Drew Nelson | |
|---|---|
 Drew Nelson (right) and Back Alley John, Byward Market, Ottawa, 1983 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Blues |
| Occupation(s) | Blues singer, songwriter, guitarist |
| Instrument | Guitar |
| Years active | 1976–present |
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 fifty 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]
Norman Jeffrey Healey was a Canadian blues, rock and jazz guitarist, singer and songwriter who attained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. He reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Angel Eyes" and reached the Top 10 in Canada with the songs "I Think I Love You Too Much" and "How Long Can a Man Be Strong".
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.
James Thomas Kevin Byrnes is an American actor and blues musician.
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 born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, with his local accent he received his nick name 'Dutch'. He was inducted into the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2005. In 1991, Mason won the Juno Award for Best Roots and Traditional Album, with his performance on the CBC compilation album The Great Canadian Blues Project Vol 1, Saturday Night Blues. After doing an opening set, B. B. King dubbed him 'The Canadian King Of The Blues', but then Mason's friend and harmonica player Rick Jeffery, renamed him 'The Prime Minister of the Blues' since they were Canadian. Mason was a renowned joker when asked what the Juno meant to him he quipped "Thats nice & everything... but I'd rather have the cash".
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.
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 were a 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 Blues Brothers band was heavily influenced by the 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.
Margo Isabella Davidson was a founding member of The Parachute Club, for which she was saxophonist, percussionist and vocalist. and an advocate for the homeless.
Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne is an American blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist, singer and songwriter. Music journalist, Jeff Johnson, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times stated, "There's no boogie-woogie-blues piano man out there today who pounds the 88's with the conviction of Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne."
Kevin Breit is a Canadian musician. Breit has collaborated in numerous bands, and recorded solo albums on his own Poverty Playlist label, and Stony Plain Records. He is also known for session work on Grammy award winning albums by musicians such as Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones.
Paul James is a Juno Award-winning blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.
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 was a Canadian multiple Juno Award and Maple Blues award-winning blues band, founded by Al Lerman and originally formed with members Mike Fitzpatrick, Ted Leonard, John Mays and Bob Tunnoch.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
