Colin James:
‘Dad and I sat and just cranked the brand new stereo’
Colin James remembers being about 10 years old when his dad, Bill Munn, took him shopping for a new stereo.
Munn had earlier built his own stereo from a kit — family pictures show the pre-school-aged Colin frolicking in front of the speakers — but the music-loving family needed something bigger.
“I think it was at The Bay in Regina,” James recalled. “We picked an amplifier, we bought speakers, the whole nine yards.”
They also picked up some vinyl: the groundbreaking Jeff Beck fusion instrumental album Wired.
“Dad and I sat and just cranked the brand new stereo after hooking it all up — that’s a big moment I remember. I like to picture me and Dad turning up the amplifier to very high, and listening to Led Boots with Jan Hammer and Jeff Beck.”
James, now 50, credits his parents — Bill Munn died of cancer in 2001 — with exposing him to every kind of music, from folk and blues to fusion and opera. Munn, a social worker, didn’t play an instrument himself, but got together weekly for bluegrass singalongs with a group of friends.
Colin, the youngest of four kids, remembers there always being a couple of instruments around their Regina home. He picked up a guitar when he was around eight.
The family made an annual summer camping trip to the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
“I saw so many players quite young,” said James. “You learned how to harmonize from going to all those shows. My dad just loved tight bluegrass harmonies, tight celtic harmonies, that was his thing.”
By age 13, James was touring with a local bluegrass band, playing mandolin. By 15, he had earned his own spot at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, a family highlight.
“I got my own stage concert — that was pretty exciting for me,” James said. “I had to audition for the guy who ran the festival.”
Shortly after that, James was launched as a blues prodigy at 16. Mentored by Stevie Ray Vaughan, he opened for such acts as George Thorogood and John Lee Hooker.
“Dad was there in some of those early days when things started rolling along for me,” James said.
“He was there for a lot of those moments ... and when I played Radio City Music Hall for the first time, so that was cool.”
James, who keeps to a busy touring schedule, has a three-night stand at the Montreal Jazz festival later this month and plays at the PNE in August.
He picked up a mandolin recently to join Barney Bentall’s bluegrass band, The High Bar Gang, on stage to play and sing a special song: Rock, Salt And Nails by the late American folksinger and labour organizer Utah Phillips.
“It was my dad’s favourite song,” James said.