News

Downchild

• At Massey Hall
• In Toronto on Saturday

"And now it’s show time,” boomed the disembodied voice of the baritone-throated emcee, Dan Aykroyd, who informed an audience of what they probably already knew to be true – that 40 years ago the Downchild blues band had brought a “whole new sound,” had “inspired” a movement and had “mentored” a Canadian blues scene. Big words. Big band. Big night.

What went down at the elegant Massey Hall was a robustly upbeat and swinging concert of jumbo-size electric Chicago blues. A commanding Downchild and special guests shook, rattled and rolled; a mature crowd flipped, flopped and flew; and the spirit of Big Joe Turner seemed very much at hand.

NASA put a man on the moon in 1969, the same year the then-named Downchild Blues Band (since shortened to Downchild) began the process of putting Canadian blues on the map. The outer-space boys, who had better publicists and all the Tang they could drink, got the glory. The career of Downchild, co-founded by the brothers Donnie and Richard (Hock) Walsh was boosted in the mid-1970s by Aykroyd and John Belushi’s Blues Brothers shtick, an act inspired by the Walshes and featuring Downchild staples.

On this commemorative night, Aykroyd mostly narrated from behind the curtain. He stepped out for the hustling R&B of Soul Man, which was sung with gusto by Downchild’s confident Chuck Jackson. Aykroyd, in a suit and sunglasses that were not of the Blue Brother’s vintage, danced a strutty dance across the stage enthusiastically, huffing and puffing after.

If the gutsy crooning Jackson was the soul man, the Ottawa-bred Hollywood star was the sell man, introducing special guests including the legendary harmonica wailer James Cotton, guitar wiz Colin James, Memphis Horns import Wayne Jackson and the nimble acoustic blues guitarist Colin Linden, who opened the show with a solo set marked by graciousness and virtuosity. I believe him to be the happiest bluesman alive.

A stout headlining set saw surviving blues brother Donnie Walsh blow harp swaggeringly, nail stinging notes with his Stratocaster and make rugged slide-guitar sounds on a big red Gibson. He attempted to sing on the risqué A Garden in Her Front Yard.

Downchild was not big on experiment, as much of their material recalled other sturdy classics. Time to Say Goodbye was in the down-tempo farewell-blues tradition of Big Bill Broonzy’s Key to the Highway. A few numbers admired the juke joint-roughhousing of Elmore James, while others mirrored an up-tempo Muddy Waters.

After a grand, stage-crowded finale of its famous adaptation of Turner’s Flip, Flop and & Fly, Downchild dismissed the guest players and closed with the romping It’s a Matter of Time, which is about inevitability and dogged pursuit. Forty years in the business of the blues, Downchild still goes after it.

The concert was taped for broadcast by CBC Radio, to be aired Dec. 12 on Saturday Night Blues and Jan. 1, 2010, on Canada Live. The Downchild 40th anniversary tour plays Belleville, Ont., Nov. 19 and Kitchener, Ont., Dec. 10.