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Hey Blainreaders, it is still July isn't it? Well here's your July Blainletter with more aimless ramblings but I know some of you still get a kick out of it. This was a week of Townships memories. I love the way Facebook surprises you once in a while with some "Memories". I like that feature though I'm sure some folks are annoyed by it (I suppose there's some way to turn it off – but, like I say, I like to be poked with a memory and often as not it's got someone in the picture who's no longer with us and it triggers some…"Memories." This time the "memory poke" is a photo montage of townships scenes that my friend Daniel Racine put up on Facebook. The song is "Ramene Moi Demain" which I co-wrote with Daniel in the 70s. You can see it on Facebook here
And the same night, I get a notification that I'm on the playlist for a radio show on CIDI-FM, the radio station in my old stompin' grounds. And a note from the host, my old friend Bushy, who says "You'll be on at 9 tonight"
I was visiting the Townships just about the time they built their studio in Knowlton and were trying to get a transmitter installed on a local mountaintop. My old bandmate Maurice Singfield had a lot to do with getting it off the ground. Bushy played a bunch of tunes by Angel Forrest, who lived in the Townships for a while, and then he's playing Brian Blain – and practically a whole album of Brian Blain! It happens to be from my 2005 album, "Overqualified For The Blues" and he didn't just play the "usual suspects" but dug in and played like 8 tracks from that album – that's practically the whole album!
It's been so long since I've listened to some of these tunes, I'm hearing stuff I can't remember playing. But I sure remember some of the magic moments with a couple of dearly departed players – Richard Bell and Jim Galloway. Michael Jerome Browne made a huge contribution on these tracks. And hearing Paul Reddick blowin' that harp – I was digging it! Bushy even pulled out the rarely played song I co-wrote with Scott Billington (of Tangle Eye fame), "One Way Ticket". Thanks Bushy - and to any fans who never heard my album, "Overqualified for the Blues", there will be a replay of that show on Tuesday, Aug 2 at 9PM on the Burning Bush, www.cidi991.com. Townshippers Take Note.
The album is available online (or I'll be glad to send you one) but unfortunately not available on my Bandcamp page, which is too bad because the next Bandcamp Friday is coming up on Friday, August 4th and if you buy my new CD, or anybody's CD for that matter, on Bandcamp Friday, they forgoe their commission and all the $$$ goes to the artist. Every little bit helps! www.brianblain.bandcamp.com
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Fans will recall that the French CBC (aka radio-canada) did a profile on me last spring for a TV show called "La Billeterie". Well I guess they can't get enough of watching me struggle in French because they were back filming another episode (a "webisode" actually), and here I am with host Alison as I try to teach her how to play a 12-bar blues. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun – it will air in the fall but if you want to see the last one, it's right here.
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Well, here's a new section for the Blainletter (for the gear-heads). I was boasting about a new guitar in the last Blainletter, and now I just went and bought a new pedal. Big spender, eh? I was at the Tedeschi Trucks show (more on that below) and I noticed this little green box on his amp and recognized it as an Ibanez Tube Screamer. He had no pedals on the floor and I think that's all he was using for his guitar so I decided to get me one. I'm not big on pedals, but I thought it might be nice to have a little "boost" for the new rig. I remember many years back at the Jazz Festival there was an after-hours jam at the Hard-Rock Café and it was hosted by the phenomenal Montreal organist Vanessa Rodrigues (now based in Brazil). I never dared join in on a jazz jam – that is way over my head and those boys love to have a "cutting contest". Out of my league. But this time I was coaxed on stage and they said they would play some blues. Well the blues they pulled out for me was not your 12-bar typical blues that is my comfort zone. They thought they were "dumbing it down" for me but I'm embarrassed to say I didn't even know the chords to "Georgia". I somehow faked it and got through a couple more but I remember, as we were packing up, I asked the guitarist, Donna Grantis, who was not well-known at that time, "of all those pedals, if you could have only one, which would it be?" and she said "The Tube Screamer". I always remembered that and now I've got one! After all those years with Prince, I'm sure she's got quite the assortment of pedals now (and glad to hear she's back in Toronto).
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If I didn't mention it previously, I did not attend a single Toronto Jazz Festival show this year (there was a time when I would get to hear at least a bit of every show – and got paid for it!). I didn't see Afrofest which is walking distance from my place and I didn't get to any of the Beaches Jazz mainstage shows at Woodbine Park – spitting distance from my place – but I did manage to see some of the Streetfest and the only blues I found was my old friends Blue Room
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The town is still buzzing about the Tedeschi Trucks show at Ontario Place so I thought I should lay down a few words myself. I actually wrote a little commentary with my Instagram Live clip but then it disappeared. It's the first time I've gone Live on Instagram but I will again because a lot of commenters who weren't my usual FaceBook crowd showed up. My only problem was I couldn't figure out how to stop the damn live-stream.
Anyway I'm glad a lot of folks liked the clips I put up on FaceBook and YouTube, because I remember how much I enjoyed TTB online during the pandemic (and thereafter). When the pandemic struck, they were poised to take over the world with a big tour and a tight new band, then everything went away in an instant. Other big names who lost their tours just sent the musicians home but TTB were intent on keeping this band together and they started doing a lot of livestreams (and they kept it up after the pandemic, too). They found ways to keep some cash flow coming and keep everybody on the payroll. Some streams they gave away, but with others they would give you a song and a half then invite you to see the rest of the livestream if you joined and paid a small membership.
That band has their own way of doing things. I remember when they played the jazz festival in 2012, they were travelling with the whole family and I found myself sitting with Derek's dad, Chris, who was minding their young daughter, Sophia (and handling the merch). We chatted a bit and I said some complementary stuff about Derek's guitar playing but I have to say at this show, all these years later, that the guitar solo that got the biggest lift-off for me was one of Susan's. She was ripping it up and he was gazing at her in awe and smiling ear to ear. Every musician in that (large) band had their moment to shine, and shine they did! They all recognize how lucky they are to be working for such generous and loyal rock stars.
The other thing I remember was how they were real sticklers for the production. They were in the big tent where some very big names had been playing all week but they were the only act who insisted that the stage be stripped – they brought their own backline and their own monitors and monitor mixer (even though we had the state-of-the-art). I saw it again in a recent video. The monitor board being rolled away so they could use their own. And the other thing I remember that one of the roadies told me, Derek insisted that the tubes be removed from his amp before it went back into the truck. I never heard of such a thing!
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As I was listening to that radio show from Knowlton with an extended profile on "moi", there was a mandolin riff that caught my ear and I was trying to recall who played it and it was that kid (he was a kid then) Marc Roy - a master musician who gained big respect and admiration from anyone who ever got to play with him! And then I hear he has just passed – the same week as two other music folks have left us for that big jam in the sky – Patrick Monaghan, who gave me many spins on his radio show and John Marlatt, who gave me a couple of gigs at his Oakville club, the Moonshine Café.
Just the week before I heard about Bob Segarini's passing. He really left his mark on the Toronto music scene, mostly as a radio personality. I only knew him as a musician in a band called the Wackers who were recording at the same time as me in André Perry's Studio in Montreal (the one that was in an old church - after Brossard and before Morin-Heights). I met him briefly in the corridors of the studio but twenty years later, when I had just moved to Toronto, I was introduced to him at a jam at the Black Swan. I don't think I remembered him but he sure remembered me! In the middle of that packed room, when he heard my name he dropped to his knees doing "hail-to-the-chief" hand waving motions saying over and over "Don't Forget Your Mother, Don't Forget Your Mother, Don't Forget...etc" and when he finally got back on his feet he said "Come sit with me at the bar and have I got a story for you!"
It's a story I've never told (well maybe to a couple of mutual friends) - I always thought it was his to tell, but I will share it here now that he's gone. Bob told me that back when were were both working at Andre Perry's Studio he had a "meeting of the eyes" with one of the back up singers who was working on my record, Laurel Massé. Laurel and Janice Siegel were members of Manhattan Transfer and John Lissauer, the arranger/musical director on my sessions had flown them up from NY to sing back-up on "Don't Forget Your Mother" (the other vocalists were Sue Lothrop and Beverly Glenn Copeland).
Well Bob & Laurel met with more than their eyes in the secluded Producer Booth that had a small monitor speaker and overlooked the big room where we were recording. What ensued was a most intense bi-coastal romance that lasted a long time and ruined both their marriages... and the soundtrack was Brian Blain singing "Don't Forget Your Mother" which must have become a bit of an "ear-worm" for Bob.
We saw each other now and then at music events in Toronto and I got the feeling that every time he saw me, his mind was flooded with fond memories. I enjoyed his blogging in recent years but I never got to hear him on the radio - it was before my time in Toronto. He was the definition of "larger-than-life". We'll miss you Bob!
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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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