L.A. Beat

Local bluesman Paul Kype looks back on his influences for his new CD  “Blues For Rosie,” but it was more an excuse for him to record with his good friend Jerry Adolphe, who is best known as the drummer for Canadian classic rock icons Chilliwack.

“Rosie is my old guitar’s name which hasn’t left the house for 15 years, which I bought in 1992,” Kype said.

“So I just wanted to write some songs with it. But it really was an excuse to  work with Jerry Adolphe. He plays in my band in Vancouver. He’s been a really good friend for a long time. So we started thinking about the music that influenced us like blues music but also classic rock music like Lynyrd Skynyrd,” he said, adding he got Rosie, his beloved Stratocaster in 1992.

“It’s one of the first Stevie Ray Vaughan signature model, number 1002. And I formed Texas Flood in 1993 soon after that,” he said, adding he met Adolphe around the same time through the Yale Hotel jam in Vancouver.
“I introduced myself to him and he said to contact him if I had a project in mind to work with him on so we started a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute band, (Texas Flood). Though we stopped doing that in 1998,” he said.

“Whenever I go to the coast, I play with him.”
 They recorded the CD over the winters of 2017 and 2018.

 Kype played bass and guitar on the CD while Adolphe added drums. It also features overdubbed keyboards from TJ Waltho and Michael Ayotte.

“We recorded it whenever  he could book five days off at a time. We recorded three of the songs at a time. We recorded three of the songs in Leeroy Stagger’s Rebeltone Studios, but we recorded most of them in my home studio,” Kype said.

“Jerry‘s been on 1,000 albums as a session musician, so he knows a lot about arranging and songwriting. So that was really helpful,” he continued.

“But it was great just to hang out with him. We had a lot of laughs. It was a riot and I can’t wait to start again,” he said.

 He already had a Lethbridge CD release party at Honker’s Pub about a month ago and was just playing at the Casino.

 His next CD release party will be at the Dewdney Pub in the Fraser Valley, with Adolphe.
“It’s where I grew up,” he said.
“But we’re not going to do  a Cross Canadian tour. We‘re going to stick to the west unless there’s a demand for it,” he continued, adding he supports himself through his guiding business through the Spring and Summer months.

“Everybody’s doing a lot more touring today,” he said.
“ Response has been really good to it,” he said adding he will be shortly be sending the CDs out to radio stations like CKUA.

 He also has a few Calgary gigs coming up in Dec. 14 and 15 at the Blues Can and Mikey’s Juke Joint.
“ I’ve even sent it out to the Junos so I’ll see if something will stick,” he said.