Blues band playing Vanier Hall
Prince George has everything it needs, almost, almost. What it doesn’t have is the Downchild Blues Band, but fear not, this legendary group will flip, flop and fly into Vanier Hall on Saturday night.
Anyone can play the blues for an audience, but it takes pain and heartache to perform the blues with authenticity whether anyone’s listening or not. Not only does Downchild win the Canadian award for blues longevity, kicking off in the 1960s, but they’ve also earned their colours having survived tragedy to core band members and the indifference of a fickle music market.
In all ways, they have stroked forward against the current and remain a big fish in the wild blues today.
They started winning awards and Sold Out stickers almost immediately. Their first Juno Award came in 1981, another Juno in 1991, piles of Maple Blues Awards as well (for the group, but also each band member has multiple individual awards on their own), and to prove how vital they remain, consider that Downchild won the Best Blues Album trophy at the 2014 Juno Awards.
To give you a sense of the showbiz staying power flexed by founding member Donnie Walsh, he got the Blues With a Feeling Award for lifetime achievement, presented by the Toronto Blues Society – in 1990! He’s essentially lived another musical life since then. He was inducted into the Canadian Blues Hall of Fame in 2010 and even still he’s amassed new hits.
The latest is the brand new album Something I’ve Done. Lead singer Chuck Jackson told The Citizen it’s a bit of an odd title considering it’s the most collaborative Downchild album ever.
“It’s actually something we’ve all done,” said Jackson. “One thing that’s great about it is, it’s the first time that it’s been a full band collaboration. Everybody in the band contributed songs to the CD except our sax player Pat Carey but he made a lot of the horn arrangements and stuff, so it was a collaboration of the whole band.”
Normally the bulk of the songwriting is done by Walsh and Jackson. This time Mike Fitzpatrick (drummer), Michale Fonfara (keyboards), and Gary Kendall (bass) also contributed tunes.
“The fact that a bunch of guys in the band have been writing songs means this album has a different flavour to it,” said Walsh. “And we all know each other so well that things tend to come easy.”
Jackson agreed that the diversity was a strength.
“When the newest member of Downchild has been in the band more than 20 years, we all know what a Downchild song is supposed to sound like,” Jackson laughed. “It was really fun for me as the singer because it was stuff that was a little different than what we normally do.”
The tight camaraderie has been a winning streak. Downchild has had periods of hefty turnover, at some points over their 49 years. The lineup changes were sometimes turbulent, but usually amicable and only served to spread the gospel of Downchild. They date back almost to the very beginning of the great blues awakening, where the subcultural phenomenon of grassroots black America shifted gears and burst onto the worldwide scene.
“Zeppelin started with Willie Dixon songs, the Stones started with Howlin’ Wolf tunes, a lot of the great bands were influenced by the great Chicago and Mississippi blues artists,” said Jackson.
“Hopefully we can do that for the young artists of Canada – inspire them to research the blues.”
It was Jimmy Reed and James Cotton who first ignited Walsh. He passed that on with significant impact. Modern artists like Colin James have recorded with Downchild, Rita Chiarelli is a friend, they have had celebrity collaborators like Gene Taylor (Fabulous Thunderbirds) and Wayne Jackson (The Memphis Horns) and an entire pop culture franchise is based on the band. When Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi (then later John Goodman) embodied The Blues Brothers, their act was constructed on the Downchild Blues Band act Aykroyd used to watch live, growing up in Ontario. He saw the band play at Le Hibou in Ottawa. Downchild was a regular at Toronto clubs like Grossman’s Tavern and the El Mocambo. They were almost alone in being Canadians playing the blues in those days.
“Now we have some of the best blues acts in the world,” said Jackson, singling out Dawn Tyler Watson who just won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Jackson applauded that she was “the first Canadian to win at the IBAs.”
For all their action and activities, Downchild hasn’t been to Prince George in something like 15 years, Jackson surmised.
They straighten out that curve on Saturday night with a full stage show at Vanier Hall. Their latest single is a funny, jumpy swamper called Mississippi Woman, Mississauga Man.
Opening act is another Junowinner and B.C. favourite Harpdog Brown alongside Jordie Edmonds. Get tickets now only at Studio 2880 (2880 15th Ave.) or charge-by-phone at 250-562 4526 or at the door.
The fact that a bunch of guys in the band have been writing songs means this album has a different flavour to it. And we all know each other so well that things tend to come easy.
— Donnie Walsh