Pender Harbour Blues Festival

Blues fans wondered how organizers could top – or even match - last year’s inaugural Pender Harbour Blues Festival, which hosted some of the world’s top entertainers in that genre. Rising to the challenge, this May 13 through 15 presents the legendary Jim Byrnes, the Bill Johnson Blues Band, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Billy Dixon and Soul Train Express, Gary Comeau, Doc Fingers, David Gogo and Powell River’s own Ron Campbell. For this weekend, the music never stops. Best of all, many of the events are free and family-friendly! See the schedule on the sidebar elsewhere on this page.

Headliner Jim Byrnes’ whiskey voice and world-worn face are familiar to fans of Wiseguy and Highlander as well as his own variety program, The Jim Byrnes Show. But although he originally set his career path as an actor, Byrnes was born to the blues. After all, his St. Louis, Missouri hometown neighbourhood bar featured Ike and Tina Turner as house band! So when, at age 17, he was “devastated” by a performance by Howlin’ Wolf Byrnes was on his way as a bluesman. “Who could take the Rolling Stones seriously,” he says, “after watching Howlin’ Wolf down on his knees singing Little Red Rooster?” Thus began a 40-year journey, during which Byrnes has appeared with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Taj Mahal, and Robert Cray. Following a tour of duty in Viet Nam, Byrnes moved to Canada in 1969 and to the West Coast in 1971, focusing on his professional acting career. When a crippling car accident the following year reduced his acting options, Byrnes focused on his music, writing,and voice work. His first album, “Burning” (1981) resulted in his first Juno award. Since then, the Jim Byrnes Band has released “I Turned My Nights Into Days” (1987) and “That River” (1995) – and copped another Juno. Inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1995, Byrnes has continued to grow his music in new directions. Still with the deeply soulful, smoldering intensity celebrated by a British Blues Connection reviewer, Byrnes is focusing on growing his music in new directions, while still keeping the acoustic bluesy quality front and centre.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia’s Acadian country, Gary Comeau’s fiddle and vocals followed the “Cajun” spirit through the Mississippi Delta. A spirited blend of Maritime traditional fiddling and Louisiana zydeco with a unique world beat, Comeau’s blend of sound and showmanship are not to be missed. Wondering where you’ve heard this guy before? He’s provided tunes for the soundtracks of a few recent films, including “Double Jeopardy” and “Wise Guys.”

The legendary Howling Wolf also influenced a teenaged David Gogo. Already a professional musician, Gogo was drawn to the raw power of the blues. With encouragement from Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gogo developed a unique blues sound and eventually appeared on stage with BB King, Otis Rush and Blues Traveller (among others). Named Musician of the Year at the 1999/2000 West Coast Music Awards, and winner of the 2004 CBC Great Canadian Blues Award, Gogo has developed a unique blend of blues, gospel, soul and rock.

With a mission to continue in the footsteps of great traditional blues pianists, Spokane-born Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne rumbles out the boogie-woogie with traditional and modern blues lyrics. Wayne takes the performance right into the audience, moving from piano to melodica (a wind keyboard instrument) and delivering vocals in a style eerily reminiscent of the great Fats Domino.

Blues guitarist Bill Johnson ( termed “Victoria’s Guitar Flame Thrower”) has opened for Delbert McClinton and Otis Rush, and played lead guitar for veteran bluesmen Dutch Mason, Son Seales, Donald Ray Johnson, and Cash McCall. Along with band members Gary Preston (harp, piano, vocals), Rick Erickson (bass), and Paul Nixon (drums), Johnson delivers a mix of jazzy phrasing and gospel soul with a modern edge – a sound known as “West Coast Blues.”

South Carolina’s Wes Mackey grew up listening to, and learning to play guitar from, the last of the great itinerant Mississippi bluesmen of the 1950s and 1960s. After moving to Canada and settling in the Halifax area, Mackey faced a number of personal challenges and withdrew from a promising career as a composer and performer. Eventually drifting to the West Coast, Mackey got back to basic blues – hitting the festival circuit and taking blues to unusual venues (cruise ships, five-star clubs, etc.) His unique life experiences have made him an expressive musical storyteller. As he says, “It’s more than music, it’s communication.”

Vancouver-born Billy Dixon took a Dixieland detour, spending his formative years in St. Louis. Returning to Canada in the late 1960s, he joined Vancouver’s #1 R&B band, Night Train Revue – recently revived as part of the retro craze. With his current band, Soul Train Express, Dixon delivers an irresistible, smoky R&B sound.

Another Vancouver native, blues pianist and singer Doc Fingers delivers (either solo or with his backup band) an intriguing and funky mix of Delta barrelhouse boogie-woogie blues. This is music for getting up and getting down!

Powell River’s Ron Campbell has delighted Coast audiences with his deeply felt acoustic Delta blues and gospel, interspersed with ballads ranging from wry and witty (“The Self-Delusion Blues”) to howlingly funny (“This is not Spam,” which brought the house down at the very first Showcase of Performing Arts in Gibsons.)

Tickets available only at the Paper Mill, Madeira Park – call 604.883.9911 (Visa and MasterCard accepted).