Make tracks to the Osborne Bay Pub in Crofton on Friday, March 22 to hear Harpdog Brown & the Uptown Blues Band.
Showtime is 8 p.m.
One of Canada’s classic blues icons, Brown is back on the road again and bringing his new Uptown Blues Band with him. This is a chance to see him like you’ve never seen or heard before.
Harpdog Brown has grown a reputation as a real-deal purveyor of classic electric blues. Think of the old Chess Records and Sun Records of the late ’40s and early ’50s.
These days he’s been touring more and more as Harpdog Brown & the Uptown Blues Band, offering a vintage New Orleans Blues sound featuring piano, clarinet, sax, upright-bass and drums.
It’s still a vintage vibe, just a different vintage. It’s still got a kick.
They perform mostly originals, yet will also include great songs of the masters from that era. Think Louis Jordan, Satchmo, Sonny Boy Williamson, Wynonie Harris, even Duke Ellington.
Audiences are raving about this new show. He’s been called a Blues Evangelist, and that’s a very fitting moniker.
“I speak the blues like it’s the truth, and it is,” he was recently quoted. “I do feel like I’m a servant of the people. A missionary if you will. Music can heal people if they pay attention to the messages in these songs. It’s a beautiful celebration of our perfectly flawed lives. We help people forget about their issues of the moment and then, they might just realize that we all have our issues, and that’s OK.”
Brown is a gifted vocalist and an imaginative harmonica player. Piano man Dave Webb has been working with him over the years and they share an intuition that only comes with many hours and miles shared on and off stage. Colin Perry will be joining the band with both baritone and alto sax. Rounding out the group is drummer Bob Grant.
Get off the couch and see some seriously vintage blues that’s lots of fun.
The cost is $20 for advance tickets at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/harpdog-brown-the-uptown-blues-band-tickets-56018539961?aff=ehomecard or Osborne Bay Pub or $25 at door.
