Alibi's, Windsor, ON

Out to Toronto airport this morning to pick up Dave's wife, Patti. She's joining us for a couple of days around Dave's pending induction into the Blues Hall of Fame. It was a warm day for driving, and highway 401 across the bottom end of Ontario was fast. We got in a couple of hours early and checked into our hotel for a rest and a quick shower before sound check.

Alibi's is a nice room on the side of an international truck route. Tonight was a benefit to raise money for the Downtown Mission, an event sponsored by the South Canada Blues Society. Due to some snafu "full production" was not interpreted to include mics and stands, so the sound guy had to scramble to get us set up. Nor was the venue ready for an acoustic show- a tough time was had with the monitors, eq, and over all volume. Everybody involved did their best. We jumped in and worked hard for our two sets, well appreciated by the folks who were close to the front. We were, however, glad to meet the James Anthony band as they arrived to play the late show. If folks can't hear us, it's a tough time for sure. After the great show we had last night at the Silver Dollar, this outing was a bit of a let down. James, at least, sounded great, so we enjoyed his first set before heading back to the hotel for some rest.

It was great to meet Ted Boomer, Bernie, Commander Kim Kelly, and some of the other fine folks who keep it all going down here! Nice turnout by the Blues Society, and a testament to a good deal of hard work and planning. Plenty of young players coming up in South Canada!
I've since heard that people LOVED our show at Alibi's. So I guess our extra efforts were not in vain after all!

The Silver Dollar Room, Toronto

The Silver Dollar is one of my favourite rooms in Canada, so we were very much looking forward to this show. As a special, early event we were wondering how it would work out. A great night! Dave and I had a ball playing this legendary club. Many friends from near and far came out, including quite a few members of the Toronto Blues Society. One of Dave's oldest friends, John McTaggart surprised him with his presense. The sound was, from our position on stage, world class, and allowed us to deliver everything we wanted to. Thanks Vlad! Sound at the Dollar is always top flight. Gary Kendall was on hand to deliver the Silver Dollar hospitality, and it was a good night all around. We sold way more tour jackets and cds than we had expected- that's a good sign, for sure!
Here's the lucky winner of the Tour jacket raffle at the Dollar show! We raffle off a custom made tour jacket most nights. These are way cool. You need one! Dave says, hi!

CKLN, Toronto

Tonight we were featured guests on Lowdown to Uptown, a popular blues show on radio CKLN in Toronto. My son, Alasdair, came along as Tour Photographer and did an excellent job of documenting the show! Here's the playlist and what it looked like from a grade 5's perspective! Here's the control desk- cool!


Lowdown 2 Uptown
Wednesday 8-10pm EST
CKLN-FM 88.1
Toronto, Canada
www.ckln.fm – streamed live

“23 years of bringing you the soul of the blues”

This is our host, David Barnard, AKA Dr. Feelgood. His playlist for the evening is also included below. We had as much fun listening as we did talking. David should record all the "off-mic" chat and gossip- always a treat, too.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
Musician – Song – Source – Label/Distributor
*denotes Canadian musician

(New)
NATHANIEL MAYER – Village of Love – (I Want) Love and Affection (Not The House of Correction) – Fortune/Vampi
NATHANIEL MAYER – Leave Me Alone – I Just Want To Be Held – Fat Possum

(At the Academy of Spherical Arts)
*SHAKURA S’AIDA – Getting Along Alright – Blueprint – Shakura S’Aida
(At the NOW Lounge/Free Times Café)
*LITTLE MISS HIGGINS – You Ain’t Done Nothing To Me – Junction City – Little Miss Higgins

(New)
BOBBY RUSH – Howlin’ Wolf – Raw – Deep Rush
HONEYBOY EDWARDS – West Helena Blues – White Windows – Blue Suit

(At Hugh’s Room)
*KEN WHITELEY – Lunch Counter Encounter – One World Dance – Borealis/Festival
*KEN WHITELEY – Everybody Has The Blues – One World Dance – Borealis/Festival
These guys look familiar.
(At the Silver Dollar)
Interview with BIG DAVE MCLEAN & DOC MACLEAN
*DOC MACLEAN with BIG DAVE MCLEAN – Angola Prison Rodeo – live-in-the-studio

Interview with BIG DAVE MCLEAN & DOC MACLEAN
*BIG DAVE MCLEAN – Atlanta Moan – live-in-the-studio
Interview with BIG DAVE MCLEAN & DOC MACLEAN
*DOC MACLEAN with BIG DAVE MCLEAN – Jimmy Lee Jackson – live-in-the-studio


(New)
OMAR KENT DYKES & JIMMIE VAUGHAN –Jimmy Reed Highway – On The Jimmy Reed Highway – Ruf/Fusion III
JOHN HAMMOND – Mean Ol’ Lonesome Train – Push Comes To Shove – Back Porch/EMI

Dave and I loved these recordings. Omar and Jimmie!!! That's a great cd. Go buy it!! John rules. Buy that, too!

(At the Silver Dollar)
*ANTHONY GOMES – Everyday Superstar – Music is the Medicine – Adrenaline
(At Healey’s)
RONNIE BAKER BROOKS – It Takes A Smart Man To Play Dumb – Take Me Witcha – Watchdog

(At the Silver Dollar)
MELVIN TAYLOR – Kansas City – Dirty Pool – Evidence
MELVIN TAYLOR – Dirty Pool – Dirty Pool – Evidence

(At Hugh’s Room)
*DAWN TYLER WATSON & PAUL DESLAURIERS – Cold Shot – En Duo – Justin Time/Fusion III
*DAWN TYLER WATSON & PAUL DESLAURIERS – I Will Stand By You – En Duo – Justin Time/Fusion III
Thanks for a wonderful evening. See you all tomorrow at the Silver Dollar Room!!

Travel Day 2 and a Rest Day

Off to see M. Timm in the AM. Extra gross (that's big here), extra black, extra hot, and the Big Road Blues Tour was back in motion. Later in the day we rolled through Montreal, where we visited Swartz's Deli for an early lunch and then took a run up to the Fairmont Bagel. We loaded up with a couple dozen for the road, and soon we were on the big highway, 401, blasting through Ontario toward the Big Smoke. We'll be back to Montreal in a couple weeks time.

Toronto is where I hang my hat when I'm not out playing. Here's Dave checking out some of my clutter- yes, it's a 1953 J.C. Higgens Colorflow.

We're going to be based out of my place for a few days, so we can bomb around in my '63 Galaxie. It's got a big motor, so it doesn't tour anymore. We took it out the following night to visit Julian Fauth, who was playing in the west end. Nice to hear him again!

Travel Day

Went by the festival offices this morning to pick up our merch and to say our good-byes. As Joe's was closed we got coffee from Tim's and hit the road. New Brunswick looks like this as it goes by the truck window. Soon enough we reached the Quebec border, and had a great time singing all the French words we could remember. I try to convince Dave to try and convince Holger that his next album will be called "The Milkmaid, She Sings Her Happy Song." As I am the ONLY member of this tour not on Stony Plain Records, I am quite naturally anxious to share my greatest marketing ideas with them. Dave is not convinced, but continues to sing the song hour after hour anyway.
Dave had never been to Quebec City, so we rolled in around dusk for a quick look at the old town. This used to be a great blues city- at one time there were several clubs and there were gigs seven nights a week. I was telling Dave how I used to do shows here with Colin Linden, Mose Scarlett, Champaign Charlie and others. We had some wild times for sure! On our visit it was pretty quiet. It seems more and more like a movie set with tourists wandering about. It would have been nice to stop off and play some shows, but for the second year in a row it was impossible to find a venue. There is one blues radio show out of Quebec City, and when I emailed the host to ask about venues he seemed to have no idea at all. None of the Quebec based blues artists I talked to were able to provide any info either. Dead city? I don't think so. Walled city? Yes, in more ways than one.

We blasted on down Route 20 to get into cheaper digs for the night. Here's Dave showing off a high quality, road room. At least the place was quiet as we were ready for some serious sleep.

Harvest Jazz and Blues, Day 3

Over to Hammertown for breakfast again today. Dave insists it's the best diner he has ever been in, and I'm pretty sure he's right- so off we went to eat like road dog kings once more! It's a cold, rainy day as we made our way back to pick up gear and get over to the Voodoo stage for the harmonica workshop that Dave is to host. Under the big tent things were pretty dry, all things considered. Our first surprise was that neither Mark "Bird" Stafford or Watermelon Slim was there. Bird was listed in the program as being the host, and although we knew that had been changed, we sort of expected him to be there. Actually, we totally expected him to be there. Dave gave me the "Doc I'll get even, you so and so" kind of look, because I'd signed him up to do the workshop. Now he was to be hosting it, solo, for the next hour and a half!

A good sized crowd was in the tent as John Campbelljohn finished up his slide guitar workshop and Dave stepped up to the plate. He had the crowd from the get go, blowing his cool, rack harp, to some Jimmy Reed tune. After a while he called me up to demonstrate how he'd back up another player. I had a chance to play 2 or 3 numbers, and then John Campbelljohn took my place to jam a little. I was backstage getting my guitar back in it's case when Bird and Slim arrived together. Dave had chosen this moment to be playing "Dixie" on his little, ornamental harp. Bird looked at me and said, "how long has THIS been going on?!" Slim came out to play a couple of numbers with Dave and John, while Bird climbed up on the drum kit to finish a great, crowd pleasing set. Big ovation for Big Dave. Things worked out well after all!

As it happens, it was good that we got to play at the Voodoo. After our Delta gig we rushed down to our night concert- it was a "TBA" in the program as we were a late add to the festival. But the stage was empty! No stage techs, nothing! Apparently we were rained out. Nobody had told us, so we humped our gear back to the street, called another cab, and took it all back to the hotel. Well, now we had the night off. It was no longer raining, it was warming up outside. We headed out to visit around with everybody. Here's a snap of us with some Festival volunteers. That's Dr. John's stage switched on behind us.

First stop was the Rogue to catch Matchstick Mike for a full set. This was a cool show as Mike called up two of his young guitar students to play. "Johnny Cash" was great, as was the young teen gal who got up and played a note perfect T-Bone shuffle to bring down the house. Good on you, Mike! Here's me with one of the Chain Smoking Alter Boys. Next we went around the corner to see Morgan Davis, met Slim, and Ross Neilsen. Ross and Slim sat in for a few tunes, and then we went over to catch the Dr. John show. Security would not let us in the backstage, so Dave and I bid Slim good night and headed back to our hotel. Not a bad day!

Harvest Jazz and Blues, Day 2

Well, we wimped out last night after our show at the Delta. Running on three hours sleep was not going to be good so we had a big rest and started our second festival day feeling great. First stop was Hammertown for breakfast at Joe's Diner.
Hammertown is across the river from downtown Fredericton and takes it's name from a murder which took place there many years ago. For all I know, Joe's may have been there just as long! It's a classic diner. The waitress was called Flo, they had homemade bread, jars of mollasses on the counter, beans on the breakfast menu... Dave and I pretty much ordered up one of everything they had and stuffed ourselves silly.

Back to the hotel where I thought I'd give a call over to my pals in the Workers- Watermelon Slim's excellent, excellent band. Michael Newbury answered the phone sounding the worse for wear- noon was way too early to be calling these guys! I settled into the hotel lobby to do some press releases for our upcoming Ontario dates. Nice not to be traveling today.

PJ's Lounge at the Delta is a comfortable little room with great food and a friendly vibe. Dave and I played a relaxed couple of sets. It didn't seem as though there were many, if any, festival people in the house. There was some sort of Baptist convention (I think) going on, so there were guys in dark blazers sipping pop and water. We had a great time playing for them- even if we are going to roast in hell for our sins! After the show Dave borrowed a big knife from a table so he could cut bagels in his room. As we walked through the lobby I was expecting security to jump all over us. Instead, we scared some lady in the elevator. I'm not sure if she saw the knife.

Off to the festival to catch up with Slim and the guys. Hung out in the trailer/green room for a while and got up to date. Brent Staeben, the festival AD came by for a visit. This Festival is great. The whole city is really into it, the locations are nice and are walking distance apart without too much sound leakage. Volunteers are all over the place doing a top notch job of making everything go. It's an exciting mix of international, national and regional artists. There are many great players based in Atlantic Canada, and what a treat to hear so many in the course of a few days!

Slim and the Workers delivered their usual knock down, over the top, leave 'em screaming for more kind of show. Watching from the side stage I know these guys are exhausted, but it's a secret. No one would ever suspect that to see and hear them lay down their show.
In my opinion this is the most exciting live show on the circuit today- and you won't meet a nicer bunch of guys. After the encore I'm off to visit Matchstick Mike at the Rogue pub, just a couple of blocks away. Mike is, of course, tearing the house down. He's loud and he's proud. He's got one of the tightest sections I've heard in a long while, and he's got Mark "Bird" Stafford from Toronto sitting in on harp. I've heard the Bird many times over the years with his own band, but I'd never heard him in such a ramped up band setting before- killer! This band was fun! Spoke to Sarah French briefly before heading back to the hotel. These guys were going to play all night. Dave and I have three shows on Saturday, so I'll want to be in good shape.