Chuck Jackson calls the blues the original American music.
If it weren’t for blues, there’d be no jazz, no rock and roll, no pop music. The music landscape would look much different in 2016 had the blues not filtered its way into the mainstream some five or six decades ago, said Jackson, the lead singer with Downchild Blues Band since 1990.
“All these great pop artists that came out, like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, they all started by playing blues. You learn the roots and you move on from there. Some people stick with it, but some people move on and develop their own style,” Jackson said, reached last week by phone in Vancouver.
“Most all music comes from the blues.”
It’s a genre with a survival instinct – and a little push from technology, ironic given its roots in the poverty stricken American south.
“Blues is never going to be mainstream, but having the Internet has made the blues worldwide,” Jackson said.
“We have people buying our CDs in Norway and in France and Australia. Before we could have never reached those people, but today, with the Internet we have a larger fan base.”
Those sales, in turn, help strictly blues acts like Downchild Blues Band who rely on touring dates, keep going.
“I think it’s alive and well,” Jackson said.
Downchild can certainly take credit for keeping it going north of the border.
Unquestionably one of the top blues artists ever to emerge in Canada, the band was initially founded in 1969 by Donnie Walsh, a musician rightfully known as the father of Canadian blues, and his brother, Richard (Hock) Walsh, who died at 51 in 1999.
Over 47 years, the group, which now consists of Walsh, Jackson, Michael Fonfara, Pat Carey, Gary Kendall and Mike Fitzpatrick, has provided a steady influence over everyone who followed.
The likes of the late Jeff Healey, Colin James – also on the bill at this weekend’s Thunder Bay Blues Festival – and the Powder Blues Band all owe a debt of gratitude to Downchild.
They’re probably best known for their hit 1973 single Flip, Flop and Fly, but they’ve released a steady stream of new music over the years and are currently working on new material, with hopes of a 2017 release.
Jackson promised fan can expect a full retrospective of the Downchild Blues Band’s catalogue when they take the Blues Festival stage at 6:15 p.m. on Saturday.
“We’re going to be giving a whole variety of music from our albums and CDs,” he said. “It’ll be our greatest hits.”
Friday, July 8
Tom Cochrane (9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.)
Serena Ryder (7:45 p.m. to 9 p.m.)
Gowan (6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.)
James Boraski & Momentary Evolution (5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.)
Camden Blues (4 p.m. to 5 p.m.)
Saturday, July 9
Colin James (9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.)
Jonas & The Massive Attraction (7:45 p.m. to 9 p.m.)
Downchild Blues Band (6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.)
David Gogo (5 p.m. to 6 p.m.)
Steve Hill (3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.)
Carson Downey Band (2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.)
Terra Lightfoot (1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.)
Loose Cannon (12 p.m. to 1 p.m.)
Sunday, July 10
Burton Cummings (9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.)
April Wine (7:45 p.m. to 9 p.m.)
Jack De Keyzer (6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.)
Dawn Tyler Watson (5 p.m. to 6 p.m.)
Steve Strongman (3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.)
The Devin Cuddy Band (2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.)
The Chain (1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.)
The Roosters (12 p.m. to 1 p.m.)
