TORONTO BLUES SOCIETY TALENT SEARCH

I'm still working on my Iceland videos and preparing them for publishing but in the meantime, life goes on. This past Thursday the Toronto Blues Society presented a free concert here in Nathan Phillips Square.

The show featured the six finalists in their new talent search which, I gather, has been going on for some time. I missed the first act but got to hear the rest of the entrants. Over all the quality was pretty good and ranged from delta style blues, to a jazzier feel to wannabe Steve Ray Vaughns. Mostly, it was the kind of stuff you'd hear in a decent bar, enjoy for the evening but not necessarily remember a week later. But there were a few standouts.

Nicole Richardson is a very rootsy artist, giving a personal spin to some very traditional woman-with-a-guitar blues, her voice echoing that of Sue Foley, not a bad thing at all

Ken Yoshioka is a Delta bluesman by way of Japan .... a very respectable slide guitar and harp style colored by and ESL take on the lyrics. The man can definitely play, his harp playing is respectable and his lyrical interpretation is ... interesting.

Distillery is a trio, guitar, harmonica and female singer. Their sound was jazzy inspired, the musicians were competent but overall they seem uninspired. The singer sometimes had difficulty finding her range.

The Fraser Melvin Blues Band was a full outfit and tried for a rocking blues style. One would think that if a band was named for one of its members, that individual would be the strongest player .. but he was not. Melvin's guitar playing was adequate, he clearly wants to be the next Stevie Ray but has a long way to go and his singing seemed very forced. The sax player, however, was quite good.

Although I enjoyed the first two individual acts I was finding no inspiration .. until a man with horn rimmed glasses, a pork pie hat and a bobble head Jesus hit the stage. Bradleyboy MacArthur is a one man band; guitar, high hat, harmonica and a suit case as a base drum. This was Tom Waits visiting swamp blues and from the first frayed chaotic riff, I was pretty much in love

While Bradleyboy may not have fit as neatly into a blues slot as some of the other players, this was something primal and raw and the only thing that made me feel like dancing. Not only did his voice resemble Mr Waits, he also had the sense of humour. One of his songs begins: "When I was born at the age of sixteen ..."

I wasn't the only one in love with this darkly comedic one man band; Bradleyboy won the competition. Which means he may be soon coming to your town. Go see him. But you may want to check your back seat on the way home.






If you'd like to see the HD version of this video, click the link below:

Blues Contest