Edmonton bluesman Marshall “The Doctor of the Blues” Lawrence loves the blues. So much so that he is making a series of documentaries about it, after enjoying the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in January.
“ I love the rawness and the honesty. You’ll find honesty runs through it and you just can’t beat it,” Lawrence said.
He comes to Lethbridge with drummer Allan Beveridge and bassist Maurie Jarvis to play the Slice, March 22. He’ll be showing all sides of himself from the acoustic blues he has played on his last CD to the more rocking blues music from his debut CD “Where’s the Party,” and a lot more.
“I’ll be showing all of my styles from my Chicago style delta blues to Robin Trower blues rock, he described.
He will begin the show with an acoustic set with his trio and then plug in for the last two sets.
“I’m stoked about this show. Lethbridge has always been good to me,” he said.
He played The Word on the Street festival a few years ago and also played solid shows at the Slice and the Owl Acoustic Lounge.
Lawrence has already had an exciting year.
“ I Got To Ramble” from Lawrence’s most Recent CD “House Call” was nominated for blues recording of the year by the Edmonton blues society. Plus “House Call” has garnered rave reviews from “Marshall belongs to the group of artists such as Taj Mahal, Roy Bookbinder and Corey Harris who just like Marshall knows how to put new life into the old traditional Delta Blues style with an injection of raw energy and boundless enthusiasm … ” from Rootstime Magazine to being described as a twenty-first century Woodie Guthrie from Living Blues magazine.
“ And that’s the Rolling Stone of blues media,” he enthused.
The CD has been named best Canadian blues album by the Blues Underground network and has received numerous other accolades.
“ It has been a pretty good year,” Lawrence understated.
“I get the greatest responses from European audiences” he said.
“People really like the sound,” he said.
He was a judge at the international blues competition in Memphis in January.
He enjoyed being a judge for the semi-final solo and duo categories at the International Blues Challenge in addition to playing a showcase for his publicist Blind Raccoon.
“ It was mind blowing,” he noted adding he saw performers from all over the world.
“ The blues is worldwide,” he observed.
He was impressed with how humble most people were, no matter who they had played with.
“Some of them were strutting around like peacocks, but most of them are like regular guys,” he said.
“Any guitar player who goes down there is going to get humbled. There were people from all over Canada, the United States, Australia, Poland, the Czech Republic,” he said.
While he was there, it inspired him to film a 10 episode documentary his film maker wife Toby about “What I Love About the Blues.”
I did about 50 interviews, but we won’t release it until the whole series is done,” he enthused adding he didn't want to give any spoilers about what everyone loved about it, but he was surprised by some of the common comments.
“ Everyone down there is super passionate about the blues and that was really cool, he said.
He interviewed blues legends and met numerous cats like bassist Jerry Livingston who was playing with the Tommy Z band, but who, among other things, played bass in Rick James’ band for five albums.
“ He is so humble he just mentioned it off hand. So that was really cool,” he said.
Among all of the other achievements this year, Alberta luthier Simon Budd is building a signature Marshall Lawrence acoustic guitar as well.
He is exciting about branching out stylistically.
“ We’ve played the electric show in a couple places and it people seem to love it. I want to prove I’m not just a one trick pony, so we do it all and we do it well from A-Z. So we’ll start off with an acoustic set and then the next two will be electric so get ready to party because the doctor is bringing the blues prescription to the Slice. From a little bit of the Delta to psychedelic blues rock,” he enthused.
There is a $10 cover for the show, which will begin at 9 p.m.
