Colin Linden | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Colin Kendall Linden |
Born | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | 16 April 1960
Genres | Blues |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
Instrument | Guitar |
Years active | 1970s–present |
Labels | Yellow Dog, True North, Compass, |
Website | colinlinden |
Colin Kendall Linden (born 16 April 1960) is a Canadian guitarist, songwriter and record producer. Linden plays acoustic and electric guitar, specializing in slide guitar, country blues, and ragtime fingerpicking, who frequently collaborates with country and folk performers. [1]
He is a member of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings with Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson, and has worked with Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, T-Bone Burnett, Kevin Gordon, Colin James, Emmylou Harris, Leon Redbone, Rita Chiarelli, Chris Thomas King, The Band, Keb' Mo', Charles Esten and Bob Dylan.
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(May 2017) |
Linden was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [2] When he was still an infant, his family moved to White Plains, New York. The ten-year-old Linden heard rock performers in New York venues, such as Van Morrison, the Flying Burrito Brothers, James Taylor, John Mayall, Johnny Winter and Taj Mahal.[ citation needed ]
When the family moved back to Toronto, Linden became interested in performers such as Taj Mahal, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Howlin' Wolf. When Howlin' Wolf played at Toronto's Colonial Tavern, the then-11-year-old Linden spent three hours talking with the elder bluesman. [2]
He began performing at a local coffee house, the Fiddler's Green Coffee House, singing and strumming a guitar alongside his two older brothers Jay and Harley. By 1973, Linden began learning how to fingerpick. When Linden met David Wilcox, Linden decided to learn how to play slide guitar. Wilcox gave 140 blues albums to young Linden, to help Linden to learn about blues styles.[ citation needed ]
Paul Mills, the producer of Sylvia Tyson's Touch the Earth show, at the Winnipeg Folk Festival and an outlet on CBC Radio for acoustic roots music, booked Linden in 1975 . [2] At the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Colin met Mississippi bluesman Sam Chatmon, and later that year made a pilgrimage to the U.S. to meet South Detroit's Sippie Wallace. North Carolina's Peg Leg Sam, and Mississippi's Son House.[ citation needed ]
In 1976 Wilcox had asked Linden to join his band, the Teddy Bears, which meant that Linden had to learn to play the electric guitar. In 1977, he played solo gigs and did his first western Canadian tour, which was booked by Holger Petersen. In Edmonton, he met then 13-year-old Colin James, also a budding blues performer. In the late 1970s, Linden formed his own group, the Group du Jour, which played a mix of covers and a few Linden originals, and a group called the Lucky Charms, which was featured on his first album "Colin Linden Live!!!!!" (1980) .[ citation needed ] In 1979, Linden recorded the Sam Chatmon album, “Sam Chatmon & His BBQ Boys" (Flying Fish Records}. [2]
In August 1980, Linden recorded his album Colin Linden Live! He also played as a sideman for Joe Mendelson, Willie P. Bennett, Gwen Swick, Morgan Davis and Amos Garrett. His second album, Colin Linden and the Immortals was released by Stony Plain Records in 1986. [2] Linden has acknowledged the influence of the Band; in the early 1980s, Linden met three of its original members, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm. Members of the Band contributed to Linden's recordings, and songs like "When the Spirit Comes" got radio airplay and "Miles Away from You" made the rock charts. [1] When the Spirit Comes was released by A & M in 1987. Linden signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell and did producing for Mendelson Joe, Morgan Davis, Jackson Delta and Hans Thessink. [2]
In 1991, Bruce Cockburn recruited Linden as a sideman, and for three-and-a-half years, Linden played guitar for Cockburn. Subsequently, Linden became his co-producer. [3] Linden's blues album of 1993, entitled South at Eight, North at Nine, distributed by Sony Music Entertainment in Canada, [1] won a Juno Award in the blues and gospel category. [4] Guests on the album included Bruce Cockburn and Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of the Band. [1]
As Linden got more interested in gospel records, he began taking vocal lessons from Bourbon Tabernacle Choir singer Dave Wall, such as breathing and warm-up exercises.[ citation needed ] In 1996, Linden won a Juno in the blues and gospel category for his producing Lennie Gallant's The Open Window. Linden co-wrote Colin James's hit song "Real Stuff". [5]
That same year, he joined with Tom Wilson of Junkhouse and Stephen Fearing to form Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. This band was a tribute to Canadian singer-songwriter Willie P. Bennett. After the album High or Hurtin', on True North Records, their second album, Kings of Love, won a Juno. [2]
In February 1998 Linden shared the Maple Blues Producer of the Year award with Colin James. A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf was released by Telarc Records in 1998. [2] In 1999, A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Traditional Blues Album. [6] In 1999, Linden received the Toronto Arts Award. [2]
In 2000 Linden won three Juno awards: in the category "Blues", as the producer of Ray Bonneville's Gust of Wind; in the category "Roots and Traditional: Solo Artist", as the producer of Bruce Cockburn's Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu; And in the "Roots and Traditional: Group" category, as a member of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. [2] In 2000, Linden produced Sue Foley's Love Comin' Down and Paul Reddick and the Sidemen's Rattle Bag. [7]
For the album Big Mouth, a more acoustic recording, Linden recruited Keb' Mo', Bruce Cockburn, and other musicians. In 2002 Big Mouth won a Juno for Best Blues Album. In 2002, an album Linden worked on, Timeless, won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year. [1] In 2002, he co-produced Stephen Fearing's That's How I Walk and Bruce Cockburn's You've Never Seen Everything . In 2003, a third Blackie and the Rodeo Kings album, BARK, was released, and in 2006 they released Let's Frolic and Let's Frolic Again. [2]
In 2003, he had a minor role in the film "Intolerable Cruelty" as a singing, guitar playing minister and was featured performing Paul Simon's "The Boxer" during the closing credits.
On 15 July 2013 Linden joined Bob Dylan's band for eleven dates until 3 August 2013 [when Charlie Sexton rejoined Dylan's band], playing the first show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was featured on Diana Krall's album Glad Rag Doll in 2012 and Rhiannon Giddens's Tomorrow Is My Turn in 2014.[ citation needed ]
Linden has been a main musician, music producer, music director and songwriter for the ABC television show "Nashville" since its inception in 2012. He has performed electric, acoustic and slide guitar on most of the show's recorded musical numbers and appears regularly on screen in many of the live performance scenes.[ citation needed ] His primary residence has been in Nashville since the late 1990s. Linden performed as part of the house band for a T Bone Burnett–produced gospel music concert at the White House on 14 April 2015.[ citation needed ] Following the end of Nashville, Linden has been a member of star Charles Esten's band and has toured both the US and the UK with him.
Linden married Janice Powers on 14 February 1988. [8]
Bruce Douglas Cockburn is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to folk- and jazz-influenced rock to soundscapes accompanying spoken stories. His lyrics reflect interests in spirituality, human rights, environmental issues, and relationships, and describe his experiences in Central America and Africa.
National Steel is a blues album by Canadian musician Colin James, released in 1997. The album was recorded at Rat's Ass Studios and Mushroom Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, and mastered at MasterDisk in New York City.
Stephen John Ging Fearing is a Canadian roots/folk singer-songwriter. In addition to his solo career, Fearing co-founded Canadian roots-rock supergroup Blackie and the Rodeo Kings with Colin Linden and Tom Wilson. He is one half of the duo Fearing & White, with Irish artist Andy White.
Blue Rodeo is a Canadian country rock band formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have released 16 full-length studio albums, four live recordings, one greatest hits album, and two video/DVDs, along with multiple solo albums, side projects, and collaborations.
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are a Canadian folk rock–alternative country band with blues and country influences. The band was formed in 1996, in Hamilton, Ontario, by Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, and Colin Linden.
Thomas Lazare Wilson is a Canadian rock musician from Hamilton, Ontario. A veteran of the Canadian music scene, Wilson has been a writer and performer for many years. Wilson's eclectic musical style has ranged from the psychobilly/R&B sounds of the Florida Razors, to the western/roots style of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and the funk/blues-inspired rock of Junkhouse.
William Patrick "Willie P." Bennett was a Canadian folk-music singer-songwriter, harmonica player, and mandolinist. Bennett was part of the 1970s folk music scene in Canada, and wrote and recorded many original songs. As well as performing as a solo artist, he was part of several well-known Ontario bands.
Sue Foley is a Canadian blues guitarist and singer. She has released 15 albums since her debut with Young Girl Blues (1992). In May 2020, Foley won her first Blues Music Award, in the 'Koko Taylor Award ' category.
True North Records is a Canadian independent record label.
The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential American guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues but were adept at many styles of popular music of the time. They recorded around 70 tracks, primarily in the first half of the 1930s. In 2004, they were inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.
The Juno Awards of 2000 were held in Toronto, Canada, during the weekend of March 11–12, 2000.
The Juno Awards from 1992, were awarded on 29th of March in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. Rick Moranis was the host for the ceremonies, which were broadcast on CBC Television from 9 pm Eastern.
The Juno Awards of 1994, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 20 March 1994 in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. Roch Voisine was the host for the ceremonies, which were taped that afternoon for broadcast that evening on CBC Television.
Richard Bell was a Canadian musician best known as the pianist for Janis Joplin and her Full Tilt Boogie Band. He was also a keyboardist with the Band during the 1990s.
JW-Jones is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He is a Juno Award nominee (2015), Billboard magazine Top 10 Selling artist, and winner of the International Blues Challenge for "Best Self-Produced CD Award" for his release 'High Temperature' in 2017 and Best Guitarist in 2020.
Danny Greenspoon is a Canadian music producer, music engineer, guitar player and film composer mainly in the Canadian music industry. Greenspoon is also the president of "The Audio Truck Inc.", a mobile recording studio recording materials for television, radio, and record. From 1989 to 1996, he was a recording producer for CBC Radio in Toronto producing recordings of jazz, popular music, folk music, country music and world music, for broadcast and commercial release, and from 2004 to 2016 he did most of the live recording for JazzFM91.
Bernard Finkelstein is a Canadian music executive and talent manager.
Morgan Davis is a Canadian blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter.
The Juno Awards of 2017, honouring Canadian music achievements, were presented in Ottawa, Ontario the weekend of 1–2 April 2017. The ceremonies were held at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata and televised on CTV with Bryan Adams and Russell Peters as co-hosts. The duo replaced Michael Bublé, who was originally scheduled to host the show.
Bark is the third album by Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, released by True North Records on July 7, 2003.