SINGING THE BLUES
Festival brings big names to city this week
The Mid-winter Blues Festival is returning to Regina a little early this year.
With the national men's curling championship running March 1-10, organizers of the annual blues festival decided to alter their schedule in hopes of avoiding a conflict.
The three-day event runs this week with mainstage performances on Thursday and Friday night at The Exchange, followed by Saturday night's finale at the Casino Regina Show Lounge.
“We're a week earlier than we normally are because of the Brier,” explained Dan Silljer, artistic director of the Regina Blues Association. “We like to do the first weekend in March, but things are going good. The bands are all looking forward to coming. The venues are all ready to go. Everything is falling into place. We should have a good show. Hopefully everybody comes out to see it.”
Silljer noted that some great musicians are coming to town for the festival, including five local groups and five more that bring a national/international flavour.
Thursday's opener at The Exchange features headliner Colin Linden of Nashville (originally from Toronto). The Canadian singer-guitarist-songwriter is a prominent artist and producer who was the primary musical contributor on former ABC television series Nashville, serving as a music producer-director, composer and onscreen performer.
Over a 45-year career, Linden has worked with the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, Colin James, Emmylou Harris, Chris Thomas King and Bob Dylan, playing on over 500 albums and producing 140. He won a Grammy in 2020 for producing Keb Mo's Oklahoma, which received the Best Americana Album award. He has also earned 25 Juno nominations, winning nine times.
Linden is joined on Thursday by Winnipeg's DB & The Deadbeats and Regina's One Way Out.
Nigel Mack & The Blues Attack are making the trip from Chicago for Friday's show at The Exchange. Mack, who is originally from Saskatoon, is a prolific songwriter and performer who has headlined top blues venues around the world while also contributing to TV soundtracks for Dawson's Creek, The Street, and Time of Your Life.
Mack is to be joined Friday by two Regina groups — the Dan Silljer Band, and Chand Howie & The Betterman — as well as Brandon's Chris Ghidoni.
On Saturday at Casino Regina, the star-studded lineup features St. Louis blues man Mike Zito, who has been recognized multiple times at the prestigious Blues Music Awards in Memphis. One of his chart-topping albums, Make Blues Not War, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard blues chart and helped Zito win the 2018 rock blues artist-of-the-year award. His song Roll On was featured on the hit TV series Sons of Anarchy.
Saturday's lineup also includes Toronto-based Steve Marriner & Local Electric. Marriner has performed in Colin James' band as well as his own group, Monkey Junk, winning 2012 and 2018 Juno Awards for blues album of the year.
Rounding out Saturday's finale is James “Super Chikan” Johnson & The Mojo Stars. The Mississippi-based Johnson is a celebrated international artist who received honours for best blues album and best debut album at the 1998 Living Blues Magazine Awards. In 2004, he received the Mississippi Governor's Award for excellence in the arts.
Tickets for the Mid-winter Blues Festival are available at the door and in advance through reginablues.ca, the-exchangelive.ca, and the Casino Regina box office (casinoregina.com).
There are also free stages featuring local artists on Saturday afternoon at The Flats, Chop, Bushwakker's, The Cure, and The Tap.
This marks the 29th annual festival, although it would be No. 30 if not for missing a year due to the COVID pandemic.
“We're getting back to where we were before the pandemic,” said Silljer. “We're still a little softer than we were but we're getting pretty close. People are starting to come back out again.”