Toronto bluesman Toney Springer or Wild T is the type of guitarist who will either make you want to burn your guitar or practice 24 hours a day.
If you are too young to have experienced Jimi Hendrix, then seeing Wild T and the Spirit is the next best thing as he always channels the spirit of Hendrix, mixed with a good dose of finger bleeding, guitar slinging fun. The spirit of Hendrix was strong in Springer, Aug. 4 at the Slice as he played his Stratocaster between his legs behind his head, and of course, with his teeth.
He proved to be a master of musical styles with his trio the Spirit including bassist Guenther Kapelle and drummer T Bone at the Slice, Aug. 4 for a decent sized long weekend crowd.
Wild T and the Spirit began their set on an upbeat, rock blues rock note “ Call Me The Boogie Man.”
“Call Me A River” was another uptempo highlight.
For the rest of the set they played an array of original blues including his big ’90s 
hit “ You’ve Got the Rhythm, I’ve Got the Blues.”
But he really wanted to have fun, cracking jokes and embarking on trippy jams covering reggae, blues, soul, a couple Christmas carols and even a few bars of O Canada, sometimes all in the same song.
“Merry Christmas ,e everybody,” he grinned after playing a few bars of ‘Good King Wenceslas.’
Wild T, or Toney Springer in real life, always channels the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, so the Hendrix songs he played were highlights. He put his own, almost country style folk stamp on “All Along the Watchtower,” and played a stunningly beautiful guitar solo on it.
He played an extended jam on a hot original, “Life Goes On” which incorporated a few bars of the Beatles’ ‘Ob La Di, Ob La Da,” as well as some jazzy scatting vocals.
There were some requests for “Telephone Call,” but he didn’t play it this time. He was in a reggae mood, tuning several popular Bob Marley songs into extended jams.
He wound down his show with “Hey Joe,” on which he incorporated all of Hendrix’s tricks.
He wound down his set with an energetic version of “Shot Down,” but was called back for an encore, which of “The Banana Boat Song.”
Jolene Draper and her new band, bassist Steve Martin and guitarist Danny Douglas opened up with a solid set of jazzy acoustic based originals and smooth covers. She sang a few songs from her previous band Dalliance Elixir as well as brand new songs plus a chirpy cover of “Save Tonight” and a hot cover of “Born This Way.”
