Drew Nelson | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Origin | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
Genres | Blues |
Occupation(s) | Blues singer, songwriter, guitarist |
Instruments | Guitar |
Years active | 1976–present |
Associated acts | Back Alley John Revue Drew Nelson Band Dutch Mason Sue Foley |
Drew Nelson is a Canadian blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and recording artist. Nelson is particularly known for his slide guitar playing. He has been playing professionally for nearly forty years.
There's something unique about Drew that I wanted to remind people of: Drew has always approached his music with honesty. He’s very unpretentious, and that can’t be said of a lot of musicians. Someone can learn to play a style of music, and they can play all the notes and play them really well, and somehow, sometimes you don’t believe them. I believe Drew.
Steve Marriner, producer of Drew Nelson's 2014 album, The Other Side [1]
Drew Nelson has based his music career primarily in Ottawa, Ontario. His professional career commenced in the 1970s, particularly as a result of his association with the late blues singer and harmonica player Back Alley John [2] (d. 2006), where Nelson was the lead guitarist in and co-founder of the Back Alley John Revue. [3] Both Nelson and John were instrumental in developing the career of Sue Foley, whose professional career commenced as a sixteen-year-old singer in the Back Alley John Revue.
The Back Alley John Revue, formed in 1980, initially played in Ottawa clubs and busked on the streets of Ottawa during the early 1980s, particularly in Ottawa's Byward Market, playing blues for passersby in front of the historic Chateau Lafayette House tavern. [4]
Nelson's solo career commenced when the Back Alley John Revue broke up in 1986, followed by the relocation of John to Calgary, Alberta. [3] [5]
Nelson achieved early success as a solo artist when "Nothing to Show", an award-winning song originally recorded with the Back Alley John Revue [6] and later recorded by the Drew Nelson Band, was selected for inclusion in the 1991 Saturday Night Blues compilation album of Canadian blues music. The album won the 1992 Juno Award for Best Roots and Traditional Album of the Year. [7]
During this period, Nelson and his band played and recorded with Canadian blues artist Dutch Mason. Four songs written by Nelson [8] appeared on Mason's 1992 album, You Can't Have Everything, which Nelson also produced. [3] The album was nominated for a 1994 Juno Award for Best Blues or Gospel Album. [9] Over several years, Nelson and his band either opened or acted as the backing band for such artists as B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Little Richard, Eric Burdon and Taj Mahal. [3]
After a period of self-imposed semi-retirement, Nelson released Thirty Odd Years in 2006. A reconfigured band returned to performing in 2009. [10] though Nelson and band performed with decreasing frequency thereafter. [1] In 2014, Nelson released The Other Side, produced by Steve Marriner of MonkeyJunk. Marriner was an admirer of Nelson, who encouraged Nelson to return to recording and who also co-wrote a number of the songs on the CD. [1]
Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.
Stony Plain Records is a Canadian independent record label, which specializes in roots music genres such as country, folk, and blues. The label has released more than 300 albums.
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.
Wide Mouth Mason is a Canadian blues-based rock band, consisting of Shaun Verreault and Safwan Javed. Former bassist Earl Pereira was also co-founder of Wide Mouth Mason. The band hails from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and has been active since 1995.
James Thomas Kevin Byrnes OBC is an American actor and musician of blues.
Matt Minglewood is a Canadian musician whose style can be described as a blend of country, blues, folk, roots and rock. The name "Matt" was borrowed from his brother, Matt Batherson.
Canadian blues is the blues and blues-related music performed by blues bands and performers in Canada. Canadian blues artists include singers, players of the main blues instruments: guitar, harmonica, keyboards, bass and drums, songwriters and music producers. In many cases, blues artists take on multiple roles. For example, the Canadian blues artist Steve Marriner is a singer, harmonica player, guitarist, songwriter and record producer.
Richard Alfred Newell, better known by his stage name, King Biscuit Boy, was a Canadian blues musician. He was the first Canadian blues artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US Newell played guitar and sang, but he was most noted for his harmonica playing. Newell's stage name, given to him by Ronnie Hawkins, was taken from the King Biscuit Time, an early American blues broadcast.
Dutch Mason, was a Canadian musician from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was inducted into the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2005.
Saturday Night Blues is a Canadian radio program, which airs Saturday nights on CBC Radio One. Hosted by Holger Petersen, the program airs a mix of blues concerts, recordings and interviews with blues musicians. SNB first broadcast in 1987. Initially airing for one hour weekly, the program was expanded to two hours in 1990.
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.
Amos Garrett is an American-Canadian blues and blues-rock musician, guitarist, singer, composer, and musical arranger. He has written instructional books about music and guitar. Garrett holds dual citizenship and was raised in Toronto and Montreal. He is best known for his guitar solo on Maria Muldaur's recording "Midnight at the Oasis". He has written books about music, such as "Amos Garrett—Stringbending: A Master Class".
John Carl David Wilson, known as Back Alley John, was a Canadian blues singer, songwriter and harmonica player.
Paul Reddick is a Canadian blues singer, songwriter and harmonica player. He was the founder of the group The Sidemen, active from 1990 until the early 2000s.
The Twisters are a Canadian blues band from North Vancouver, British Columbia. They are signed to Toronto's NorthernBlues Music.
The Downchild Blues Band is a Canadian blues band, described by one reviewer as "the premier blues band in Canada". The band is still commonly known as the Downchild Blues Band, though the actual band name was shortened to "Downchild" in the early 1980s. The Blues Brothers band was heavily influenced by Downchild Blues Band.
Michael Fonfara was a Canadian keyboard player who was most notable for his work as a member of The Electric Flag and Rhinoceros in the 1960s, Rough Trade and Lou Reed's backing band in the 1970s and The Downchild Blues Band, from 1990 to the present. He studied classical piano at The Royal Conservatory of Music. He is a multiple Maple Blues Award winner as Piano/Keyboardist of the year and a Juno Award winner with the Downchild Blues Band. His distinguished musical career was so honoured by the Maple Blues Awards as early as 2000 and a Juno Award in 2014.
MonkeyJunk is a Canadian rock and roll/swamp/blues band, based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The band has won two Juno Awards for Blues Album of the Year. The band won in 2012 for their album To Behold and in 2018 for their latest release Time to Roll.
Steve Marriner, is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and record producer based in Toronto, Ontario. He first garnered attention in the Ottawa blues scene in his early teens as a prodigy blues harp (harmonica) player. He also plays baritone guitar, electric guitar, piano, Hammond organ, upright bass and electric bass. Since 2008, he has been the frontman, singer, one of two guitarists and harmonica player for the Canadian rock'n'roll-blues group MonkeyJunk. The band's album To Behold won the 2012 Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year.
Fathead is a multiple Juno Award and Maple Blues award-winning Canadian blues band, founded by Al Lerman and originally formed with members Mike Fitzpatrick, Ted Leonard, John Mays and Bob Tunnoch.