STONY PLAIN'S E-MAIL NEWS #47 (EXCERPTED)

Spring is here. New releases abound by Duke Robillard and Amos Garrett, and plans are in the works for powerful new music from New Guitar Summit, Rory Block, Big Dave McLean, Joe Louis Walker, and a wonderful made-in-Alberta alt.country newcomer, Tim Hus.

The late Jeff Healey's Mess of Blues CD

The response to Jeff Healey’s Mess of Blues CD has been remarkable — including a #1 spot on Billboard’s blues chart. I was privileged to participate with a parade of stars from the rock, blues and jazz worlds at two wonderful celebrations in Toronto last weekend. Meeting the likes of Jack Bruce and Ian Gillan, not to mention all the great Canadian artists who paid tribute to Jeff’s life and music, was a joyful experience. Jeff must have been smiling.

HOLGER PETERSEN

In the planning stages

TWO NEW SIGNINGS AND A RAFT OF UPCOMING RELEASES

• Joe Louis Walker has become a Stony Plain artist. Duke Robillard will produce the veteran bluesman’s Stony Plain debut, and the first sessions have already taken place. With 18 CDs in his back catalog (many for the now-defunct HighTone label, and later for Polygram/Gitanes), Walker is an international artist who frequently performs in Europe, Japan and Australia, and who constantly performs in the United States and Canada.

With university degrees in music and English, he has a wide knowledge of a variety of blues styles — thus making an instant connection with Robillard, who equally relishes the ability to draw from different colours on the blues palette. Stony Plain plans to release the Joe Louis Walker CD in the fall.

• The second New Guitar Summit CD for Stony Plain is a tour de force for guitarists (and guitar fans) everywhere. The Summit consists of Gerry Beaudoin, Jay Geils and Duke Robillard, and the new release is titled Shivers (SPCD-1328).

Canadian rocker Randy Bachman — still touring with The Guess Who and fondly remembered for "Taking Care of Business" with Bachman Turner Overdrive — is the special guest, and contributes some sparkling guitar work, and an especially laid-back vocal on two Mose Allison’s classics, "Your Mind is On Vacation" and "Everybody’s Crying Mercy". Shivers will be released in Canada on June 10, and in the United States and internationally on July 8.

• A new signing to Stony Plain, Tim Hus offers roughneck alternative country music, Alberta style, with down-home songs and real affection and understanding of western Canada. His first CD, Bush Pilot Buckaroo (SPCD 1336), will be released in Canada June 3. Both Ian Tyson and Corb Lund are fans; Corb is telling folk: "Tim’s awesome. He’s one of my favorite Canadian songwriters. Nobody captures the rough-and-ready frontier imagery better than him."

• Rory Block has just about finished recording her debut for Stony Plain. Titled Blues Walkin' A Man: A Tribute to Son House. This is going to be a very special CD, with cool contributions from John Sebastian on harmonica. The label is hoping for a release in late summer or the early fall.

• Big Dave McLean’s third CD for Stony Plain is called Acoustic Blues: Got ’Em from the Bottom. Expect a release in summer. Look for more on this special release by a legendary Canadian artist in the next Newsletter.

News From Stony Plain's Information Desk

Well, if the Virgin Festival’s going to happen in Calgary (and it’s set for June 21-22), you’ve got to have a taste of country. Which is why Corb Lund & The Hurtin’ Albertans will be playing the event — along with The Tragically Hip, the reformed Stone Temple Pilots, Flaming Lips, and The New Pornographers. Corb’s also playing the Ottawa Blues Festival.

The Indie Acoustic Project has announced the winners of their "Best CDs of 2007" Awards, celebrating the best in innovative independent acoustic music. Only one Canadian artist made the winners’ circle — Corb Lund earned the nod for "best lyrics" and his Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier! album.

Ronnie Earl has a new Website and MySpace page: Check out http://www.ronnieearl.com/ and www.myspace.com/ronnieearlandthebroadcasters. Note, too, that the page lists four upcoming dates in the North East, including a May 17 show at the famed Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA.

Duke Robillard has a raft of festivals coming up this summer:

May 10 — Blind Willie McTell Festival, Thomson, Georgia
June 5 — Chicago Blues Festival, Chicago, Illinois
June 7 — Waterfront Blues Festival, Toronto, Ontario
June 18 — Puistoblues, Järvenpää, Finland
July 24 — Party in the Park, Rochester, NY
Sept. 21 — Great Atlantic Blues and Beyond Festival, Halifax , Nova Scotia

Duke Robillard Swingin Session Hits The Ball Out Of The Park

Duke Robillard has long been a keynote artist for Stony Plain, and his new record for the label, A Swingin’ Session with Duke Robillard (SPCD-1331), finds him in yet another groove. With a raft of cool guests and sidemen, this collection of medium-paced swing tunes is a perfect reminder of days when jazz and R&B met head on, and provided perfect music for dancing and late-night jamming. As always, Robillard chooses solid tunes for the players to groove on — some standards like "Deed I Do", "The Lonesome Road", "When Your Lover Has Gone" and "The Song is Ended", and a couple of originals ("Swinging With Lucy Mae" and "Red Dog"). Other highlights include Hot Lips Page’s rocking "They Raided the Joint" and Ray Charles’ "Them That Got".
Writer and critic Bob Porter says, in his sleeve note, that this is "an album for everyone, be they blues lover or jazz fan. It is joyful, timeless music."

Certainly the players here, including Bruce Katz on piano and organ, sax players Scott Hamilton, Doug James and Gordon "Sax" Beadle, and brass players Carl Querforth, Al Basile and Dave Ballou, all sound like they’re having the session of their lives. Music like this, though, depends on a gently rocking rhythm section, and Mark Texiera (drums), Marty Ballou, John Packer and John Williams (who alternate in the bass chair) are joined on seven tracks by Paul Kolesnikow on acoustic guitar.

Needless to say, Duke’s electric guitar and his laid-back vocals set the tone; this is a late night record that swings. Once again, Robillard has switched pace — and once again made a distinctive CD that is a worthy addition to his impressive catalog.

Jeff Healey's "Mess Of Blues" Hits#1 on Billboard Blues Chart

The response to Jeff Healey’s final blues/rock record, Mess of Blues (SPCD-1333), has been remarkable. Uniformly positive reviews, airplay around the world, and major view numbers on several YouTube videos have helped make the CD a major success — and pushed it to the #1 spot on the Billboard blues chart.

A pair of tribute celebrations to honour Jeff’s life and music were held in Toronto. More than 2500 people turned out for a show that featured Jack Bruce (Cream), Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) Randy Bachman, Colin James, David Wilcox, and dozens more. The following day, no less than seven Toronto classic jazz bands, with friends from LA and New York, celebrated the classic music of the ’20s and ’30s, which Jeff loved so much.

Five Questions for Amos Garrett

Q: What attracted you to Percy Mayfield?

A: For one, it was the fact that his vocal range was the same as mine. He was the godfather of all the real low range singers like Barry White and Brook Benton. They all learned from Percy. And his songs are so powerful. Most of it was pretty depressing stuff . . . A lot of his life was a serious struggle because of the accident (a 1952 car crash which left him with a facial disfigurement) and he had a real problem with the bottle, too. But I just felt he was one of the most masterful survivalists.

Q: Did you ever see Mayfield play live?

A: Once, very late in his life, and it was a disastrous night. He did two shows, one in Emeryville, which is between Berkeley and Richmond in (California's) East Bay. And the next night he did a show in Marin County . . . I decided to go to the show in East Bay because I thought it would be more of his kind of audience. It was a very large club called Ruthies and it was sold out. There was a very upscale black audience. Percy was just a wreck. Really f**ked up. It was a shame to see it. I figured the next night in Marin County would be the show to miss. It was this very upscale white neighbourhood. But apparently, he was just phenomenal the next night. Elvin Bishop went to that show and Elvin said he was brilliant. Unbelievable. I picked the wrong night.

Q: Your first big break came playing with Ian and Sylvia Tyson's Great Speckled Bird (1969). This was a pioneering country-rock band. Did you realize at the time what sort of ground the band was breaking?

A: Ian called me up because he wanted to form a full-size country band, but with a heavier hitting rhythm section . . . We knew we had something different going on when the band came together and we started rehearsing. We did the album in Nashville and all these local musicians kept dropping by the studio constantly. There was such a buzz around town about what we were doing.

Q: Your Wikipedia page online says you played with Anne Murray on the "Snowbird" recording sessions. Really? You and Anne Murray?

A: I didn't play on that single. A lot of people think I did. Actually, I think I played on every other song on her first four or five records. The one tune I didn't play on was "Snowbird". Anne was rarely in the studio with us. She'd come in and do her vocals after we got all the basic rhythm tracks done. But I met her on several occasions and she was a very nice person.

Q: You were born in Detroit, raised in Toronto and you spent much of your career living all over the U.S., depending on who you were playing for. What finally drew you to Alberta?

A: I'd been coming to Alberta for many years on hunting and fishing trips with my father and my younger brother. The first time I ever came here and saw this place I said 'I gotta live here someday. This is like paradise for me.' And when I decided to form my own band, be a frontman and sing, I decided to do it in Canada. It had a much healthier nightclub scene at the time, especially on the western circuit. So between the strength of that nightclub circuit and my hunting and fishing jones I said, 'Southern Alberta is the place for me.' That was back in 1989.

Get Interactive with Stony Plain

Check the new Stony Plain website to buy music, go through the back catalog, get bio information on our artists, and read news from past newsletters:

www.stonyplainrecords.com/web

You send snail-mail to P.O. Box 861, Edmonton, Alberta, T5J 2L8, Canada. Our phone number is (780) 468-6423, and we still have a fax machine: (780) 465-8941.

If you want to get on this list, need media information, review or airplay copies, etc., please get in touch with newsletter editor Richard Flohil:

rflohil @ sympatico.ca, or call (416) 351-1323.


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