Born in blues country St. Louis Missouri, bred down the street from a neighborhood bar boasting Ike and Tina Turner as house band, Jim Byrnes grew up steeped in the blues.
Against all odds he managed to keep out of trouble where there was a lot of it to be found.
"We never had any problems. We were too naive, too innocent, and had too much respect for the music and culture - they knew it; they could tell," he says.
He credits a Howlin' Wolf show as a key moment in his musical life that ruined him for mainstream acts.
"I was devastated. I was 17. Who could take the Rolling Stones seriously after watching Howlin' Wolf down on his knees singing Little Red Rooster?" Byrnes asked.
After taking up the piano at age five and moving on to blues guitar by 13, Byrnes hasn't had a chance to look back over the last 40 years, going on to play with blues greats like John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Taj Mahal, and Robert Cray.
"Sittin' down in a room with Muddy Waters, just him and me, and he showed me a couple of licks on his guitar," is definitely one of the highlights of his career, he says.
One of Canada's most prized performers, legendary bluesman and Juno award winner Byrnes plays at the Queen's on Saturday night in preparation for the release of his latest album, the gospel and soul inspired House of Refuge, out on Black Hen Music! on June 6.
Produced by Steve Dawson of Zubot and Dawson, Byrnes counts Chris Gestrin, Elliot Polsky, Jesse Zubot, Steve Dawson, and Keith Lowe as collaborators on the album.
Dawson first worked with Byrnes on the 2004 album Fresh Horses envisioning a creativity-sparking alliance with the Zubot and Dawson band; it became one of the year's most celebrated roots albums and went on to garner a Juno nomination.
Bets are that House Of Refuge will be as well received.
- With over a decade in the trenches of the music industry, we're reasonably sure Alexandria knows what shes talking about: [email protected].