Elder blues statesman (WRYCRAFT RADIO) …born in
rural Quebec and active in the music scene for forty years, possesses a
“northern“ style that gives him a cool edge that just can't be found in any
other artist. His easy blend of folk and blues is a running commentary on life
as he sees it. He combines his sardonic wit with his soulful guitar skills and
crafts it into a unique musical perspective. (VERONICA
TIMPANELLI, JAZZREVIEW.COM) ...a fine singer-songwriter and
an accomplished performer who lives at the corner of Blues Street and Folk
Avenue …one of the wittiest songwriting pens on the Canadian blues scene. (MIKE REGENSTREIF, MONTREAL GAZETTE, FOLK ROUTES FOLK BRANCHES) …this Toronto-based Quebec native, a longtime fixture
on the Canadian acoustic blues scene, writes ironic, biting lyrics that are
equally funny and insightful. (JEFF JOHNSON, CHICAGO SUN
TIMES) …he takes all his love for the
blues and its offspring musics and filters it through a brain not exactly
embittered by a downtrodden existence. Kind of John Hartford meets Steve
Goodman meets the Red Clay Ramblers meets J.J. Cale. (STEVE BACHLEDA, THE BLUES AMBASSADOR, MICHIGAN) …Blain is an astute observer of life and this is
reflected in his lyrics which are shot through with a wry sense of humour. (GORDON BAXTER, BLUES ON STAGE) …Brian Blain
is an articulate, humorous singer-songwriter with a bluesy bent. His vocals are
natural in the extreme, with no attempts to sound black or street (mostly the
approach works). (BLUES REVUE) …Call Blain's music the blues of an educated
sensibility that is just too connected to real life to be smug or brittle, an
articulated expressiveness without pretension that possesses a literacy far too
much lacking in our American music (INDIANA BLUES MONTHLY) …wry and thoughtful songwriting, singing with great
empathy, and completely lacking affectation, guided by the universal blues
aesthetic of related experiences, connecting listeners to performance, and
making them highly accessible (DAVID “DR FEELGOOD“
BARNARD, CKLN-FM) …It is refreshing to know of
artists such as Brian Blain (MUSIC CITY BLUES SOCIETY,
NASHVILLE)
More about Brian Blain
If you're involved in blues
& roots music you have probably heard the name but not necessarily the music. At 16, he and his folk group travelled to
RCA's 3-track studio in Montreal where he made his first recording, "Les
Marionettes" (Disques Match, 1964) but has spent most of his 50 years in
the music business behind the scenes or on the sidelines - managing, producing
and playing bass for other artists, editing and publishing music newsletters
and websites and being the go-to desktop publishing and I.T. guy for numerous
music organizations, while making time for local gigs and selected touring,
putting out a CD every five years or so and hosting his legendary "Blues
Campfire Jam" at The Tranzac, Hwy 61 BBQ, The Gladstone Hotel and for the
last three years at Toronto's Old Mill.
He started out in the hills
of the Eastern Townships of Quebec where he played bass in Oliver Klaus,
Quebec's original "D.I.Y." band (according to promoter Donald K.
Donald), produced an album for Columbia Records (USA) with the iconoclastic
folk group Fraser & DeBolt, and put out his first solo recording which
featured Jim Gordon, drummer for Derek and the Dominoes, Blues Brother Tom
"Bones" Malone on horns (and bass), and members of Manhattan
Transfer, Frank Zappa's Mothers and The Montreal Symphony Orchestra. It was
called "The Story of the Magic Pick"(Good Noise/Polydor, 1973), a fantasy
tale about the music business and the first of many tunes Brian would write
about the music scene and the musicians he's worked with like Scott "Professor
Piano" Cushnie, Paul Reddick, Kathi MacDonald and the audience favourite,
"Last Time I Saw Lenny (Breau)."
His 1999 complaint,
"Blues is Hurting," was included on the Toronto Blues Society
compilation "Toronto Blues Today." When no one was listening to the
singer at a CD launch, he wrote "One More Weasel" at the back table
in the Rivoli in Toronto (on a proverbial napkin). As Jeffrey Morgan wrote in
the Detroit Times, “Now here’s something you don’t hear every day: a bluesman
singin’ the blues about how lousy the blues singin’ business is these
days.”