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I first started playin' harmonica in my early teenage
years, around 1969. Nothing serious, just jamming in
the washroom back at Northern Secondary in Toronto. I
remember how kool it sounded with all the echo
bouncing off the tiles. Most of my friends were into
Hendrix and the Beatles back in those days, and so was
I. But then a fellow student told me on the bus going
home one day to check out this kat called Little
Walter, who had died a few years earlier. So into Sam
the Record Man I went and out I left with a copy of
"Boss Blues Harmonica" under my arm. That
was a turning point in my life. What I heard on that
two album set shook me up in a really good way, and I
can still feel some trembling going on within me every
time I give it a spin. That's what the power of the
Blues is all about, I suppose. People don't choose the
Blues, the Blues chooses them. Guess I'm just another
happy prisoner of the Blues!
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Around
1998 I put together the band The Rollercoasters. I
chose that name because life is like a rollercoaster,
with lots of ups and downs and sharp turns that can
throw you off. Sort of like what the Blues is also
telling us. The Rollercoasters is more a collective of
some of Toronto's best Blues musicians than a fixed
unit. Most often I have with me guitar ace Peter
Schmidt along with veteran Blues drummer
Bob Vespaziani and bassist James Rasmussen. But I also
am fortunate to have had, and continue to have on my
gigs so many of Toronto finest, such as Terry Wilkins,
Chung Lu, Joe Burns, Chris Lamont, Tom Bona, Dan
Dufour, Darran Poole, Aaron Griggs, Darren Gallen, and
many others. Every ride of the Rollercoasters is
always a little different, bringing a fresh
dynamic and energy to the mix. But the underlying
sound is always there, a distilled electric ensemble
sound that is swingin', jumpin', shufflein,' but most
importantly, groovin'!
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Little
Walter, George "Harmonica" Smith, the Myers
brothers, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Jimmy
Rogers, Robert Lockwood Jr., Fred Below and
Walter "Shakey" Horton, among many, many
others.
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