Band donates memorabilia

If famed Vancouver-based blues musician Tom Lavin gets a twinge of nostalgia and wants to see his gold records or well-travelled guitar case, he’ll have to go to the museum.

Not any old museum.

The Canadian National Museum of History, where a permanent exhibit of his storied lifework as leader of the Powder Blues band will be housed.

Now known as the Legendary Powder Blues, the band broke into the music scene back in 1978, doing Vancouver–area gigs, then B.C. gigs and ultimately broke through on the world music scene.

Fast-forward to today, the band will be celebrating their 45th anniversary with a much anticipated ‘soft seat’ tour, including a Kelowna one-nighter on Feb. 12. But back to the museum.

A music producer as well as prolific song-writer, Lavin was giving up his studio space and needed to “clear stuff out,” he said.

“I came across a stack of gold (records) that I never put on the wall. I never did that,” he added. But he was looking at 45 years of musicianship, other paraphernalia and the question “what to do with it?”

“I didn’t think I should just dump it,” Lavin said. “But I didn’t want to burden my kids with it either. The curator was very interested in it, and after two years of conversations, they wanted it. I was blown away. So I shipped it off, and now it’s going to be shared with a lot of people.”

The “stuff, besides gold records, includes his famous ‘million miles’ guitar case that’s weathered his world-wide journeys, including a historic Soviet Union and Eastern Europe tour.

Lavin diarized the bands’ experiences, and that notebook is also going to be displayed.

“The guitar case is completely covered with stickers and hundreds and hundreds of airline tags,” he recalled.

His handwritten notes bring focus on a different and often very difficult time in economic and political perspectives that many younger generations have no knowledge of today.

“I think it’s really cool that the museum wants to do this. I guess if I want to see it all again, I’ll have to travel to Ottawa – to Gatineau.”

The band, that was once told “there’s no market for the blues,” are four decades into proving those nay-sayers wrong.

Why are the crowds still coming? Why are they still gigging and playing those hit songs 45 years later?

“We all really enjoy it,” Lavin added. “Blues is improvisation. It’s not boring. It’s not the same-old same-old. It changes all the time.

“On stage, we’re having a six-way conversation. That’s what blues is – an ongoing conversation and we share it with the audience.”

Lavin cherishes the Memphis Blues Foundation award, which marked the first time it was given to a non-black group, and Canadian to boot.

He added that “awards are OK, but it’s connecting with the audience” that makes the concert nights a highlight. “Tell some stories, sing some music.”

In hindsight, Lavin says Powder Blues “expected our audience … grow older with us.”

The Legendary Powder Blues plays Kelowna Feb. 12 at the Kelowna Community Theatre.