In his native Canada musician Colin James needs absolutely no introduction. 

In a twenty-eight years and counting solo career the blues based singer-songwriter-guitarist has won six Juno awards (including Best Blues Album for National Steel in 1998) and an impressive haul of seventeen Maple Blues Awards. In October of 2016 he was announced and honoured as that year's Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee. 

The award winning artist is popular in many other territories including parts of North America– Colin James made a dent in the US market in the late 80s and early 90s when his singles and albums successfully crossed and merged the melodic rock and blues rock genres. 

In the UK it’s been a different story. His first touring trip to dear old Blighty was in 1991 supporting Robert Plant; that exposure should have helped establish a foothold in the UK but musical fate decreed it would be twenty-five years before he toured the UK again, this time as Special Guest on Beth Hart’s November 2016 tour. 

However with those vibrant acoustic & semi-electric support sets being so well received and having recently released a four-in-a-row that cover all the blues bases – the melodic blues rock of Fifteen (2012), stand-out live release Twenty Five (2013), the acoustic based Hearts on Fire (2015) and covers album Blue Highways (2016) – the time is perhaps right for Colin James to become a regular sighting on the UK blues rock radar. 

As 2016 rolled toward a conclusion Colin James spoke to FabricationsHQ about the fun he and the band had recording Blue Highways before going all the way back to where and how it all started, the couldn’t-make-it-up story of how Stevie Ray Vaughan played a major part in getting the career of Colin James off and running, and the difficult gestation period that gave birth to a self-titled debut that, in its musical diversity, would be unlike any other album he would go on to record. But the conversation began with how the rock and roll path led to those Blue Highways...

Ross Muir: Blue Highways, as the title suggests, is the musical road that has led to where you are now while looking back at the artists and songs that influenced you in your earliest days. It also sounds like an album that was a lot of fun to record…

Colin James: It was great fun to do, yes.  It was also one of those pet projects where you don’t overthink it. I just said "OK everybody let’s go in to the studio and just have some fun and do the stuff we love" – there’s something that happens when you put your guard down like but it still often surprises me because it ends up feeling pretty real. It’s also a nice surprise when you do something you love and it seems to connect with others. 

RM: There's also a clear connection between you, the songs you chose to record and the original artists of those songs. 

CJ: Every one of those songs has had a career long relationship with me in some way or another. I was a huge fan of all the artists – in particular those early Buddy Guy and Junior Wells records – and John P. Hammond was kind of my hero growing up, so I had to do one of his songs!So yeah, there was a connection – I opened up for John Lee Hooker when I was sixteen years old, and played Hoodoo Man Blues, so it all goes back a long way. 

RM: And the album was recorded in just thirty-six hours I believe? 

CJ: It was just two days with the whole band.  Most of the band lives in Toronto but the drummer and I live in Vancouver, my home town.  So when we finished the tour in Vancouver, we went in and recorded the album. Once it was recorded the rest of the band flew home while the producer and I worked on what we had, just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.  But there wasn’t too much to do because there weren’t many overdubs. Ain’t Long For Day for example, that song has no overdubs; it was the last song we cut so everyone was a little bit tired, and because we were tired the song had a sensitivity to it that only fatigue can bring! [ laughs]

RM: Which helps give it that live and honest character.  Similarly, Going Down sounds overdub free – in fact it sounds completely live. 

CJ: It is, yes.  I have to say though that it was the one song that I had to think twice about putting on the record, just because it had been done so many times – on the other hand we were having so much fun doing it live in our sets, but at one point we actually had taken it off the record. But when I told my daughter Deghan we had taken Going Down off the record she said "What!" [ laughs] and was upset with me for doing it.  Then a few other people said the same thing so I ended up saying "right, OK, we’ll put it back on!" [ laughs]I guess my initial concern was that it was more in the blues rock genre than the rest of the album so I didn’t want to confuse the issue, so thought it would be best if we got rid of it – but then I realised we couldn’t! 

RM: For what it’s worth I would have had the same initial reaction as Deghan [laughter]; in fact I can’t conceive of a trad blues covers album by Colin James without a live version of Going Down...

CJ: No, me neither! [ laughs] In retrospect I think it was good to rock out a little bit, right when we needed to, and it is a great live song to do...

CJ: It’s funny how a song like Going Down sometimes happens – I’ve had other songs where I’ve thought about taking them off of the record and they end up being the most popular song on there!It’s just such a weird thing. 

RM: It's remarkable how many times that sort of thing occurs.  It might be a song that the artist or band believe to be a throway number... maybe they think it won't fit the album’s style... perhaps it has a great hook but little else... yet it ends up becoming a monster song.  You can’t always predict the hit or the miss. 

CJ: That’s so true.  I had an album out ten years ago called Limelight and we had a version of Into the Mystic, the Van Morrison song, on there. We tucked it away as the final song on the record and the last thing I expected was to have any sort of hit with it, but in Canada it became a big song for me!  Just an absolute surprise. 

RM: Into the Mystic has gone on to become a staple for you; there's a great version of it on Twenty Five Live. 

CJ: Yeah, it’s remarkable to think that, in its own way, Into the Mystic became as big a hit for me in Canada as Just Came Back did all those years ago! 

RM: Before heading back to "all those years ago" I’d like to wrap up the conversation on Blue Highways by quoting from my review of the album where I stated that it's a "journey down roads well-travelled by many a blues man and woman but rarely with such a live vibe and enjoyment of the material. "CJ: Thank you.  All my life I’ve been a blues player but I’ve always tried to make it as contemporary as I could.  Blue Highways was the first time I said to the band "let’s make it traditional all the way" but even then we almost blew it, because I was still thinking "maybe I should put some originals on here?"We were still second guessing until I said to myself "No!  No originals!" [ laughs]But we did come close to putting on a couple of original numbers with probably a little more blues rock radio potential until I slapped my own hand and said "You said no!" [ laughs].  And I’m glad we did say no. It’s funny because after all these years I’m starting to get a bit of traction in the States again with this record. Although I’ve always been known by other blues players, and known as a blues player by other people, it’s still amazing how well this record is doing there.  It's actually turning some heads, which is a lovely surprise. 

RM: It’s started to turn some heads here in the UK too but I’m hoping we can get it to turn more heads, including that of a tour promoter or two, so we can have you return on the back of your well received Special Guest slot on Beth Hart’s UK tour. 

CJ: I’m really excited about the record and I really enjoyed myself on that tour. But I was nervous about it, I’ve got to be honest with you.  All my life I’ve played to people that pretty much knew me so it really was something to come over and have to say "OK, we’re starting from scratch here" and just go out, play, and try and put some smiles in the house. But that’s good for you; it can get too easy if you’re just playing to people who know what you do, so it really was a good exercise. 

In 2016, twenty-five years after his only other touring appearance in the UK, Colin James (in the company of six-string partner Chris Caddell), opened for Beth Hart on her sell-out UK tour.  The exposure, along with Blue Highways, should help put the award winning Canadian musician back on the UK's blues rock radar. 

​RM: From Blue Highways to roads that go way back some thirty years to where – and how – it all started. Is it an urban myth, or a true story, that when you had the opportunity to open for Stevie Ray Vaughan you literally had to throw a band together the day before? 

CJ: It’s absolutely true!  I was playing in a blues band in Vancouver and I was the youngest guy in the band but when it came time for a record company to check us out my boss kind of let me go – he said "listen, I like your playing but you’re young; go back home and we’ll pick it back up after this. "So I head back home, telling everyone I had been fired from my band, and the next thing you know I get a call with the question "Can you open for Stevie Ray Vaughan tomorrow night?"Of course I lie to the guy on the phone by saying yes [laughs] but to make matters worse, anyone I knew who could have done the show were in different cities or just couldn’t do it; I had to pick people I didn’t even know as my band! 

So I drive up to the gig about five o’clock, and the band arrive in a truck with the drums piled up in the back along with everything else they have and ask "are we playing a wedding or something?"  I then say "No, we’re opening for Stevie Ray Vaughan in the main hall!" [ laughs]About an hour later Stevie comes busting in to our dressing room and asks "Is it true?  You guys have never met one another before?"  and I have to tell him "Yeah, it’s true." [ laughs]

And once we get on stage I immediately break a string – in fact I broke three or four during the show – and I have no guitar tech, no manager, no back up guitar, I mean nothin’ [laughs]There’s about two thousand people in the audience and now I’m hiding behind one of the PA stacks with broken strings, looking across to some of Stevie’s crew and just shrugging my shoulders as if to say "What do I do!"  I really didn’t know what to do or where to go. But next thing you know Rene Martinez, Stevie’s guitar tech, comes over with one of Stevie’s strats and throws it on me – but he didn’t tell me it was tuned to E-flat! [ laughter]So we hit a shuffle with the band playing in E while I’m playing in E-flat; it was all just terrible! [ laughs]

But thankfully Stevie got a real kick out of the whole thing.  He brought me back out for the encore, then he brought me back out again the next night and that was the start of a great friendship.  In fact a year later he came back and we did the same thing; I ended up on the tour bus with them for a couple of weeks. 

RM: Fantastic, funny and quite remarkable story – and those fortuitous circumstances pretty much kick-started the solo career? 

CJ: It changed my life.  I had been playing for a while and had opened up for George Thorogood and John Lee Hooker, but it changed everything for me, it really did. 

RM: And Stevie also recommended the name change from Colin Munn to Colin James? 

CJ: That’s right.  Colin James Munn is my full name and when I first started out I found I was getting written up as Mutt or even Mund; in fact I have an article where I’m written up as Mudd! [ laughs]But it was Cleveland, Ohio, 1984 – I remember exactly the night it was – where just before I went on Stevie said "when I call you up for the encore do you want to be James or Munn?"  and I shouted "James!" [ laughs] And that was it! 

RM: That’s another great story – which leads to the conclusion that there’s obviously quite a debt, and depth, of gratitude to Stevie Ray Vaughan as regards how it all started to roll for you…

CJ: There really is.  I don’t know if you knew but I was booked in to playing the Hammersmith Odeon in London with Stevie in what turned out to be the week after he died. I had just finished my own tour in Portland and had headed home to start getting ready to fly over to London to play with Stevie; but of course that never happened. 

RM: I didn’t know that.  That carries added poignancy given your relationship and friendship with Stevie. An incredible guitarist, highly influential and an individual who is sorely and sadly missed. 

CJ: He sure is– and wouldn’t it be interesting to see what type of music he would be playing now? 

RM: From the path Stevie helped put you on we arrive, a couple of years later, at the self-titled debut. That first album is a little different from anything else you would later do – your blues sensibilities were showcased on the excellent Why’d You Lie and Chicks 'n' Cars but the AOR single Five Long Years and Voodoo Thing, a fast paced, Kenny Loggins styled pop-rock number, pointed to another direction...

CJ: Well Five Long Years was one of the first songs I ever wrote and that kind of took off in the pop world – in a way it started the dichotomy of what became my… well, I hate to say problem, but I will. And that problem was half of me became this pop guy – which was mostly the business side, but that’s not to say I didn’t play a part in that too, because I did – and then on the other side there was this blues guy. But, there was also this pushback when it came to playing the blues. Even then it was "yeah, well, it’s been done before" or "do you really want to do this?  It’s not going to sell you any records" so there was always me arguing with people about the blues aspect – in fact I would always have to bend peoples’ arms to get blues on records. 

So the first record was actually a bit of a hard time, even although I had Tom Dowd as my producer. Tom had worked with the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd and, well, just about everybody [laughs] but unfortunately he thought me playing blues was something every road had already gone down. He had done the blues with Clapton, he had done the blues with the Allman Brothers and he was really negative about me doing it; it created a bit of a complication. 

Voodoo Thing we wrote in the studio in Miami because we were short of a single and we wrote it on the spot. But it just didn’t work with Tom so we ended up having to do the rest of the record in Los Angeles with Danny Kortchmar, who had a long legacy himself and had worked with Linda Rondstadt, Don Henley and James Taylor.  Anyway, by the time the record was done we had used six producers including Tom, Danny and Bob Rock. As much as it was great to have my debut record out it was needlessly expensive, but it did set me up and also allowed me to look at things differently from then on – with the next record, Sudden Stop, we had Joe Hardy as producer and I made sure there was a lot more blues on it! [ laughs]

RM: Sudden Stop, as I hear it, is your true first album, certainly as regards emphasising the blues, albeit within a hard melodic rock framework.  It features the song you mentioned earlier, Just Came Back, and a rockin’ version of Keep On Lovin’ Me Baby. I loved the old school, acoustic version you did on the Beth Hart tour; some great slide playing too. 

CJ: Fantastic man, thank you.  That’s another song that has become a staple for me; it’s also nice when you can bring an Otis Rush song back in to the pop world, I’ve always been happy about that. But, yeah, I do it more like the original now than my own version from back on Sudden Stop! 

Sudden Stop was the second Colin James album but first in terms of establishing his blues influences.  Twenty-six years later those influences were hounoured on the excellent covers album Blue Highways. 

​RM:Following Sudden Stop you started to expand your sound to include some great soul-pop and funkier blues; you also released a number of Little Big Band albums – that broader sound and Little Big Band swing-rock must have been a hard sell through the musically changing nineties and early Millennium…

CJ: Yeah, but it’s all kind of been like that. When I put the first Little Big Band record out in 1993 that was a struggle; no one understood why I did it. It only really made sense to people with the second one in 1998 because there was a huge swing revival going on then – but, at the same time, people were saying "oh it’s too commercial" or "it’s too much. "I actually agree because it did become a bit of a joke but I still think that second record is good – if nothing else it’s a good, solid blues record because apart from one Louis Prima cut it’s not really a swing record; it’s Tin Pan Alley, it’s Ray Charles, it’s all of that.​And, yes, the early 2000’s were confusing for blues players I think.  I experimented a little with an album called Fuse in 2000.  It’s a good rockin’, funky record of original music – but it's also one of my records that I feel never got a lot of attention. 

RM: I really rate Fuse.  Great album but also, as you mention, a seriously under-heard one. 

CJ: I like Fuse too, but then when I had that record out I had no manager. I had fired my manager and was trying to do it all myself and… well, it showed! [ laughs]

RM: There’s a specific album from the nineties I’d like to give honourable mention to because it deservedly won you a Juno for Best Album and that’s National Steel. Fantastic acoustic and slide vibe on that album and it showcases another facet of Colin James. 

CJ: I love that record and, just like Blue Highways, it’s a record I made without approval from the record company; I paid for it myself and made the record simply because I wanted to. The record company then said "well, I guess we’ll put it out; sure, why not" [laughs] and then it won a Juno!  Later on, after we had parted ways with Warner Brothers, they told me it was their favourite record I had done with them – which was pretty funny considering they didn’t want it and I paid for it to put it out! [ laughs]. 

​RM: You mentioned there that you also made Blue Highways without approval, off your own financial back? 

CJ: Yes, I made that record without asking anybody.  I paid for it, we did it and then we had to shop it. But, again, we had pushback.  The label I was on at the time said "well, we don’t know; we’ll maybe give you this much for it but we don’t know what to do with it. "But then I found this wonderful label called True North who heard about it and said "we want it!"They really have done an exemplary job with this record.  I’m so pleased to see an Indie label rise to the occasion like they have. 

RM: It’s also gratifying to note that even without major label backing the album is getting some attention and review space – hence why it's nice to think we might see you back in the UK sooner rather than another twenty-five years later. 

CJ: [laughs] I sure hope so; I'd really like to have that opportunity.  I’m at that age now where my wife can travel with me because the kids have grown up and are at University, so… I’m ready to travel! 

RM: That would be great because as we sign off and I thank you for chatting with FabricationsHQ I'd hate to think your visit as part of Beth's tour was a case of Just Came Back to Say Goodbye...

CJ: [laughs] I really hope not and the pleasure’s been all mine Ross – thanks for taking the time to listen! 

Ross MuirMuirsical Conversation with Colin JamesDecember 2016

Article dedicated to the memory of Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughan (1954-1990)A quarter of a century on, The Sky Is still Crying.