It’s Christmas time here in Ottawa again!
What? Christmas in July?
Christmas time for Blues Junkies like me – it’s Ottawa Bluesfest time again…and even though the Festival gets bigger and more diverse each year, there are still some great blues moments I’ll be taking in.
One of those happened on Thursday evening when hometown heroes (and recent Juno award winners for Best Blues Album “To Behold” – a solid mix of rocking blues, soul and funky R&B that defines the MonkeyJunk sound) collaborated with New Orleans performer Johnny Sansone for a deep-fried blues set joined by the Texas Horns.
After some MonkeyJunk original songs to heat up the set, Johnny Sansone (a giant of a man by the way) joined them for a smoking rendition of “Corn Whiskey”.
If anyone doubted they were in for an authentic Southern blues experience despite the Northern roots of MonkeyJunk, those doubts were quickly erased. The crowd built and for another 1-hour we were treated to a heated exchange of blues guitar from Monkey Junk guitarist Tony D, funky base and soul from Steve Mariner and steady back-beat of drummer Matt Sobb.
You all know I’m all about blues guitar, but Johnny Sansone is perhaps one of the lesser known blues harp players (at least I haven’t heard as much about him as say Sugar Blue or the late Paul Butterfield or even Kim Wilson of the Fabulous T-Birds)
HINT – see that MonkeyJunk and Johnny will be playing together at Ottawa’s ultimate blues destination – The Rainbow Sunday July 8th – you will want to check that out if you can.
Here is a small taste of what we saw – if you get the chance to see either MonkeyJunk or Johnny Sansone – take that chance for sure.
Jeff
Filed under Blues Festival by on Jul 7th, 2012. Comment. 
Ottawa blues trio MonkeyJunk took away the top Canadian Blues Award at this weekend’s Juno Awards…nice icing on what has been a very busy and positive year.
From day 1 – when Matt Sobb, Tony D and Steve Marriner came together for an open blues jam at Irene’s Pub – the chemistry has been strong.
Tony D’s amazing raw blues guitar talent combined with Matt’s steady back beat and the immensely talented Steve Marriner has just worked…can’t wait to see what comes next.
Their 2011 CD “To Behold” is the basis for their success in 2011 and the Juno Award, definitely worth a listen for those of you who have not had the chance to listen to this exciting, fun band.
They have just finished work on their latest CD collection where they will once again refine their sound into a mix of R&B, blues, soul and rock& roll…seems like the Sky’s the limit, we’ll all be looking upward. Here’s more in the Sun Ottawa newspaper.
Filed under New Blues by on Apr 3rd, 2012. Comment.
