24th Street Wailers enjoy long distance relationship making blues music with bandmates

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Halifax born, Toronto/Texas based jazz blues band, the 24th Street Wailers’ drummer/vocalist Lindsay Beaver is enjoying biding her time in Texas, south of Austin with husband /bassist Mike Archer in between hitting the road with band mates saxophonist Jonny Wong, lead guitarist Marc Doucet and pianist Jesse Whiteley who are based in Toronto now.

The 24th Street Wailers play Lethbridge this week. Photo submitted
 They visit Lethbridge for the first time when they play the Geomatic Attic, Feb. 26 with the Steve Keenan band.
“We’ve been rehearsing all week and they sound great. It’s expensive, but  we make it work,” said Beaver, enjoying a sunny day south of Austin, watching her neighbours’ chickens run away.
“ It means we have a hub here and a hub in Canada, she continued.


“I live 25 kms south of Austin, which is a close enough to get to see things, but not live there. There’s a lot of great music here. And we get a lot of touring acts, like the Reverend Horton heat and the Staxx guys who usually play the smaller clubs,” she said, noting she and Archer play quite a bit around Austin.


“ And I do a regular thing with Jimmy Vaughan,” she continued, noting their gig tonight isn’t until midnight.


“ It’s great because there is a lot happening and we’re the last thing going on,” she said.
 The 24th Street Wailers also  are working on a new CD which they plan to record in December. It will technically be their sixth album.

“ I don’t even sell the first two anymore. We were in music school when we formed and a lot went on. I only count ‘Wicked,” the Live album on (As well as their newest CD ‘Where Evil Grows,’) which was released in 2015.”
She noted the new music will be different than their previous works.

 


“ We’re influenced a lot by the Stax guys. So it’s a Stax wall of sound, but we’re still a blues band because that’s where we come from,” she said.
Songwriting can be challenging but is made easier due to talented musicians and technology.

“ I write, I also play guitar, but I don’t play saxophone or keyboards, so I’ll send them the chords, lyrics and melodies and send it to them and tell them to do what you do on it,” she said.


“It sounds great,” she enthused.


They are looking forward to a brief tour, which will be about two weeks long, buttressed by a U.S tour of the same length.


“We like to tour tour Canada in the summer, and we tour the southern United States in the winter because there is no snow or mountain passes,” she said.


“ We have a lot of new songs. It’s a high energy set and we like to interact with the audience, more than just clapping. I know when I go to a show I like to be involved,” she said.
“We tour a lot, so when we’re home we just like to decompress and get used to being in a place for more than a day,” she said.
 The 24th Street Wailers and Steve Keenan Band play the Geomatic Attic, Feb. 26 beginning at 8 p.m.
Tickets are  $30 Advance, $32. 50 Online, $35 Door.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
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