Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Live At The Toronto Blues Festival , from Downchild (The Downchild Blues Band) and it's packed full of blues and stars. Opening with piano boogie, Can You Hear The Music , with Mike Fonfara on keys,  Chuck Jackson on lead vocal and Donnie Walsh on harmonica, Chuck Jackson and Pat Carey on sax, Gary Kendall on bass and Mike Fitzpatrick on drums, this is a lively opener. David Wilcox joins on shuffle, It's A Matter Of Time adding slide and vocal. With great feel and energy, this is an all out party. I'm Gonna Tell Your Mama is packed with energy featuring Gene Taylor  piano and giving Walsh a great opportunity to really hang out there on harmonica. Very cool. Finland's favorite slide player, Erja Lyytinen joins on harmony vocal and slide guitar on Mississippi Woman, Mississauga Man , a cool blues rocker with Cajun kind of rhythm. Shotgun Blues is one of my favorite tracks on the release with Kenny Neal on ...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Something I've Done , by Downchild . Opening with a high energy Albany, Albany lead vocalist Chuck Jackson leads the way with strong underpinnings by Michael Fonfara on piano and a super sax solo by Pat Carey. Worried About The World is a pumped up boogie with a driving bass line by Gary Kendall with Mike Fitzpatrick on drums, Donnie "Downchild" Walsh on guitars and crisp harp work by Jackson. Very nice. Soul ballad, Take A Piece Of My Heart , has a rich melody and Jackson's vocals, balanced with hot sax, Fonfara's piano and trumpet work by Peter Jeffrey makes this a certain standout on the release. The sax wags the tail on piano boogie, Mailbox Money with solid vocals and some of Downchild's best guitar work on the release. Blues swinger, She Thinks I Do has a cool groove with rhythm piano, riding organ and pumped up horns. Title track, Something I've Done , has a great bass line, tight ...

Canada's National Blues Awards Land in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa and Hamilton Maple Blues Award Nominations Led by MonkeyJunk, Downchild and Steve Hill (October 30, 2014) Toronto, ON - The Toronto Blues Society will be celebrating the 18th annual Maple Blues Awards by honouring nationally and internationally recognized Canadian blues artists from across the country on January 19th, 2015.  Toronto artists lead with twenty seven nominations, followed by Montreal (15), Vancouver (9), Ottawa (8) and Hamilton (7). Ottawa’s MonkeyJunk and Toronto’s Downchild each received five nominations followed by Montreal’s Steve Hill with four. There are plenty of other acts each with multiple nominations including Fathead, Raoul & the Big Time , The 24 th Street Wailers , Brandon Isaak, Steve Strongman and Harrison Kennedy. Quebec blues artists are well represented with nominations for Jordan Officer, Angel...

Donnie Walsh thinks a hat might make a difference. “Something that will help the band fit in … or stand out,” says the veteran Canadian bluesman by way of explaining the title of the new Downchild album, I Need A Hat. It’s a joke, of course. Downchild doesn’t need a hat, or a ticket, a tag, a bag, a niche, or a flashing neon sign. Forty years on, Downchild remains a blues force, true to itself and without equal. For just about every waking moment of the four decades since he formed the Downchild Blues Band – Canada’s best known and best loved blues outfit – Walsh has been living the dream that changed his life back in the early 1960s, when someone dropped a Jimmy Reed album onto the turntable at his girlfriend’s 16th birthday party in suburban North Toronto. It’s a moment Walsh – he also answers to his “given” name, Mr. Downchild, taken from a song by Sonny Boy Williamson II – says he will never forget. “That was it. I was hooked. I never wanted to play anything else.” He drove his gir...