TBS Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the excellent documentary, ‘Healey’s Hideaway’ and we celebrate Jeff’s incredible legacy with a screening of the film at the historic Redwood Theatre on Thursday March 6 at 6:30pm. There will be an opening set by musicologist Mike Daley with guest TBA and a reunion set of music after the screening with some of Jeff’s old bandmates and friends, Dave Murphy, Dan Noordermeer, Stan Miczek and Tom Bona as well as guest appearances from Toney Springer, Eric Schenkman, Alec Fraser, Quisha Wint and more to be announced. The 2014 documentary tells the story of the famous Jeff Healey club which opened in downtown Toronto in 2001 and was a real hot-spot until its closure in 2008. You’ll see a parade of A-list musicians who played there from around the world and of course the amazing talent that was Jeff Healey. TBS members will have received an email with the discount promo code. Email info@torontobluessociety.com if you haven’t received it.

Festival Update: The Rotary Toronto Bluesfest has announced that it will not be returning in 2025 but the North Bay Bluesfest got a reprieve after announcing they were packing it in and produced a modified version last month with Monkey Junk, Spencer Mackenzie and some local bluesicians. Originally held outdoors over Labour Day, the Bluesfest festival was paused due to lack in funding. With support from the BACH Program (Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage) through Canadian Heritage, they were able to produce a winter event and here’s hoping they can keep it going.

On a positive note, Winterfolk is back with a vengeance and plenty of blues content. The festival was paused last winter due to health issues with the Director, Brian Gladstone, but he is back in the swing of things and the Tranzac will come alive with 3 rooms of top-caliber roots music February 14-16. Some of the blues artists appearing are Ken Whiteley, Michael Jerome Browne, Suzie Vinnick, Brian Blain, Jesse Greene, Donné Roberts, Harpin’ Norm, Noah Zacharin and Danny Marks. This year’s festival promises an extraordinary mix of established artists, alongside emerging talent and community-driven performances, all set to reignite the spirit of live music and inspire audiences of all ages. https://www.winterfolk.com/schedule-wfxxiii/

Venue News: The Moonshine Café has found a new home, and a new owner who promises to keep the roots music flowing in Oakville. The new venue is just up the road from the previous location on Kerr St. and is currently undergoing renovations. Their new home will be in the Oakville Commons mall at the northwest corner of Speers and Kerr. In September, Jane MacKay, long-time partner of the dearly departed John Marlatt, announced that Mike Wharton would take over the business, and many volunteers stepped forward to help with the transition, including some very generous benefactors who helped pay the first big bills. Now, they have launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover the final costs of the renovation and they are halfway to reaching their goal of $30,000. Visit gofundme.com and search for “Moonshine” if you are able to help and please keep checking the website and social media feeds for updates about their progress.
Blues@Hugh’s: If you’ve visited the new Hugh’s Room on Broadview, you will recognize that it has become the best listening room for acoustic music in the city and they have been presenting world class roots music non-stop since they settled in. And between sets, you might also have heard a pitch for donations to keep the party going. They are inviting music lovers to consider becoming monthly donors. “A monthly donation of $20 goes a long way to supporting our day-day-operations, enabling us to keep presenting the music, and supporting the artists you love. Raoul and The Big Time will be appearing March 15, Harry Manx makes his annual visit on April 9 and Angelique Francis was just announced for April 12. And watch for news about Fender Days at HRL on April 2 & 3 where there will surely be some great blues players.

Blues Awards: The Blues Foundation just announced the nominees for the 2025 Blues Awards with our own Sue Foley up for two awards. Her album, One Guitar Woman, is nominated for Acoustic Album of the Year” and for the fifth time, she is nominated for “Traditional Blues Female – Koko Taylor Award.” Voting is now open to Blues Foundation members. To become a member and support this vital and historic art form, please visit blues.org. The Awards will be presented on May 8, 2025 in Memphis. The Fabulous Thunderbirds album also got a nod – kudos to Hamilton’s Steve Strongman for his part in that project.

RIP Garth Hudson: Blues fans in London, Ontario are grieving the loss of one of the greatest musical ambassadors that ever came out of that town. He and a bunch of other players from that area, with the addition of a good old boy from Arkansas, Levon Helm, put together a band, which later became THE BAND, that redirected the course of pop music in America and around the world. Social media and mainstream media has been blowing up with glowing obituaries but the personal recollections from folks who played with him and who got to know him (as much as you could get to know Garth) had touching tributes like this one from Lance Anderson, who worked with him on several projects: “Garth Hudson was by far the most unusual person I ever met in my life. Every thought, conversation, memory was told in the same way he played the organ/piano/sax. With an improvisational style and total uniqueness, that left me puzzled more than once. He was a gentle soul. A genius, yet so helpless in many ways. It felt like you were talking to a deer, or an animal that you only got a fleeting glimpse at. He talked slowly and deliberately, but if you waited for it, there was always a gem or little humour, or twist.… He was a fountain of knowledge. He would put the crook of the phone on his shoulder and then play me (and sometimes sing-a-long) to examples of where I could take these tunes. Had I heard of this player. Do you know about this technique? I remember looking around my kitchen thinking “Who’s going to believe me that Garth Hudson is giving me piano lessons over the phone in the middle of the night.” Garth was a savant and likely somewhere along the Asperger’s continuum. He built a green house, made his own guns in his machine shop including his own bullets. He collected ancient medieval manuscripts by Ockegham a 15th century composer and other early church composers. He had an extensive LP collection and knew the catalog numbers of every record in the collection. He was also a water diviner, dowser or water witching and found an underground stream on our property when he stayed over in Orillia one night. In the studio, he would sit at the grand piano and start on a Duke Ellington tune which would remind him of another Duke song that would bring him to other standards and tunes by Basie, Cole Porter etc. He would switch between the songs and play bridges from another song, go from Harlem stride, to walking tenths, from Fats Waller to Teddy Wilson. He had the musical breadth of Art Tatum going from classical to jazz in the same few bars. Whatever hit his remarkable ear. He would play for 25 minutes at a time. It was magical to be around such a talent. Such a gift.”