{"id":19850,"date":"2018-02-16T09:50:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19850"},"modified":"2018-02-16T09:50:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:50:55","slug":"winter-blues-fest-delivers-a-classic-with-salute-to-cocker-and-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/winter-blues-fest-delivers-a-classic-with-salute-to-cocker-and-russell\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Blues Fest delivers a classic with salute to Cocker and Russell"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a misconception that blues weighs down the soul, but when you get 15 people up on stage creating something that gives them joy, this joy can be contagious.
\nThat\u2019s the driving force behind producer\/arranger Lance Anderson who is preparing to bring a growing roster of exceptional Canadian musicians to Aurora on Saturday, February 24, for the grand finale of the 2018 Aurora Winter Blues Festival.
\nAnderson\u2019s all-star line-up will assemble at St. Andrew\u2019s College\u2019s Wirth Theatre from 7 \u2013 10.30 p.m. with Mad Dogs & Englishmen \u2013 The Music of Joe Cocker and Leon Russell, with special guests The Dan McKinnon Band.
\nRecreating the magic of the award-winning 1970s tour by the iconic musicians, the assembled group of singers will be backed by a nine-piece band, including two drummers, horns, and a Hammond organ.
\nWhile the evening will be a tribute to Cocker and Russell, Anderson stresses that this is not a \u201ctribute show.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is not a tribute show, but more of a \u2018celebration\u2019 because, in the industry, \u2018tribute show\u2019 means someone is coming out and impersonating Joe Cocker, but that is not what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re celebrating that music and wonderful arrangements with a proper-size ensemble and everyone will get a chance to shine \u2013 and these are some of the best singers in the country and an all-star band with the best players in the country.
\n\u201cThere is something about having 15 people do something together that creates this energy and it is really contagious. Leon Russell was from Oklahoma where he grew up with tent revival shows coming to town. That kind of energy, spirit and soul is in this music. You get that in front of an audience on Saturday night and you can\u2019t help but get involved.\u201d
\nOrganizers promise the February 24 show \u201ccreates a freight train which will pick you up and drop you down at the Filmore East in NYC in 1970. It is part revival meeting, hippie love-in and part R&B and Soul history that will raise the roof.\u201d
\nIn addition to the Mad Dogs & Englishmen fare, the line-up also includes the Dan McKinnon Band as the evening\u2019s opener.
\n\u201cDan was the winner of the Toronto Blues Society\u2019s 2017 Talent Search event this past summer,\u201d say organizers. \u201cThe Aurora Winter Blues Festival is always pleased to showcase for our audiences talented and upcoming bands on the Canadian Blues Scene. Mixing equal parts musical scholar and tattooed rock n\u2019 roll rebel, Toronto-based guitarist McKinnon is not your average blues rocker. While the foundation of his music is rooted in the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy and the three Kings, McKinnon also incorporates jazz, hip-hop and fuzzed-out rock to create a sound that is uniquely his own.\u201d
\nHowever each musician approaches the music on Saturday, February 24, producers believe it will be a unique night on the whole, one that will leave you warmed \u2013 and buoyed \u2013 on a late winter night.
\n\u201cI just want people to feel good,\u201d says Anderson. \u201cI want this to warm their souls and lighten their hearts. This is what blues is all about. Some people think the blues is a negative sort of thing, but it is exactly the opposite. It was born out of oppression and people singing about the incredibly bad state of their life, but it is about triumph over that. It is completely uplifting and that is what I want the audience to take away.
\n\u201cI know they will be impressed by the artistry, but the true talent is to make people feel better and lighter to their knees.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the 2018 Aurora Winter Blues Festival, including tickets, visit www.awbf.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a misconception that blues weighs down the soul, but when you get 15 people up on stage creating something that gives them joy, this joy can be contagious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5aa","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 12:39:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}