Mack promises hometown a high-energy blues show
Chicago-based musician returns to his hometown for what promises to be a fun show
The last time Nigel Mack was in town was last year during the holidays when he played another blues concert.
The Saskatoon-raised, Chicago-based musician is back this year to treat his hometown to more high-level, high-energy blues tunes.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends,” Mack said.
“There’s a great song by B.B. King and Robert Cray called Playing With My Friends ... and that’s one of my favourite songs because that’s what we do, we get together and play music, and everyone becomes friends through the music.”
Mack’s big show in Saskatoon is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 21, at The Bassment, where Mack will perform with the Big Blues Attack.
The band in Saskatoon consists of Mack and a number of local blues aficionados, old friends and colleagues who make a point of playing together when Mack comes back to town.
He described the sound as a really “high-energy blues show” with “a lot of original music.”
And for the experienced blues player, it fits his style well. Mack’s voice is gravelly, but with a bright edge that makes him perfectly suited for old-school Mississippi blues, and that’s not even taking into account an exuberant stage presence.
Mack has made a name for himself as a blues performer in Chicago, and not just thanks to his diverse instrumental ability to play the harmonica, guitar, slide guitar, and his aforementioned skills as a vocalist.
Mack left Saskatoon in 1988 with members of his old band to pursue more music opportunities in Vancouver.
After a few years on the West Coast, he moved to Chicago to be with a woman, though it didn’t work out.
There are certainly bigger venues to be had in Chicago, but Mack said he loves coming home to Saskatoon to play at The Bassment. With plenty of family still living in the city, Mack said coming back to play a few shows during the holidays really feels like a homecoming for him.
“It’s not so much what Saskatoon offers me as a musician, but what Saskatoon offers me as a Saskatonian,” he said.
This year Mack is bringing home a Christmas gift of his own, in a new song.
The song, titled A Place to Call Home, was written in response to the migrant crisis taking place at the southern border of the United States.
Mack said the song has taken on a little extra meaning for him, as he gets the opportunity to come back to his hometown for the holidays and thousands of people are not going to have that same luxury.
“Coming home for Christmas, it kinds of puts a bow on it, you know?” he said.
But Mack said he’s both grateful and excited to come back to play a hometown holiday series of shows, and even though it’s not as big as Chicago, Saskatoon and The Bassment still offer him something “unique” that he can’t get in Illinois.
It’s not so much what Saskatoon offers me as a musician, but what Saskatoon offers me as a Saskatonian.