While we claim him as our own, Curley Bridges was born in a small town outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. His mother was a church organist  and his father was a musician and farmer and a friend of Fats Waller so he couldn't escape the country blues influence that was prevalent in the southern black rural life. His early influences were Joe Turner and Louis Jordan but when he was drafted into the army he was exposed to the boogie-woogie piano of guys like Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Piano Red. Only then did he decide to make music his life.

He settled down in Washington DC, becoming a big part of the music scene there. This is where he became friends with Billie Holiday. In the early 50's he met Frank Motley and helped him form the "Motley Crew" as lead vocalist, keyboardist and occasional trombone player and drummer.

But Curley's claim to fame was recording Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog" in an up-tempo, jump style format that was undoubtedly a big influence on a upstart rock and roller named Elvis Presley.

Motley Crew had made a big impression in the Canadian scene and they visited Canada, particularly Toronto, on a regular basis. But in 1955, things changed for Curley. I'll let him tell the story in his own words in an interview from NOW Magazine; "It was in 1955, and it was real cold, like nothing I'd ever experienced. I came up with Frank Motley for a gig at the old Holiday Tavern on the corner of Queen and Bathurst, across the street from the Paddock. We were booked for two weeks and we wound up staying six months. Toronto took a little getting used to, but after touring through different places in Canada, I came to realize this is where I shoulda been all my life. I loved the people in Toronto. I felt like I belonged here, and everyone treated me like I did."  We're glad he stayed.

On Saturday, January 15, 2011, Electro-Fi Records, lead by the incomparable Andrew Galloway, celebrated Curley's 77 birthday with a festival style evening of Blues. The evening started with one of the newest recording groups on the scene, Fraser-Daley, with Alex Fraser on Bass and Mike Daley on Guitar. While they may be new to the duo scene, these guys are more than seasoned veterans  in the Canadian music scene. Playing a mix of blues, country and almost country & western, they got the early crowd going.

Following Fraser-Daley was Maple Blues Award nominee, the "Chairman of the Board", Harrison Kennedy. Playing his mandolin style guitar, Harrison's soulful "storyteller" blues style always draws an appreciative crowd.

Next was Bobby Dean Blackburn, a piano legend in his own right, backed by son's Brooke and Cory as well as a strong three piece horn section. Their solid blues set really got the crowd going and set the tone for the rockin' blues that was to follow.

Enter Maple Blues Award winners Diana Braithwaite and Chris Whiteley. Multi-instrumentalist Whiteley and the sweet soulful blues voice of Braithwaite began with a fabulous blues instrumental and followed that up with a marvellous rendition of the Guitar Slim classic, "Things that I used to do" a song made famous by people like Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner. And the crowd went wild, as they usually do, when Chris, while playing his guitar, also played the harmonica. Now that doesn't sound amazing to many blues fans because we've seen many a blues player strap on the rack and play the harp but Chris just puts the harmonica right in his mouth and blows while the harp slides in and out of his mouth, much like the slide on a trombone. Backed by a stellar band including Omar Tunoch on bass, Julian Fauth on Keys and the tireless Bucky Berger on drums, they finished their set with one hell of a boogie-woogie.

They say that every cloud has a silver lining. And if the loss of the great blues man, Mel Brown, was a cloud hanging over us, then the emergence of Miss Angel is the silver lining that will blow those clouds away. Often in the shadow of Mel, she produced a terrific blues set and even had her guest keyboardist, Julian Fauth, smiling by the end of one song. If you've ever tried to get a photo of Julian smiling while he is playing then you know what an amazing feat that was. A pleasant surprise was to see young guitar slinger Colin White playing with Miss Angel. Colin, from the Kitchener area, has played with the likes of Shawn Kellerman, Mel Brown, Lucky Peterson, Steve Strongman, Mark ‘Bird' Stafford, and the Tom Cochrane. He also front his own band.

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By the time Fathead hit the stage, the room was packed. The Juno & multiple Maple Blues award winners never disappoint. From the sax & harp solos of Al Lerman to the guitar riffs of Teddy Leonard to the perfect blues and R&B voice of John Mays, there is always something going on that keeps the audience in awe. And there is no rhythm section better then the bass of Omar Tunnock and back beat of Bucky Berger on Drums. It seemed that Buckey never left the stage. Not only did he play with Fathead but was on the kit for Whiteley/Braithwait, Miss Angel and Curley Bridges.

But the night belonged to 77 year old Curley Bridges. Curley first played the Silver Dollar in 1958. I tried to picture myself in the crowd as the 24 year old Curly Bridges came to the stage but I was only seven years old so they wouldn't have let me in. I'm sure that anyone who was present  that evening would tell you what a phenomenal piano player he was. And anyone there on January 15, 2011 would tell you that the years have been more than good to him. From Riley (B.B.) King's "Three O'Clock in the Morning" to the blues classic, "Caldonia" by Fleecie Moore, the place was really rocking and rolling. The final set of the evening was Blues and nothing BUT the Blues.

The respect from the other artist was quite apparent. I'm sure that you've been to these multiple artist evenings many times before. Some of the artists blow in just before their set and after a bit of schmoozing take off before the evening winds down. Tonight, the back room was as busy as the main room. When an artist completed their set, they stuck around to see and hear Curley play. Maybe it was because the TBS Summit was also in full swing but there were a number of local (and not so local) blues celebrities and artists that were not on the program that were there taking in the great music. Spotted in the crowd were artists Shakura S'Aida, Dr. Nick and Johnny Max (who was overheard saying "I'm here because this is where my friends are") as well as blues personalities Andrew Kempa, Eddie B, Mako Funasaka, Rico Ferrara and the incomparable Bruce Iglaur of Aligator Records.

As he has done many times in the past, Andrew Galloway put on a fine evening of Electro-Fi artists. At one point he joked about putting on a Blues Festival in only four hours. Well the quality of blues artists in Electro-Fi's stable could put on a full day festival and hold their own with any local, national or international blues festival. I'd certainly pay money to see that one.

Remember to get out and hear some live blues this week! And buy your CDs and DVDs directly from the artists. They need your support to keep the blues alive.

Larry "Dawk" McCarthy is a big blues fan and an amateur photographer. All photos are copyright and cannot be used in any way with out permission. For more information, visit his website at www.dawk.ca or contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .