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Greetings Blainreaders!
This will be one of those "a video is worth a thousand words" Blainletters. No controversial rants, no scuttlebutt (that I can repeat), just some cool vids and a plug for my gig. They say "play every gig like it's your last", and I have to say I don't have any more gigs on my calendar so if you want to re-live those golden days of the Campfire Jams, please join myself, Ken Whiteley and Rick Taylor for the Mother's Day Matinee at the Redwood Theatre Sunday, May 14 2-5pm (1pm if you're having brunch). Advance ticket sales are appreciated (aren't they always?) because it will help us plan how to configure the room. Get your tix here
Following my big Birthday Bash at the Redwood Theatre (see some highlights here), our host-with-the-most Maria was anxious to get me back so I said "Mother's Day". That was last fall and now it's upon us! I didn't know what I was going to do but I started thinking of a Campfire "redux" and I asked myself who, of all the guests I jammed with over the years, would I most like to jam with again. Rick Taylor, who I've only played with a couple of times never fails to get "lift-off" on that big old Gretch White Falcon and Ken Whiteley who plays so many instruments and always knows where to place a riff to make the song sound better. And of course, both are master songwriters with decades of accomplishments and accolades.
Mothers Day has always had a special significance for me, because I was adopted as an infant and always had a bit of an "orphan complex." Since arriving in Toronto in 1990, I've always tried to do a special show on or around Mother's Day, and it was about the only time you would hear me perform "Don't Forget Your Mother," the song that launched my solo career in Montreal back in the early 70s.
That recording had an all-star cast including members of Frank Zappa's Mothers with drummer Jim Gordon (Derek and the Dominoes), Tom "Bones" Malone (Blues Brothers), the boys choir from a private school, a string section from the Montreal Symphony and arrangements by John Lissauer (Leonard Cohen).
My Mothers Day shows, originally called my "Motherless Day" shows (because of that orphan complex) featured guests such as Harrison Kennedy, Clayton Doley, Allison Young, Roberta Hunt, Carrie Chesnutt and many others.
Then during the pandemic, while I was recording a new CD, I discovered my birth mother through Ancestry DNA. I delayed the release to accommodate a new song I wrote after hearing stories from members of my new family. "The Mother I Never Knew" is included on the new CD, "I'm Not Fifty Anymore" available at brianblain.bandcamp.com
If you want to hear the whole story (and the song I wrote about it) click here for a video clip of me playing it at the Winterfolk festival. And should you want to hear more, here's a link to the full set
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Besides getting out to capture some actual live music following The Great Confinement, I posted a couple of non-musical items and if you haven't seen them already on Facebook, take a look. One is a guided tour of a wall of posters in my studio (just before I tore them down to be replaced with a green screen)
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Here's a silly little family home movie which we shot in the back yard. It was supposed to be a take-off on my son's new career as an arborist but on the first take, several neighbours got freaked out from all the screaming and yelling so I decided to make it a silent movie. It's called "The Plight of the Tree Huggers"
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Pour mes amis Francophone
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Even though the CBC would never give me the time of day, their French bretheren have been very supportive. Last year there was a two-part feature on me on Radio-Canada and now they got me down to the Redwood for a lengthy interview for a TV show called "La Billetterie" (trans: The Box Office), an arts & culture program that plays on Sunday nights in Ontario and other times across the country. Apparently my episode will play at the end of the month. I don't think I've spoken that much French since the last time they interviewed me.
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Dropped by the Rivoli last month and sat in with the Empty Glasses. They play 3-6pm some Sundays. A genuine country vibe in the upstairs pool room at the Rivoli. Lori Yates also dropped in and my boy captured a little taste of our Sunday afternoon.
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And here's a triple-play, a mini-montage of a busy week of outings: Harry Manx remembering Kelly Joe Phelps with a tune they used to play together, Matt Andersen with his big band and killer back-up singers and Ori Dagan sitting in with the Orange Devils
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If anybody was wondering, at 87 Buddy Guy still likes to do his signature walkabout. He invited his son Greg to play a little guitar on the last song and then daddy showed him how it's done. There was lots of "I gotta tell you something" wrapped with one big blues medley of favourites. "Don't want you going home saying Buddy Guy was alright but he forgot the fuckin' song." They're gonna start calling him "Rambling Buddy." He got a little political talking about young men going off to war when they're still not old enough to get into a club to see Buddy play. Shout -outs to Mariposa, where he arrived as a guitar-playing tow-truck driver and left feeling like a real musician. A nod to Clapton though the last time I saw him, if I remember correctly, he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder about EC. That was so long ago (on the rotating stage at Ontario Place). Here he says "we got to thank the British for letting everybody know about the black musicians." When someone asked the secret to his success he said "I don't know what the fuck I did but I just kept doing it!"
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FYI, Buddy's crew have a vlog on youTube @BuddyGuyCrewVlogs. The latest edition shows their time in Toronto and a good behind-the-scenes view of the new Massey Hall, which some were calling "Macy" Hall
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Thanks for reading this far. I see that the Blainletter gets opened by hundreds of people but not sure how many read through it. But I always seem to hear from someone or other that they enjoyed it and that's what keeps me going.
If you are not subscribed to the Blainletter, go to my website, brianblain.com and click in the top right corner. Feel free to forward this to any friend you think might enjoy my occasional ramblings (and maybe my music, too). These bits and more are always available on my blog, www.torontobluesdiary.com.
See you out there, eventually...
BrianB, aka Butch, Nappy, Shaker, Two-Lane Blain, Colorblind Brian, Stringbuster, Buddha of the Blues
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