RJ Archer & the Painful Memories

Primarily inspired by blues-influenced rock music from the 1960’s and 1970’s, RJ Archer & the Painful Memories were formed in July 2019 when Richard Archer (guitar, vocals) received a prize of some studio time in a songwriting competition. Two long-term friends Roger James and Ben Kingsbury agreed to help with the recording session, playing bass and drums respectively. The results were so good that they decided to make the band a permanent thing.

Recording with just a few days of studio time scheduled across the next two years, the band completed a debut album ‘Hot Mess’ in September 2021 to an enthusiastic critical response, with Rock & Roll Circus citing a “"A 60's R&B vibe, fused with a more contemporary feel" and Robs Raw Music hearing "Powerful and tough Blues/Rock and dare I say an infusion of punk"!

With acclaimed live sets at the Cambridge Salty Dog Blues Festival and Six Six Bar under their belts and a growing reputation as a killer live act, their second album ‘Horseplay!’ was released to more acclaim in September 2023 with Music For All proclaiming it as a “practically perfect album” and comparisons being drawn to everyone from MC5 to Grand Funk Railroad to Dr.Feelgood!!

The band have since expanded to a four piece with the addition of Marc Ritchie on drums and Ben moving to second guitar. They are currently working on new songs for a new album expected for release late 2024.

FOR BIG DAVE MCLEAN, BLUES IS THE MEANING OF THIS OLD LIFE WITH HIS NEW ALBUM

Is it possible to still be underrated at age 71, and after a five-decade career in which you’ve inspired just about everybody in Canadian blues?
 
Big Dave McLean is about to offer an emphatic “yes” with This Old Life, an album that’s poised to finally shine the light of mass acclaim on his mighty talents as a singer, harmonicist and slinger of the National guitar—skills that, among his many other accomplishments, once led Billboard to proclaim “He’s done more to shape the Western Canadian blues scene than perhaps any other artist.”
 
And now everybody gets to hear why. The new record is a 14-song collection of immediately indelible, classic blues, combining supremely authentic covers of tunes by legendary artists like Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Little Walter with three new McLean originals that can stand proudly with the best the art form has to offer.
 
The bar is set by leadoff track “Well, I Done Got Over It,” a rendition of the 1953 Guitar Slim nugget that shows McLean’s soulful, gravelly rumble of a voice is perfectly suited to the archetypal lament of a good man done wrong:
 
On the day we first met, baby
You sure was a sweet little thing
After a while you got so bad
You know it was a cryin’ shame
Well I done I got over it
Hey I done got over it
Lord I done got over it
I done got over that lass
 
Versions of Waters’ “Honey Bee” and Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave’s Kept Clean” are among the smartly chosen, impeccably performed tributes that round out the record. Meanwhile, McLean shows his more romantic side on his own “You Mean So Much to Me,” gets wistful on “Sometimes” and spins a yarn of escalating neighborhood violence on the regretful, world-weary “Billy Canton’s Bulldog.”
In true traditionalist style, the album was recorded in just four days at The Ganaraska Recording Company in Cobourg, Ontario, on a purist’s arsenal of vintage instruments and equipment. And most of the performances are first takes, with all of the core guitar, bass and drum tracks cut live “off the floor.”
 
The approach was hugely satisfying to co-producer Steve Marriner, a Juno- and Maple Blues Award-winning musician in his own right who counts himself among McLean’s biggest fans.
 
“He is as genuine a bluesman as it gets, and I’ve been dying to capture Dave and present him to the rest of the world in the way I’ve always heard him: raw and real,” says Marriner, who also brought along his producing partner, Jimmy Bowskill, to help shepherd the project and join him in its core performing ensemble. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done here. I think we’ve shown Dave and the music itself the deep respect [they’re] so deserving of.”
 
The Saskatchewan-born McLean has been earning that respect since 1969, when he received his first guitar lesson from the legendary John Hammond after a gig. After that, you couldn’t stop him: He became a regular presence on the Canadian club and festival scene, where his profuse talents and obvious love of the blues won him the support of further mentors like the aforementioned Waters, whose friendship ended up inspiring the title of McLean’s debut album, Muddy Waters for President.
 
But the blues has never been a rich man’s game, and for decades thereafter, McLean had to work in construction and at other odd jobs to supplement his gigging and recording habit. His struggles were even documented in a 2015 short, “Ain’t About The Money.”
Accolades, fortunately, have been a good deal more forthcoming than heaps of cash. McLean has been nominated for three Junos and won one (for 1992’s Saturday Night Blues). He’s also received a Western Canadian Music Award, a Prairie Music Award, a Great Canadian Blues Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Toronto Blues Society. And in 2019, he was made a member of the Order of Canada, in recognition of his influence in the field of Delta and Chicago blues, and his own mentorship of younger artists like Colin James, Shaun Verrault and Luke Doucette.
 
Is the mainstream finally catching up with the tastemakers? Everything about This Old Life points to a big breakthrough— ironically but rewardingly, since it makes no compromises in its warm embrace of everything that’s always been great about the music.
 
With the album out and the whirlwind tour looming, McLean is feeling reflective. “I would like to send out my deepest gratitude, respect and admiration to all of the many people who have shared their incredidble talents and have helped me present my interpretation of blues over the past fifty years or so,” he says.
 
And thank you, Big Dave. We promise we’ll never get over it.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds Celebrate 50th Anniversary With "Payback Time (feat. Billy Gibbons)" From Struck Down Album

Stony Plain Records proudly announced the signing of legendary American band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, who celebrated their 50th anniversary with the release of their first studio album in eight years, Struck Down, on June 28th. The album’s first single, “Payback Time,” featuring Billy Gibbons, is out now. 
 
The album features contributions from Elvin Bishop, Terrance Simien and Canadian blues guitar ace Steve Strongman, who co-wrote with Kim Wilson nine of the album’s 10 tracks. The lone cover song on the album is a scintillating take on Memphis Minnie’s “Nothing in Rambling,” featuring Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal and Mick Fleetwood. 
 
Struck Down was produced by Kim Wilson, Steve Strongman and Glen Parrish; recorded in New Jersey and Hamilton, Ontario; and mixed by acclaimed recording engineer Shelly Yakus (John Lennon/U2/Tom Petty).   In addition to the searing first single, “Payback Time,” other standout tracks include the album’s opener, “Struck Down By The Blues,” featuring Steve Strongman on guitar; the Cajun-flavored “Don’t Make No Sense,” featuring Terrance Simien on accordion; “Watcha Do To Me,” featuring guitar icon Elvin Bishop; and the wistful closing track, “Sideline.” 
 
The catalyst for the recording sessions happened when blues guitarist Steve Strongman hooked up with Kim Wilson on a trial basis to write some songs. Thunderbirds manager Glen Parrish had convinced an at-first hesitant Kim Wilson to give it a try by co-writing with Strongman, who flew down to California from Canada. As a songwriting team, they clicked immediately.
 
“In the first three days, we wrote five songs,” recalled Wilson. “He came back for another three days, and we wrote 12 songs. I would say there was chemistry there.” Together, Wilson and Strongman wrote 17 songs. They selected nine originals and one cover tune for Struck Down.
 
“Working with Kim Wilson and the Thunderbirds was a very organic process,” added Steve Strongman. “I snuck into a club to see Kim play with Mel Brown in Canada when I was 16 years old, so I have always held him in the highest regard. I could tell we had a mutual respect for each other after the initial writing sessions in California. The songs just seemed to flow naturally, we both had very open minds during the process, and there was great energy in the room while we wrote these songs.  He is a true living legend, and it has been an incredible experience to co-write this record with Kim, and to produce this album with Kim and Glen Parrish.”
 
For the recording sessions, Wilson called a few friends.  The first single, “Payback Time,” features Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top on guitar and backing vocals. “Billy is someone I talk to on a pretty regular basis,” said Wilson. “He is a dear friend, a great musician, and he knows how to make a record.” Regarding the great interplay on the track between Gibbons’ guitar and Wilson’s harmonica, Wilson said, “It was really all him. Being the great musician that he is, he created that conversation.”
 
The cover of Memphis Minnie’s “Nothing in Rambling” is overflowing with talent.  “All of these people I have the utmost respect for,” said Wilson. “Taj Mahal was one of my very first influences. He is one of the reasons I started playing the harmonica. Bonnie Raitt and I have always been very close. I love what she does. I love her voice. I love Keb’s voice. And Mick was kind enough to put his performance on that track as well.” “I love the material, the performances, and the sound of the album.  It was mixed by Shelly Yakus and mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone. They are the very best there is.”
 
When talking about the full-time members of the Thunderbirds, Wilson proclaimed, “The strength of this band has inspired me to be more creative. This band really allows me to do anything I want to do: modern, traditional, anything in between. They are masters of it all. And as for what’s next…“I’m far from finished.”
 
Formed in 1974, The Fabulous Thunderbirds is a familiar name for anyone into contemporary blues and blues rock.  This is the band that created classic albums like T-Bird Rhythm and Tuff Enuff, powered by hits like the title track and “Wrap It Up,” Tuff Enuff went platinum, selling more than one million copies. Led by founding member Kim Wilson, The Fabulous Thunderbirds have been nominated for Grammy Awards six times and for Blues Music Awards more than 20 times. 
 
The Fabulous Thunderbirds continue to tour internationally, selling out venues and headlining festivals with the current line-up of Kim Wilson on vocals and harmonica, Johnny Moeller on guitar, Bob Welsh on keyboards and guitar, Rudy Albin on drums and Steve Kirsty on bass. 

Hamilton, ON's Kyle Pacey's New Road Songs EP Is A Soulful, Funky, Rollicking Rhythm & Blues Romp

The veteran singer/songwriter and virtuoso guitarist mixes together funky grooves, bluesy backbeats, and jazzy guitar licks with a classic pop sound for a unique R & B stew. The mainstay of the Hamilton music scene has strung together five great original songs that will keep the fingers snapping and the dance floor hopping.
 
Front and centre is Pacey’s authoritative, smoky voice, a bluesy howl that only comes from years of experience on the road and in the studio. On this set he leads a crack band of seasoned players, including bassist Howard Ayee (Moe Koffman, Eddie Schwartz, Rough Trade), drummer Michael Sloski (Ben E. King, Long John Baldry, Bruce Cockburn) and Rob Gusevs (The Arrows) on keyboards.
 
The title track opens things off, a “little story about what love can do”, as Pacey sings. This song sets the tempo for the rest of the collection, with blasts of trombone from Jay Burr giving the track a bit of a New Orleans feel. “Road Song” winds down with Burr bringing the song home for the final 40 seconds as the band plays on behind him.
 
A brief scat vocal run from Pacey opens the next song, “Once Again”. Pacey says this number laments the state of our environment as governments push economic boundaries to their limit during an ongoing struggle for power and control of the land and its resources. 
 
“There's a method to my madness,” he sings, “now you might say, let's end it now, let's seize the day, anytime now no one knows, truth or dare now, this horror show”.
 
For Pacey, who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, it harkens back to the protest movements of that time, when ecological worries first hit his generation.
 
Pacey’s career goes back that far, from being the first local musician to play Hamilton Place, where he was featured as the opening act for the Duke Ellington Orchestra, to opening shows for legendary Canadian rock band Crowbar. Later, he worked with Jacqui and Lindsay Morgan and guested with the likes of Robbie Lane and the Sugar Shoppe and was offered a chance to join the Buddy Rich Band and to audition for the band Chicago.
 
The EP continues with another love song, “This Minute”. It’s a celebration of a love that is eternal and true, one that brings pure joy and inspiration. “I'm so glad that I met you, makes my mind sky clear blue,” sings Pacey, “this minute turns to a lifetime, I'm so in love with you”.
 
Another message song, featuring Burr’s trombone once again, “Sad Days” takes on the economic situation and the hopelessness felt by so many just trying to get by amidst rising inflation and economic peril. Though the track laments the state of our times, it’s just as upbeat and enjoyable as the rest of the collection.
 
Road Songs concludes with “The Damage is Done”, a song Pacey has been playing live for over a decade with various combos. To experience his playing on this number is magical, both hands flying lightning fast across the fretboard. It’s no surprise from a man who won a number of local and international guitar championships before he was even 18 years old.
 
Here, the song gets the full band treatment, expertly recorded at Grant Avenue and Pine Street Studios. Pacey’s production and the band’s playing punches it up that extra notch, as they groove the blues away to wrap up the EP.
 
For the Hamilton Music Awards nominee, Road Songs is sure to keep the momentum going for the esteemed veteran. Give it a listen now, and if you have a chance to see Kyle Pacey live, don’t miss it. You gotta see him to believe him.

Glenn Foster

After four decades in the music business, Glen Foster has earned the right to break any rule he wants. And this happy iconoclast shows no signs of compromise on “White Funeral,” a whimsically morbid country-blues number that appears on his latest album, the trend-bucking Unnatural Tendencies. 

 
Like a winking eulogy to a vanishing era, the song finds Foster chronicling the impending demise of one Old Snake, a “hardened old metaphoric character” who gets stranded in the desert just as it’s starting to snow.
 
It’s a sure sign of winter, the geese are flying south 
A sure sign of winter, when you see that harvest moon full out
A sure sign of winter, it don’t leave much room for doubt
It’s going to be a White Funeral if Old Snake don’t make it out
 
Snake’s truck isn’t the only thing that’s breaking down here: It’s his life itself, as Foster’s plaintive yet sardonic vocal makes painfully apparent. All the while, the singer-songwriter-instrumentalist’s Dobro curlicues circle like hungry buzzards over the tasteful burial plot of a backing track laid down by his bandmates in the Glen Foster Group: Marg Foster (harmony vocals, percussion) Marty Steele (keyboards, harmony vocals), Colin Stevenson (bass guitar, harmony vocals) and James McRae (drums).
 
Playful elegia is just one of the many moods to be discovered on Unnatural Tendencies, a nonconformist manifesto of a record that plays like a defiant response to the winnowed attention spans and fixation on salability that are setting the direction of today’s musical culture. Few marketing consultants, after all, would encourage an artist to begin his album with a title track that’s nearly 17 minutes long and moves fluidly through three different songs, each in a different key but with the same chord progression and tempo. Nor would an A&R executive be turning cartwheels if said artist chose to include another number that incorporated a rapped intro, heavy guitar riffs, a satirical sitar hook, an accordion solo set to a polka beat, a bluegrass banjo break, and a highland bagpipe solo—oh, and a disco finale, complete with walking bass and falsetto vocals. Throw in some lyrical references to the plight of First Nations peoples and the pitfalls of religious obsession, and whammo! Instant anathema to the TikTok generation.
 
And Foster couldn’t be happier about it. This far into his career, he’s still willing to risk it all to remain genuine.
 
“Natural tendencies are what we tend to gravitate towards in life,” he says. “My concept of Unnatural Tendencies includes thinking outside the box and attempting things that we would normally shy away from. It involves taking risks and trying different things that could be glorious or disastrous.”
 
But then, it’s been that way for the Nanaimo-based rock/folk maverick since he burst onto the scene in the ’70s with his original band, Falcon, whose 1980 single “Los Angeles” won a talent contest on CKOC Radio Hamilton. Since then, Foster has worked with the likes of Daniel Lanois and Ray Materick (“Linda Put The Coffee On”) and has taught more than 20 years’ worth of students in his side gig as a professional music teacher, receiving two silver medals from the Royal Conservatory of Music in the process. But the biggest feather in his cap has been his stellar run as a solo artist, which encompasses 10 albums of music in a breathtaking diversity of styles—from the “Rockabilly Fever” of 2020’s Not Far Away to the seasonal side he explored on The Spirit of Christmas the very next year.
 
Now he takes another bold step into the great unknown with Unnatural Tendencies, which he co-produced with Rick Salt (The Irish Rovers, Kerplunks, Jack Connolly, Gerry Barnum, Phil Dwyer) at Nanaimo’s Mountainview Studio. It’s seeing release on Foster’s own Rescue Records label, which is part of the reason he felt the freedom to stretch out in multiple directions at once.
 
“This is my tenth album (which prompted the word ‘Tendencies’ in the title), and I’m making it fit for me,” he says. “It’s the way I like to hear music, in album form the way I believe my fans do. These are some of my best songs ever; I’m singing and playing guitar better than I ever have, and I brought in the best musicians I could find, rather than use synthesizers and samples.”
 
So even though the devil-may-care approach he took to composition this time might not have been devised expressly with the stage in mind, he and his band still have all the ammo they need to further their reputation for killer live work when they do take the new material on the road. Venues across Canada have witnessed the little miracle Glen is live, both on his own and sharing the bill with the likes of Lighthouse, Sammy Hagar, Dr. Hook, Jose Feliciano, Valdy, Jesse Winchester and Stan Rogers. With the new album done, look for them at a showroom, festival, park concert or pub near you. Anything else would be … well, unnatural.

3-Time GRAMMY Nominee and Blues Legend Eric Bibb's Live at The Scala Theatre Is Out Now

Stony Plain Records, under an exclusive worldwide license agreement from Repute Records, has released the new album from 2024’s “Best Traditional Blues Album” GRAMMY nominee and Blues/Roots music legend Eric Bibb, Live at The Scala Theatre. The disc follows 2023’s Ridin’, which has also received two Blues Music Award nominations from The Blues Foundation, whose winners will be announced May 9^th in Memphis.

Eric Bibb also recently taped a performance at the SiriusXM Radio studios In New York City that will premiere on BB King’s “Bluesville” channel in April around his live album release, and then air shortly thereafter on “The Village.”

Performed in front of a live audience at Stockholm’s Scala Theatre in 2023, the atmosphere captured in these recordings is electric. Live at The Scala Theatre contains a selection of songs cherry-picked from Bibb’s history, infused with the folk and blues tradition with contemporary sensibilities. The performance features an all-star lineup of musicians including Eric's longtime collaborator, musical director and producer Glen Scott on bass, keys, drums and backing vocals; Olle Linder on drums and acoustic bass; Johan Lindström on pedal steel and electric guitar; Christer Lyssarides on electric guitar and mandola; Esbjörn Hazelius on fiddle and cittern; Greger Andersson on harp; Lamine Cissokho on kora and vocals; special guest vocalists Sarah Dawn Finer, Rennie Mirro and Ulrika Bibb, as well as string arrangements by Erik Arvinder and David Davidson, performed by Hanna Helgegren and Sarah Cross on violins, Christopher Öhman on viola and Josef Ahlin on cello.
 
“The Live at The Scala concert was, without a doubt, the most ambitious gig and recording project of my career,” says Eric Bibb. “Captained by my super-talented friend, musical director and producer, Glen Scott and graced by an amazing array of musicians, the resulting album is one that defines me as an artist. I couldn’t be more pleased and eager to share it with you all.
“In selecting the album’s songs we wanted to cover three categories: 1)Tried and true fan favorites that had not appeared multiple times on previous live recordings; 2) A few songs from the recently released studio albums, Dear America and Ridin’; 3) At least one song that I’d never before recorded.
 
“Every song on the album holds a special place in my heart. I’ll elaborate on three of them: ‘Rosewood,’ which tells the story of the horrendous massacre in 1923, that wiped out the African American community of Rosewood in Florida, is both an important history lesson, particularly relevant today in the current climate of disunity in America and the world and hopefully, a story that encourages us to face and learn from our past.  ‘Whole World’s Got The Blues’ is, in the way that songs can sometimes be, prescient. It is both a lament about the current state of the world and a warning. ‘Things Is ‘Bout Comin’ My Way,’ adapted from ‘Sittin’ On Top Of The World’ and written by Walter Vinson, is a bluesy affirmation that resonates with my own journey.  And one of my fondest memories of that night at The Scala Theatre was being surrounded by the spirited singing, on stage and in the audience, of ‘Mole In The Ground.’“ 
 
With a career now spanning five decades, three Grammy nominations, a multitude of Blues Foundation awards and countless more accolades, Eric Bibb has secured his legacy as a legendary figure in the blues and roots genre.
 
As Eric reflects on his musical journey, gratitude pervades. Evolution is evident in his voice and guitar playing, with his words grounded in truth and fostering a vision of unity in a world filled with divisive rhetoric. Eric Bibb is more than a blues troubadour – he is a storyteller and philosopher. His legacy is not just in the notes he plays or the stages he graces but in the questions, he poses and the hope he instills.

Live at The Scala Theatre is a continuation of the vision that informs Bibb’s artistry as a modern-day Blues troubadour. Grounded in the folk and blues tradition with contemporary sensibilities, Bibb’s music continues to reflect his thoughts on current world events and his own lived experiences, whilst remaining entertaining, uplifting, inspirational and relevant.

Eric Bibb summarizes the new album by saying: “To all the wonderful players, singers and facilitators who contributed to this triumphant endeavor, I can only say, from the bottom of my heart: 

Thank You! Merci Mille! Tusen Tack!”