Julian Fauth, winner of several awards - Juno and Maple Blues Awards, has unfortunately had a nasty fall and has broken his right shoulder in four places. This means that as a full-time musician, Julian will not be able to perform for several months and has no means to support himself (musicians don't get EI or short-term disability).

Several benefit concerts have already taken place with more to come. Below is a brief blog and videos of the benefit concert that took place at Hugh's Room on Tuesday, June 28.

Here's a new video done by Ken Bowman (with audio from Little Chicago Sound Company) of a song from PAUL REDDICK's Show at Blues On The Rideau at The Cove Inn, Westport on April 15th. Great version of "Pinegum" from his superb Rattlebag album. Paul on vocals and harmonica with Chris Burgess guitar, Greg Marshak on bass and Mike Churchill on drums.

Suzie Vinnick Launches “Me ‘N’ Mabel” at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room Though she’s originally from Saskatoon, it felt like a bit of a homecoming as Suzie Vinnick and friends celebrated the launch of “Me ‘N’ Mabel” at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room (arguably the finest ‘listening room’ in the city) on a fine early-spring evening.

Suzie’s CD release party featured a steady parade of guests, most familiar to an obviously adoring audience, including guitarists Rick Fines and Tony Diteodoro and harmonica ace Roly Platt. Also on hand was producer Danny Greenspoon, himself no slouch on the six-string. 

Most blues fans have a great appreciation for the harmonica. In fact many couldn't imagine hearing blues without it. But most of us couldn't tell the difference between a diatonic and a chromatic harmonica and couldn't tell you what a vibrato is or that you could "bend" a musical note.
 
All I know is that I fell in love with the blues harp through guys like Paul Butterfield but later came to a much greater appreciation of the music through Little Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Terry and James Cotton. I also noticed that the heavy blues-rock bands that I grew up with would always throw in a little harp when they wanted to show their blues roots, just to make it sound authentic.

So where do our local blues harmonica wannabes go when they want to learn more about their instrument? Well, there are a lot of good local teachers who do private and group classes but the one event that seems to pack the house is the Toronto Blues Society's Annual Harmonica Workshop. Each year one of our local harp maestros is chosen to host the event. Joining him or her is a group of three or four players, usually chosen for their diversity of playing style and musical background. On occasion, a harp player of international renown, who happened to be in town at the time, has joined in on the sessions. And whereas most private lessons have little or no accompaniment or the rhythm is provided by a CD made specifically for that purpose, the TBS workshop is backed by a real live, top notched, blues band.

If these guys aren't one of the best blues/R&B/soul Show bands on the circuit today I don't know who is? Johnny ALWAYS delivers a fun, entertaining Show. We wish him all the best at the Juno Awards on March 27th - they are nominated for Blues Album Of The Year for "It's A Long Road". This is his second Juno nomination - they had one for their last CD as well "A Lesson I've Learned" in 2008.

Brian Blain CD Release Party - New Folk Blues - January 2, 2011 at Highway 61, Bayview Avenue,Toronto.

Brian Blain's got a new CD and he's on tour throughout Southern Ontario to promote its release.

Brian's been active on the Canadian music scene for more than 40 years. From electric jazz-blues bands, to alone-and-acoustic to duets or trios. He's done it all. 

Harrison Kennedy takes 2nd place (solo/duo category)!

Harrison Kennedy at the finals of the solo/duo category 2011 International Blues Challenge.