While being thwarted by GO Transit's extremely infrequent service from attending Paul Fenton's gig at the Port Credit Legion, I briefly popped into the non-smokers' nirvana, Blues on Bellair, to retrieve a long-neglected "walkman". As chance would have it, multi-award-winning blues band Fathead happened to be on the bill that evening. With a magic combination of dynamite lead vocals provided by John Mays and "too tight to squeeze" back-up vocals/ instrumentation from Al Lerman on harp and sax, Teddy Leonard on guitar and Omar Tunnoch on bass, this group continues to entertain blues music enthusiasts throughout the GTA and beyond. As Ed White has moved on to other projects, they have recently hired a new drummer, that being Port Aux Basques native Chuck Keeping, formerly with the Chris Chown band, who is definitely a worthy replacement, although less experienced due to his tender years.
Fathead has apparently caught the attention of infamous Canadian folk-rocker Levon Helm and may well end up recording some tracks with him, which may or may not end up on Fathead's third CD with Electro-Fi, to be co-produced by Alec Fraser. While I prefer my blues music to be a little more unpolished and gritty, one song that definitely appealed to me was "Blue Water", a very emotionally-charged slow blues.
Being one of those nasty smokers, and what with the arctic air mass blowing about the outdoor patio, I decided to move on to an atmosphere more suited to my reputedly self-destructive habit, and after many false starts, including what seemed to be a promising night at Grossman's with the Fabulous Tone Dogs playing (and they actually were quite good, if not fabulous), I finally settled in at the Silver Dollar for an absolutely fantastic show featuring Jerome Godboo and Suzie McNeil!
Check out Fathead news at www.wezel.com/fathead.
By D.D. Rocker |
