London Music Hall of famer Bill Durst is looking forward to bringing the blues to the Tongue N Groove, July 5.
“I spend hours a day in the music business and months organizing this tour, so when I get in the van and get out and play, it’s like a holiday for me,” said Durst, on the road to Stratford.
He is alternating between full electric gigs with his band for festivals including one in Jasper and another in Horsefly, B.C. as well as acoustic gigs like he will be playing in Lethbridge.
“If you’re coming expecting to hear the band, forget about it, but if you are coming expecting to hear some good songs and seeing a wild and crazy guy, then come on down,” he said.
He is best known for being part of the band Thundermug, which scored some mid ’90s independent radio hits including ‘Africa,’ plus three hits off their CD “Running My World including the title track as well as ‘Blue Water’ and ‘She Said.’
“In the mid-90s there was a very little window of opportunity for independent blues artists to get a hit on the radio. But in the ’90s it went more corporate,”’ he said adding there is a bigger budget for record companies to pay for more airtime.
“They say they don’t , but they do,” he said adding it is almost impossible for independent artists to break through.
“I play blues based rock and there is a huge market for it across the world, which radio has really failed to take advantage of,” he said. There are exceptions, as he noted “Cafe on the Gaspe” from his latest CD “The Great Willy Mammoth,” has been getting airplay from DAWG FM on Ottawa. He just likes playing.
“It really is simple, musicians just want to play their music and have people hear it,” he said.
In the old days, you showed you could compete on the world stage by being on the radio, because you are up against the best songwriters and players in the world. Now radio play has been replaced by awards to show you can compete on the world stage. For blues players it is the Toronto Blues Society and Maple Blues, of course that is pretty Toronto-centric,” he said.
He is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge.
“I was just thinking about that. In the mid-’70s, Thundermug was opening for the Stampeders. I remember the promoter Ron (Sakamoto) invited us to his church basement for supper. It was all Japanese people and they were serving traditional Japanese food. I’d never had little rice guys wrapped in seaweed before. I remember we were treated really well,” he reminisced.
Turning high octane, ZZ Top fueled blues rock into acoustic music is a “no-brainer,” according to Durst.
“My songwriting parter Joe DeAngelis always write our songs around acoustic guitars, so it is natural to play them acoustically,” he said.
