Bluesmen from across the west are converging on a small stage this weekend for a festival that’s gaining traction in Okotoks.
John Rutherford, Valdy, John Wort Hannam and Joe Nolan are set to entertain blues fans in the Roots and Blues Weekend at the Rotary Performing Arts Centre Nov. 21 and 22.
Becoming a regular on the Okotoks stage during the Roots and Blues Weekend is singer/songwriter and guitarist Rutherford, who was named Calgary Blues Music Association Guitar Player of the Year in 2016.
“In the last few years I’ve established a presence in Okotoks at the roots and blues festival so I’m looking forward to getting back down there and seeing friends and audiences that I’m familiar with,” he said. “I always have such a great time in Okotoks.”
Rutherford said he especially looks forward to collaborating with Wort Hannam during their performance on Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
“He’s a friend of mine and I admire his work so much,” he said. “We’re plotting to mix things up a little bit. I’m hoping to make use of a couple of his bandmates to back me up, and I’m going to do a few songs with Jon. We’re going to collaborate back and forth with the two sets.”
While the performance will be fairly improvisational, Rutherford said he’s well prepared due to his experience working with Wort Hannam in the past.
“I recorded with him very early in his career so we’re quite familiar with each other,” he said. “His band - Jason Valleau, Jon May and Steve Fletcher - are tremendous players. They just need a cue, really, and they’re pretty much able to jump in on anything. They’re absolutely brilliant players. If those guys are in the room I prefer them to play on stage with me as opposed to watching me.”
In his own set, Rutherford will perform a combination of originals and covers.
“It will be music that comes from a songbook of blues
material that is traditional and well known throughout the years, music that’s influenced my writing and my understanding of roots and blues music,” he said. “There will be a few selections from some of the great composers of blues music like Robert Johnson and Willie Dixon.”
Born and raised in Toronto, Rutherford began taking guitar lessons as a teen.
“My guitar teacher said, ‘If you want to play popular music of the day - this was in the ’70s - you have to learn the basics and you have the learn the bases of the blues because rock and roll and a great deal of popular music has come from these blues songs,’” he said.
After each lesson, his teacher suggested records for Rutherford to purchase and listen to.
“I would zip over to Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street and pick up the records and I would listen to them,” he said. “That was the birth of my interest in the blues and I never turned back from that.”
In the early 1980s, Rutherford moved to Calgary and quickly discovered the King Edward Hotel.
“A bunch of us started to go to the hotel on a regular basis and we would go and see the great masters – some of the same people my guitar teacher recommended I listen to their records,” he said. “Some of these people were mythological creatures in my own mind. I would see the great masters play the music.”
It wasn’t long before Rutherford befriended some of these greats and was either taking guitar lessons from them or joining them on stage.
“I never stopped studying blues music and I never stopped collecting records, when I can find them,” he said. “I like the simplicity of blues music and the fact that in a fairly simple musical format there’s so much richness, expression, texture and tone that is part of the delivery.”
Double Juno Award-winning Salt Spring Island pop and folk singer/songwriter, guitarist and storyteller Valdermar “Valdy” Horsdal will perform with Joe Nolan for the Nov. 21 concert at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets to each of the concerts cost $30 in advance or $35 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at the Okotoks Art Gallery, by calling 403-938-3204 or online at okotoks.ca
