The Johnny V Trio Benefit

• Amsterdam  Breweries 
• Electro-Fy Records
• Floofer's 
• Grass Roots Advertising  
• The Black Swan 
• ONYX  
• SoundAround Inc.

You can access the individual web page for Johnny as listed above. For information on other artists involved with the Johnny V Trio Benefit, or information about the event see  below. 

The Johnny V Trio Benefit was an event put together by Johnny's friends and colleagues, and members of the blues community. It was a great afternoon and evening event involving various dedicated blues musicians. 

Background

Rob Vause, the bass player was really badly hurt, underwent reconstructive surgery and at date of writing, still hospitalized in Calgary, and remains in intensive care. Luckily, Andrzej Ryszka, the drummer was only shaken up and bruised, however he remains very emotionally stressed. Johnny was concussed, and they removed a large quantity of glass shards from his head. With the stitches removed, he is improving, though he is now suffering from extreme back pain, and periods of disorientation. 

In case you are not familar with Johnny V,  he is one of Canada's legendary blues singer/songwriters and slide guitarists. 

Johnny was born and brought up in Toronto's east end, and later moved out west, to Calgary, Alberta. 

Over the years Johnny V has been nominated for Juno awards,  and in 1997 was voted Best Canadian Breakout Artist of The Year, at the Motor City Blues Awards, in Detroit. Johnny has been a Real Blues awards winner for Best Slide Guitarist, and Best Live Blues Band. Johnny's 1997 CD "If My Daddy Could See Me Now", on Blow Your Top Productions, was nominated for a Juno in the Blues category. 

Johnny V has played with the likes of international recording artists and bluesmen, Eddie Clearwater,  Sonny Rhodes, King Ernest and  King Biscuit Boy. Johnny has also toured with historical Canadian musician Dutch Mason. 

Johnny V has always been very supportive of the Canadian Blues scene, and now its time for all of us in the  Blues community to support one of our own. 

The Johnny V Trio Benefit  took place on Sunday, June 14/98, from 2:00 p.m. to 10:p.m., at The Black Swan, 154 Danforth Avenue (near Broadview subway), Toronto, Ontario. 

This day was comprised of continuous live blues music. We sold raffle tickets for various door prizes, which included CD's, tee shirts, gift certificates, and more. At the conclusion of the day, we were pleased to announce that we had collected $760.00 for the Johnny V Trio Fund.

The eight hours of studio time donated by SoundAround Inc was awarded to The Bearcats.  

There were many extremely talented performers, and it was a wonderful day and evening. Our hosts, The Black Swan, bent over backwards to ensure that things went smoothly, and the generosity of Amsterdam Beer in providing the beer for the artists was much appreciated.

We tried to get photos and sketches of all the participants, but thanks to operator error the first roll of film was trashed, so Big Daddy G's band did not get captured.  We apologise for this and hope that we may be able to correct this in the future.

Anyhow, for fun, we have inserted a few snaps in the table below, along with a few remarks about the event.

(Dave Glover (Big Daddy G), the band has just released a new CD called "4 Blues ". The CD has many excellent blues musicians on it (you can find Johnny V playing slide guitar, for example). For full details, visit Big Daddy's web page.)

In the second pix,  various guests are found.

 From the left - Steve Grisbrook of Midnight Walk (singer/songwriter/guitar player from Toronto) shows us a few tasty licks on his guitar.

Maureen Brown is busy marking time on her New Orleans style fortois (you can't really see it properly in this snap.) Maureen also sung for us, treating us to her sweet, full vocal style.
Maureen Brown is not just a very talented blues musician, she is also Canada's 1998 award winning blues drummer and singer/songwriter.

For more details on Maureen, go and visit her  web site

In the pix at left, co-organiser Eddy B, introduces the band.
 

Following these three, came Chris Murphy from The Old Chicago Blues Band, all the way from London, Ontario. (Chris' latest CD is called "Fourth Anniversary", on Speakeasy CD')

In this next pix, you may notice that the drummer has changed - Caution Jam's drummer, "Lurch"  (Bruce Brooker) passed over the stix to the Bear Cats drummer.

Frank Cosentino got up with Chris and Sadie T.  He played rythymn guitar with Sadie and then gave us some excellent examples of Texas style blues. (Frank is a Toronto lad with an exceptional flair for singing/songwriting and guitar playing).

Sadie T sung a couple of blues standards with a bit of a rockabilly feel to them. (She is a talented and winsome singer/songwriter/performer from Toronto. Her specialities are jazz/blues and country/blues. Sadie has toured around South America the U.S. and Europe. She is currently working on a new album with her band, The Teasers.)

Lead singer James Wayner is a really good front-man, with a powerful voice and great rapport with the audience.

 

( The Bear Cats were 1997 finalists in TBS New Talent Search. What amazes us is why they were not the winners, because they are the straight goods, make no mistake.)

They played selections from their brand new CD "Too Much Change" (to be released in July 1998), as well as various blues classics.

 

For additional information,  email
dandeno@bmts.com

Making a name for herself in the Toronto blues scene, Trina Volante is an exceptionally talented blues singer with a wonderful voice.

Howard Ross, 
singer/songwriter/guitar player.
Howard Ross demonstrated his supberb guitar techniques. Howard has been thrilling audiences with his playing for many years. When Johnny V comes to Southern Ontario, Howard books him religiously the Oshawa area.
 

John Pachis of the Black Swan, our genial host.
Eddy B with Chris, soundman and stage manager for Caution Jam. Special thanks to Chris who hung around all day to do the sound at the gig.