Fog Blues and Brass create cyber-buzz
Hills, lead singer-songwriter from Fog Blues and Brass Band recently submitted two of the band’s original songs for a songwriting competition to a music website called indi.com.
“We are at 1,750,000 (last count: 1,759,002) buzz points,” exclaims Hills, still a little thrown by the numbers. “The songs were from our last live show from Cork Hall. We are excited because one of the songs had 40,000 hits. I went back to the site, looked at it and it said 1,750,000. I thought whatttttt?! There must be something wrong. I sent them a message and they wrote back. I said ‘how are you accumulating these points, because this is astronomical. This is a lot of numbers.’ It comes from the views, shares and likes, Twitter and Facebook. “Backwoods” is the one song that got 40,000 views in the competition to start with, and the rest of the hits happened after that. It is incredible,” says Hills with a laugh, adding that a lot of interest in the band seems to be coming from Texas.
There’s a lot of musical expertise behind all of this cyber-buzz. Fog is comprised of veteran players whose combined playing experience totals over 130 years.
The band is comprised of Bobby Becker, on keyboards. As founding member of Kitchener ’60s rock and roll royalty Yukon, Becker has been playing for 50 years and also currently plays with Bob Seger tribute band Katmandu. Guitarist Walter Horn (Warthog, The Jamblasters) has been playing for 45 years. He is also known for his band Sick in Bed and has opened up for Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Spirit, and Pat Travers. Bassist Al Hosack (Cheryl Lescom, CASBY winners Crossfire, Michaele Jordana and the Poles, Fallen Angels) has been playing for 50 years. Drummer Pat Furlong (Sick in Bed) also began playing in the ’60s. Clarinet, flute, and sax player Dan Jancar who studied with Larry Bodnar (Muddy Waters, UB40) has been playing just more than 20 years.
Add the powerhouse vocals of Hills to Fog and the result is a dynamic aural and visual wallop.
Hills (who prefers the mononym over real name Hilliard Walter) has been singing since he was seven years old, first performing with jazz choirs, then finding rock and roll in high school. He spent 20 years touring clubs all over Canada with various bands. Then Hills became a studio session vocalist working at The Gate on Skeek and the Jazz Jam with Lee Grove a.k.a. Riley Waters. He and Waters then formed the Delta Blues sound of the Jamblasters who released three CDs.
Hills brought Walter Horn to work with then on Jamblasters 2010 CD “Swampland.”
“Then I went up to see Walter’s band Sick in Bed at the Legion,” recalls Hills. “I said to Walter, ‘great band.’ It was not long after that Walter gave me a call and said ‘Hills, I want to replace the singer in the band and would you consider coming to sing for us?’ I said, ‘sure that sounds fantastic.’ I loved the band,” he says.
Hills met Dan Jancar, Pat Furlong and Al Hosack through Sick in Bed.
“At the same time and the same show Bobby Becker actually was there watching the band play. And he said, ‘you know what you are missing is a keyboard player,’” notes Hills laughing. The rest is Fog. The show at Cork Hall is a way to raise funds for Fog’s upcoming CD which will feature six original songs. The CD will be produced at The Drive Shed by Hills’ longtime pal/engineer John Beetle Bailey who won Junos for his work with Molly Johnson (“Rain”) and Serena Ryder (“The Sisters of Mercy”).
Hills is also thrilled that old pals, now L.A.-based rockers Artok, are sharing the bill at Cork Hall.
“Artok drummer/engineer Rob Taylor and I worked together in his project the “Seeds of Eden,” says Hills, “So Rob and I have known each other for a long time. When I first came into the music scene in rock and roll right out of high school, one of the bands that I kept trying sneaking into the Coronet to see before I was 19 was Artok. I have known guitarist/engineer Robi Banerji (The Rolling Stones) and Rob throughout my career I have always kept in touch with Robi because Robi was one of my brothers best friends so I kept running into Robi. He is an amazing guy,” says Hills, adding that another old bandmate Louie Pfeifer (Nasty Nasty) will be playing bass with Artok.
In addition to the Cork Hall show, Fog is also playing a benefit concert (with Artok) at Dallas Night Club for Katmandu musician Bob Young’s daughter and her kids who recently lost everything in a fire. And there are more gigs to come. “Right now we are really focusing on melding the blues with the horns while keeping a little bit of that London rocking blues inside of it. We do not want to be just another blues band. We are trying to be more like Long John Baldry, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, or Muddy Waters. Walter (Horn) is like our Jeff Beck of the band.”