Newsy bluesy: Played a Craig

July 26, 2003

Newsy bluesy: Played a Craig Northey Trio show in Montreal with special guest Pierre Smith on guitar (Elvez “the Mexican Elvis”). It was a private party thrown by the CBC as part of the “Just For Laughs” festival. I probably should have announced it to you folks but how was I to know security would be relatively lax. Pierre did a great job filling out the “Giddy Up” tunes and we delved into different aspects of the Odds songbook. It was Jamie Kaufmann’s first gig in the trio and I must say he sang and played his pants off (this made for a splendid finale). Jamie has been playing in the Colin James Band of late and he came in rather handy when it was proposed that I throw in a gig if my own to lead off this leg of Colin James dates at the Mont Tremblant Blues Festival the next day. Thanks to David Himelfarb for putting it all together. The rest of the songs you could probably predict.
Playing for a convention crowd is pretty predictable. Hotel ballrooms sound like shit and everybody is too busy shmoozing to really care. You play for the few in the front who are facing you and dancing around. Paul from “Fubar” tore up the front row with his brilliant rock n’ roll dancing. I think he was even better than the band. When we lit into “I Don’t Need No Doctor” by Humble Pie during the tag out of “Make You Mad” he went positively nuclear. This made it all worthwhile. Tearing his shirt off was a nice touch.
The next night we were in Mont Tremblant with the C.J.B.. for a barnburning outdoor set at the end of the blues fest. Blues fests are weird. I’m glad they exist but they seem to point out a lot of the problems regarding the current state of the blues. Pleeeese NO MORE “MUSTANG SALLY” !!! We’re in a mini-van heading for Wasaga Beach as I type. Last night in St. Catharines Colin took a wander across an adjacent highway during his solo in “Anywhere is Home”. I was working his whammy pedal and trying to play my own part so I didn’t really know where he was when he left the stage. It was an outdoor show beside a road. On the other side of the road was a golf course. I guess he made it all the way onto the golf course and was heading back when I saw him almost get smoked by a car. That would have been an interesting news item. “Yeah honey I was just minding my own business down route 46 and out jumps Colin James ripping off a solo on a strat. There was no way to miss him. I guess this means we’re not gonna get that Little Big Band 3 record after all”.