Streamliners, The - Canadian Blues

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Streamliners, The

Written by John Taylor

Dave Smith, leader of The Streamliners, cheerfully admits the band's name isn't entirely original.

"I've always liked those old sounding names," he explains, "bands like 'Studebaker John & The Hawks' or 'The Dynaflows.' I was in a band out west, and when that broke up and I moved back east, we needed a new name. 'The Streamliners' just came out of my head, so to speak.

"Then about four months after the band started performing, I was digging through my CDs and pulled out my Jerry Portnoy disc, the one with his band called 'The Streamliners.' I guess that's how I got it into my head originally."

Smith isn't terribly worried about any confusion at this point, however. "I figure the chances of us being on the same bill as Jerry Portnoy are pretty slim, anyway," he laughs.

The Streamliners' sound has been described as "versatile," with everything from west-coast swing to Mississippi Delta to Chicago to "East Coast Blues" in the mix. Yet when asked to define the latter, Smith says there's really no such animal beyond the band's own compositions.

"I wouldn't consider it an actual category," he says. "I don't think there's really a sound unique to the region. But they're our songs, we wrote 'em down here, so they're East Coast Blues!"

Smith himself discovered blues in what's become a time-honoured way.

"It was about 1963," he recalls, "when the Rolling Stones first came out. I bought their first album, and while reading the liner notes I discovered that they took their name from a Muddy Waters song. I figured if they listened to him, he must be pretty good, so I went out and bought The Best Of Muddy Waters. I was hooked from then on!"

Born in London, Ontario, Smith grew up in Toronto. "I went to Fanshawe College in London for a year," he recalls, "and that's where I met my ex- wife, who was from down here. I'd played in a band in Ontario - at one time they were known as the Little Boy Blues Band - and when I moved down here I eventually met some people and started playing again. My roots are here now. I lived out west for a couple of years, but this is home."

Now known primarily as a harmonica player, Smith started out on bass. It was when he met Streamliners co-founder Roy "Doc" Dawson, who'd started out as a vocalist, that he switched to harp.

"I'd always liked playing harp," says Smith. "I'd played bass with Willie Lee from Hamilton, who's just a super harmonica player, and when we started jamming with some friends, I said I'd like to try harp. Roy said 'Good', 'cause he was tired of singing all the time and it gave him a chance to play bass. I said to the guys, 'Hey, if it doesn't sound good, just tell me to stop'. And nobody ever told me to stop!

"We're all
descendants
of
B.B King."

"Since that time, Roy and I have just kept playing on and off in different bands," Smith continues, adding "Roy's still a better singer than I am. He writes a lot of stuff, too. He just keeps churning them out. He'll come into a practice and he'll say, 'I've got another one I'm working on'.

"Roy and I work really well together. He calls me the 'Lone Arranger.' Sometimes arrangements tend to wander, when we're really cooking, and Roy just follows me along. He knows where I'm going!"

Smith says he searched "for about a year to find a good drummer. I wanted somebody who could play a good shuffle." He found what he was looking for in Ken Killam. "He's not flashy, he's tasteful," says Smith, "and he works really well with Roy. Together they're a good, solid rhythm section.

"Our guitar player is relatively new," continues Smith. "Charley (Robertson) started with us back in October 2001, when our original guitarist quit to do something else in a less bluesy vein, so to speak. We looked around, tried a few people around town, but nobody seemed to quite fit. And then one day Charley came along - it was a typical thing, an ad posted in a music store - he gave us a call, we got together, and everything just seemed to gel."

Robertson comes from a rock 'n' roll background though his brother Neil is the drummer for east coast mainstay Matt Minglewood . But Smith acknowledges blues as the source of most rock music. "We're all descendants of B.B King," he says.

Smith is hard-put to say exactly why he's attracted to the harmonica. "It just gets into you," he claims. "I've always liked it. A lot of guys can play a bit, but I was fortunate to play with a really great harp player, kind of my mentor, and he really turned me on to it 'cause he was good. You can be really tasteful with it, there's real soul and body to it. It gets right into your bones."

Asked to name his own favourites, Rod Piazza is the first name that Smith mentions, although he quickly follows with first-generation masters Little Walter, James Cotton, and Sonny Boy Williamson.

"But I do prefer the west-coast sound, guys like Rod Piazza and William Clarke, James Harman, Mark Hummel . . . they're probably the biggest influence on me."

Equally quick to mind when asked about Canadian blues musicians he admires is Downchild.

"If you're going to talk about Canadian blues at all, the first thing you have to say is Downchild," he replies. "That band has been around forever. I remember seeing them about 25 years ago, back when Jane Vasey was playing piano. What a great band! Then there's Dutchie Mason. Dutchie's been around for… well, forever. When he used to play guitar, he was a fantastic guitar player. When I first moved down here and saw him he just blew me away. I also like Rick Jefferey, who used to play with Dutchie. He's a great harp player.

"I played with Dutchie a few times. He's a good guy, too, really nice to talk to. You just put a mike in front of him and let him go!

"I also like Michael Pickett, and Morgan Davis. I played with Morgan at a house party once. Out west there's Incognito, a band from Vancouver, and Sherman 'Tank' Doucette, a harp player out there."

Dave's aspirations for The Streamliners are simply "to play more. We just love playing. We're working on a CD, but I'm not about to quit my day job. Playing blues down here is a pretty rough go. But we're playing - we love to perform - and that's what it's all about for us. We'll just do the best we can and have fun with it."

Feature by John Taylor
© Copyright 2003

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