Holiday Greetings to all my friends, fans and new subscribers who I haven’t met yet. I’m seeing a lot end-of-year messages and podcasts and when I heard the radio DJ mention that today is the winter solstice and ever since I arrived in Toronto I have made a habit of casting my runes on auspicious days, birthdays, new years, eclipses…
On our first Christmas here, my son (then 10 or 11) gave me a diary with a liitle padlock and a card reading “I hope you like this it cost me a lot of money.” I guess I got my runes (if you didn’t know it’s a divining method like Tarot cards) about the same time (probably from my ex) and I used my new diary to keep track of the readings and it was amazing to me that, year after year I kept getting the same message. Plant the seed and wait for the harvest. This is not the time for action. Stand Still (yes, one of those runes actually says “Stand Still”) But today was different, and kinda encouraging. This is my diary entry if you care to peek into my future:
I had never kept a personal diary or journal but when I got to Toronto and found myself struggling to make it as a musician, I started my “Toronto Blues Diary” chronicling my adventures in this new music environment (dare I say “Jungle”?). That was 1990. I just wrote about my first gigs, great shows that I saw, my first blues jam, trying to make my way into the blues scene which was not that welcoming. I was a newbie on the Toronto blues scene, even though back in the 70s I had my “fifteen minutes” (a major label record deal, a NY publicist, a road manager, choice opening slots, fancy digs and a smorgasbord of dope). Actually, it felt more like seven and a half minutes. Within a couple of years, I migrated my diary into a private area of the website I built for the jazz festival (that was one of the very first websites – before graphics, just text and links) and I used one feature (coloured text) to highlight in red anything that might qualify as a “tip” for any struggling musician. Unfortunately, the highlighted text was lost in one of the many migrations to different web platforms until I landed on Blogger. I guess I had a blog before there was ever a name for it. A year ago I started this Substack and now I’m looking at turning it into a podcast. Jest keeping up with the times.
Remembering David Farrell
For the last couple of days, social media has been filled with tributes to David Farrell, a mover & shaker on the Canadian Music Scene, and not just our little blues niche. He published magazines, started Canadian Music Week, and for a while ran a glitzy website called New Canadian Music. He was what we today call an “influencer” and I dare say he’s the only influencer that ever spoke up for Brian Blain. He was all about encouraging and introducing new talent. I only met him a few times but on one of those occasions I happened to have my brand new CD in my pocket and I sheepishly offered him one. It’s not something I did very often and whenever I did, I don’t think they ever listened (I’m talking to you Errol Nazareth, Tom Power, Jian Ghomeshi!). But David wrote me back later that night, or maybe the next day, saying “this is not just your rank-and-file blues album” and other nice things. Then he put me on the New Canadian Music chart, and he made one of my tracks a featured “song of the week.” It’s a kid gesture I will always remember in the otherwise rough-and-tumble music industry.
Out and About
November brought a lot of great music to our town and I’ve got a few short clips to share with you. We’ll start with a short compilation of the Women’s Blues Revue at Massey hall. It features performances by Crystal Shawanda, Tanika Charles, Kellylee Evans, Rebecca Henessey, Diana Braithwaite and Meghan Parnell of Bywater Call. Lots of star power in the band, too - Angelique Francis, Jennie Thai, Selena Evangeline..
This was the first WBR that wasn’t produced by Derek Andrews and he got a big shout-out from the new producer, Quisha Wint, who is also the new chair of the Toronto Blues Society Board of Directors. Founder Derek Andrews has stepped away from his leadership position and has been providing some guidance from the sidelines but I’m sure that’s not much fun for him. Apparently, some of our funders did not like the idea of a “one man show” and truth be said, it was effectively a one man show, and I can remember a few occasions over the years where DA deferred to the board to do something that he questioned and I have to say anytime that happened he was proven right in the end. The TBS has a great new leader, though. Quisha Wint has taken the bull by the horns and despite a very busy career, she’s been steering the ship through some stormy weather.
Congrats to Jesse Greene on receiving the Amy Louie Grossman’s Music Scholarship last month. Jay Blues/Bleus was the runner up and both of them have been up to my kitchen jams recently. Two creative, motivated musicians who will help carve a path for the next surge to gain the attention of a diminishing audience for blues music in this town and beyond.
Just as Downchild was wrapping up its farewell tour after 55 years bringing the blues across Canada, they came back to Grossman’s for a short set at the Amy Louie Grossman’s Music Scholarship fundraiser. This was coming home to the club where they got their start, and where Dan Aykroyd first heard them and was inspired to invent the Blues Brothers.
Rick Holmstrom is a guitar player’s guitar player with his own unique style. He has been Mavis Staple’s guitarist and bandleader for 20 years and is now beginning to launch a solo career. Steve Marriner convinced him to come to Ontario for a small tour and I got to hear them in the back room at the Cameron House.
And for my inaugural podcast, I figured I should at least have a little bit of Brian Blain so I did a reprise on my song about Trump, “Loyal to a Fault.” I wrote it way back when, but I dug it up to give it another shot and I thought I’d give it another play. Hope it doesn’t get me into trouble.
Hope everybody has a lovely Christmas and a great New Year!
Feel free to forward this to any friend you think might enjoy my occasional ramblings (and maybe my music, too). The archives (going back to 1990) are available at www.torontobluesdiary.blogspot.com
See you out there, eventually.
BrianB, aka Butch, Nappy, Shaker, Two-Lane Blain, Colorblind Brian, Stringbuster, Buddha of the Blues
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