Venues List
Event
- Title:
- Jim Byrnes
- When:
-
Tue, Apr 9
- Where:
-
Lethbridge
- Category:
-
Blues
Description
Time: 8 p.m.
Tickets:$32.50
http://www.jamestbyrnes.com
Biography
Jim
Byrnes was born in St. Louis, Missouri – that’s blues country. He grew
up on the city’s north side. One of the neighbourhood bars had Ike and
Tina Turner as the house band. As a teenager going to music clubs, he
and his buddy were often the only white people in the place. “We never
had any problems. We were too naïve, and had too much respect for the
music and culture – they knew it, they coul
d tell.”
Starting piano at age five, by age thirteen, Jim was singing and
playing blues guitar. His first professional gig was in the summer of
1964. Over the years, he has had the great good fortune to appear with a
virtual who’s who of blues history. From Furry Lewis and Henry Townsend
to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Taj Mahal, Robery
Cray and so many others, Jim has been on the blues highway for 40 years.
Byrnes moved to Vancouver, BC in the mid-70s after years of drifting,
working odd jobs and playing music. In 1981 he put together a band that
became a staple of the local music scene. In 1986 the Jim Byrnes Band
played 300 nights.
Jim Byrnes’ fame as an actor has grown
immeasurably from his too-numerous-to-mention TV roles, with highlights
including Lifeguard in the CBS series Wiseguy, worldwide success in
Highlander, and his nationally broadcast variety show, The Jim Byrnes
Show.
As for highlights in his musical career, Jim mentions
“Sittin’ down in a room with Muddy Waters, just him and me, and he
showed me a couple of licks on his guitar.”
His greatest
musical moment was the first time he saw Howlin’ Wolf. “I was
devastated. I was 17. Who could take the Rolling Stones seriously after
watching Howlin’ Wolf down on his knees singing Little Red Rooster?”
Jim has proven that a serious car accident in 1972 has done anything
but hinder him. Despite two swipes with death and some pretty hard
knocks, Byrnes has still managed to rack up an enviable string of
credits, both on and off-screen.
Jim’s first love, however, is
the blues. His evocative, smoky vocals are found in a truth that doesn’t
come overnight. During the 80s, the Jim Byrnes Band released “Burnin’”
on Polydor, followed in 1987 with “I’ve Turned My Nights into Days” and
1995’s Juno-Award winning “That River” on Stony Plain.
February
2004 saw the release of Jim’s latest project, “Fresh Horses” on Black
Hen Music. This new recording is the result of a musical meeting between
Jim and Steve Dawson (of Zubot & Dawson). Jim and Steve realized
they shared common tastes in music and realized that a collaboration
between Jim and the Zubot & Dawson band would be a refreshing and
exciting project.
In Jim’s words, “Early bluesmen were really
‘songsters’ who interspersed their blues with spirituals, popular music,
folk songs, anything to get the crowd to take note, and I suppose
that’s how I cast myself when I began my career. In the spring of 2003,
Steve Dawson approached me about the possibility of a collaboration and I
leapt at the opportunity to create a musical dialogue with the very
finest players of a whole new generation; sort of fathers and sons, you
know? It’s been a long, hard road and so ‘Yahoo, thank the Lord’, I
thought, ‘fresh horses’.”
Venue
- Venue:
-
Geomatic Attic
- Street:
-
#70-491 W.T Hill Blvd. South
- ZIP:
-
T1J 1Y6
- City:
-
Lethbridge
- State:
-
AB
- Country:
-
Description
Sorry, no description available