Legendary Downchild Blues Band will be at Algonquin Theatre July 21st 2022 continuing to celebrate their 50th Anniversary Tour.
Chuck Jackson, lead singer and harmonica player with Downchild for over 30 years, took some time to talk with Douglas McLean for The Sound Cafe about the tour and some of the legendary songs the band will delight Huntsville audiences with.
You can listen to the entire interview and music HERE
The show will feature some wonderful live songs from their illustrious career.
Roaring through bracing, high-octane performances since 1969, the band founded and continuously steered by harmonica and guitar ace Donnie “Mr. Downchild” Walsh is as vibrant today as when Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi went sniffing around for inspiration for their brilliant Blues Brothers venture back in the 1970s. The pair elevated Downchild’s “Shotgun Blues” and Walsh’s “(I Got Everything I Need) Almost” to smash status on their 1978 Briefcase Full of Blues record.
Actually, the 2017 iteration of Downchild — with each member boasting a minimum of 20 years of service — might be the most electrifying.
Internal combustion certainly describes scorchers like the swaggering, harp-goosed “Mississippi Woman, Mississauga Man,” the thundering piano-pummelled title track, and opener “Albany, Albany” which contrasts a singalong chorus with sharp melody forwarded by Pat Carey’s marvellously skronking sax.
Indeed, if Downchild didn’t exist, the blues world would have to invent them. Who else could so clearly serve as contemporary torchbearers for riveting original music firmly rooted in tradition while acting as a thriving spiritual link to past greats like Sonny Boy Williamson II, James Cotton, and B.B. King.
But don’t take our word for it. Downchild’s epic reputation has been reaffirmed time and again. Witness their 2014 Blues Album of the Year Juno Award for, Can You Hear The Music — their second Juno win overall. Their boatload of Maple Blues Awards. Their marquee billing on the globe’s most prestigious stages. And, of course, their inimitable 1973 reading of Big Joe Turner’s classic “Flip, Flop and Fly” which placed Walsh and band co-founder, late brother Richard “Hock” Walsh on the charts and in the souls of music fans worldwide.
FEATURED SONGS:
Gonnna Tell Your Mother (Live)
(I Got Everything I Need) Almost (Live)
Flip Flop and Fly (Live) [feat. Dan Aykroyd, Paul Shaffer, David Wilcox, Kenny Neal, Gene Taylor & Erja Lyytinen]
Mississippi Woman, Mississauga Man (Live) [feat. Erja Lyytinen]
Tryin' To Keep Her 88's Straight with Jane Vasey
Can You Hear the Music (Live)
You can listen to the entire interview and music HERE
Website: downchild.com
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/channel
Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile
Huntsville Tickets: huntsvillefestival.ca/event/the-legendary-downchild-blues-band/