CLIPS AND COMMENTARY FROM CANADA'S BEST KNOWN UNDISCOVERED OLD WHITE BLUESMAN

Friday, November 15, 1991

Meeting Kathi McDonald


Here's a photo taken 15 years after I met Kathi McDonald - I'm with Kathi and Butch Coulter backstage during our concert tour of Germany (2007). Photo by Otto Tymer

I'm in Montreal in a little hole-in-the-wall blues bar on "The Main" (Boul. St. Laurent) called the “G-Sharp". A couple of days ago I had been sitting with Kathi Mcdonald and her guitarist John King at the Horseshoe watching Amos and now I was in Montreal and had a chance to see them play with my old buddy Butch Coulter. I went by the club but found Kathi in not-so-great-shape and as soon as Butch saw me he asked if I wanted to play a few tunes (to take some of the load off of Kathi). Well, I did a couple of tunes and I guess we pulled it off, but I always have a little trouble with Butch’s Telecaster (I know it was Tom Lavin’s Tele but I still have a little trouble feeling comfortable with it). Fresh from my shot on the bandstand in Montreal, I was back in the Eastern Townships and sat in with a bunch of boys that were still in grammar school when I was playing around there. Both guitar players, Kevin Groves and Jeff Coates played great and now they look pretty old and grizzled themselves – you can imagine how old that made me feel. . .