THUNDER BAY -- It was old-home week for at least two musicians taking the Thunder Bay Blues Festival stage on Saturday.
Gary Kendall, the long-time bassist for Downchild Blues Band, and keyboardist Jeff Heisholt, who counts playing in Tessa Lightfoot’s band one of his many gigs, were only too happy to rev things up for the hometown crowd.
Kendall’s been gone so long, Thunder Bay wasn’t really a thing when he left for the bright lights of Toronto in the early 1970s, known instead as Port Arthur and Fort William.
But regardless of how long he’s been away, it always feels good to be back in the community, where family and friends gathered backstage to greet their returning musical hero and hear his tales of life on the road.
“I always love coming back to Thunder Bay,” said Kendall, a multiple Maple Blues Award winner as the country’s top bassist. Kendall played with Downchild from 1979 to 1983, rejoining the legendary group in 1995 after spending much of the eighties in the Kendall Wall Band. In the nineties and first decade of the 21st century he moonlighted off stage, booking blues bands at Toronto’s Silver Dollar Room.
“I don’t get back here enough. The last time was in 2011 when I came up for a Blues in the Schools program for a few days. It’s my hometown. I’ve lived more of my life now in Toronto, but I was born here.”
Seeing record crowds flocking to Marina Park was special, another memory to file away in a musical career that has taken him around the globe.
It all started in Northwest
ern Ontario, he said.
“When I was a kid and was getting into music and left Thunder Bay and moved to Toronto … I always wanted to come back here again and play with a good band. So I’ve got to do that tons of times,” Kendall said.
Heisholt, whose mother Donna was in the crowd clapping and cheering during her son’s early afternoon set, could relate.
The homecoming was pretty sweet, said Heisholt, who plans to stick around for the next week and join the Trews at Fort Fest at Fort William Historical Park.
“It’s awesome. I’ve come to Blues Fest a lot over the years and it’s fun. It’s good to be able to come and do this. To get to do it twice in one summer is even better,” he said.
Balance is the key, said Heisholt, who also plays with the Skydiggers in his down time.
“Delicately,” he said, asks how he manages to juggle the demands on his time.
“Luckily it all kind of works out somehow, nothing really overlaps – although I’m missing a Trews gig to be here this weekend and then next weekend I’m missing a Terra gig to be here with the Trews. But I’ve got to do my two hometown shows.”
Saturday’s lineup also included local favourites Loose Cannon, Nova Scotia’s Carson Downey Band, one-man musician Steve Hill, festival favourite David Gogo, Montreal’s Jonas and the Massive Attraction and Canadian guitar legend Colin James, who closed the night with a 90-minute set that had the crowd on its feet.
Start times were pushed back by at least an hour all day after James’ crew was unable to make an earlier sound check due to flight issues. James hit the stage at 11 p.m., the original end time for his set.
