JIM BYRNES
www.jamestbyrnes.com

My Walking Stick is the latest blood and guts, behind your knees, love, life, death, and after life release from the legendary multi Juno Award winning blues and roots artist Jim Byrnes. This is the third album from Jim in ­five years since he hooked up with one of North America’s most critically acclaimed roots music producers, Steve Dawson. Byrnes and Dawson put together another world class band and 'My Walking Stick' finds them building on the blues roots of 2004’s Fresh Horses and 2006’s gospel tinged Juno Award winning House Of Refuge as they continue exploring gospel, blues, rockabilly, country, and once again pull it all together in an original and unique way.

“You know, since I first got in cahoots with Steve I knew I'd found a great ally in genre bending and eliminating the pigeon holes often foisted on musical creativity”, says Byrnes. “I've been at this professionally for more than 40 years and I really feel that I'm only now discovering my true voice.”

The opening track “Ol’ Rattler” digs in and never lets go and the same can be said for the entire album. Moving through the border radio groove of the title track, to the 50’s vibe of “Lookin For A Love” and a slow burning version of The Band’s “Ophelia”, these are tales of wanderers (“Three Shots”), lost souls (“Drown In My Own Tears”), love (“Living Off The Love You Give Me”), death (“What Are They Doing In Heaven Today”), and redemption (“One Life”).

Byrnes explains further. “John Hammond tells how in talking to Muddy Waters he asked about why he wanted to become a professional entertainer and, sure, there were the references to influences; Robert Johnson, Son House, The Mississippi Sheiks, Big Bill Broonzy, but his muse turned out to be GENE AUTRY! And so on this recording we've gone all over the map with some originals, some obscure covers of all sorts, a Robbie Robertson composition, retelling the stories of John Henry and Stagger Lee in different settings, all sorts of fun stuff with some of the best damn players in the world.”

Those players are Keith Lowe on bass (Bill Frisell, Fiona Apple), Chris Gestrin on keyboards (K-OS, Randy Bachman), Jesse Zubot (Zubot and Dawson, Hawksley Workman), drummers Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, John Hammond, Mavis Staples) and Matt Chamberlain (Edie Brickell, David Bowie) , critically acclaimed Vancouver based gospel trio The Sojourners, and of course Steve Dawson and Jim Byrnes.

Jim Byrnes plays 150 dates a year in North America and Europe. He will continue to bring his music to stages all over the world and this time he will be bringing his “Walking Stick”. Who could ask for more than that?

Jim Byrnes was born in St. Louis, Missouri – that’s blues country. He grew up on the city’s north side. One of the neighbourhood bars had Ike and Tina Turner as the house band. As a teenager going to music clubs, he and his buddy were often the only white people in the place. “We never had any problems. We were too naïve, and had too much respect for the music and culture – they knew it, they could tell.”

Starting piano at age five, by age thirteen, Jim was singing and playing blues guitar. His first professional gig was in the summer of 1964. Over the years, he has had the great good fortune to appear with a virtual who’s who of blues history. From Furry Lewis and Henry Townsend to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Taj Mahal, Robert Cray and so many others, Jim has been on the blues highway for 40 years.

Byrnes moved to Vancouver, BC in the mid-70s after years of drifting, working odd jobs and playing music. In 1981 he put together a band that became a staple of the local music scene. In 1986 the Jim Byrnes Band played 300 nights.

Jim Byrnes’ fame as an actor has grown immeasurably from his too-numerous-to-mention TV roles, with highlights including Lifeguard in the CBS series Wiseguy, worldwide success in Highlander, and his nationally broadcast variety show, The Jim Byrnes Show.

As for highlights in his musical career, Jim mentions “Sittin’ down in a room with Muddy Waters, just him and me, and he showed me a couple of licks on his guitar.”

His greatest musical moment was the first time he saw Howlin’ Wolf. “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?”

Jim has proven that a serious car accident in 1972 has done anything but hinder him. Despite two swipes with death and some pretty hard knocks, Byrnes has still managed to rack up an enviable string of credits, both on and off-screen.

Jim’s first love, however, is the blues. His evocative, smoky vocals are found in a truth that doesn’t come overnight. During the 80s, the Jim Byrnes Band released “Burnin’” on Polydor, followed in 1987 with “I’ve Turned My Nights into Days” and 1995’s Juno-Award winning “That River” on Stony Plain.

February 2004 saw the release of Jim’s project “Fresh Horses” on Black Hen Music. The recording was the result of a musical meeting between Jim and Steve Dawson (of Zubot & Dawson). Jim and Steve realized they shared common tastes in music and realized that a collaboration between Jim and the Zubot & Dawson band would be a refreshing and exciting project.

In Jim’s words, “Early bluesmen were really ‘songsters’ who interspersed their blues with spirituals, popular music, folk songs, anything to get the crowd to take note, and I suppose that’s how I cast myself when I began my career. In the spring of 2003, Steve Dawson approached me about the possibility of a collaboration and I leapt at the opportunity to create a musical dialogue with the very finest players of a whole new generation; sort of fathers and sons, you know? It’s been a long, hard road and so ‘Yahoo, thank the Lord’, I thought, ‘fresh horses’.”

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