the MBA for Best New Artist debut their fifth disc on September 17^th. The Waterloo-based quartet has certainly found a sweet spot here with what they call their ‘garage blues’. Mike Elliott is the guitarist and vocalist, Chris “Junior” Malleck is on harp, Steve Toms on bass and Jeff Wagner on drums.

Sures in Yiddish is ‘son of trouble’, the press release says. Not a bad title for a long time folkie who has always stayed close to blues and who has now applied his quirky songwriting to that purpose. Alberta-based Sures has also brought along some old friends in Paul Reddick and Ken Whiteley.

Paul is of course the guitar playing half of <strong>Dawn &amp; Paul</strong>, the popular Quebec duo. On those albums, the guitar playing is mostly subdued, in the service of those excellent songs. Here he gets to show us his chops. His playing partner is <strong>Anwar Khurshid</strong> on sitar and what a duo they make. On some earlier such collaborations the guitar has had to accommodate much more to Eastern styles but this is very much a joint effort, including a ‘Western’ rhythm section with a full drum kit instead of a tabla player.

Little Miss Higgins is back with a stunning set of new songs and a new band. Fear not, however, for her distinctive sound is very much intact. On earlier albums, the arrangements were sometimes rather too different; here she has assembled a wonderfully coherent program without sacrificing anything. You will also marvel at her vocals, which are richer and warmer than ever. “Heavy Train” is classic LMH, with her bluesy vocals over a strummed acoustic guitar until the band joins in, with harmony vocals and a thudding bass drum. It’s also the first single.

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.

Paul Quarington’s Legacy: The Quarrington Arts Society is now being run by Lakehead University in conjunction with the Leacock Museum.  Michael Burke of Cordova Bay Records, the label that released albums by Paul Quarington’s band, Pork Belly Futures, writes, “This is something Paul would have been very happy to learn. He always had a close relationship with the Leacock organization and with the senior management at Lakehead.

Rachelle Van Zanten will be a featured vocalist at the Women’s Blues Revue November 30 at Massey Hall

This month’s recommended listening by Brad Wheeler, music writer for the Globe and Mail