After a long evening playing several sets at Bistro à Jojo, the obligatory blues bar on rue Saint-Denis, he left the place at 3 a.m. When he arrived at his car parked in the alley just behind, he noticed that a shot had been fired into the windshield. Call 911.
“Hello, I would like to report an incident. Your name ? Stephen Barry. And the policeman replied: Stephen Barry of the Stephen Barry Band? I started laughing, I was stunned and bewildered, our group was not known to the general public, but to our peace officer, yes. »
The author of these lines has seen the bluesman originally from Lachine and raised in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce not far from a hundred times: at the Pretzel Enchaîné, rue Clark, at the G-Sharp, this juke joint which became the Barfly , accompanying Johnnie Johnson, Chuck Berry’s pianist, or later during the 1990s accompanied by Hubert Sumlin and Pinetop Perkins.
The original lineup consisted of Andrew Cowan and Jorn Reissner on guitars and Paul Paquette on drums. On the Gesù stage, we will see the astonishing Cowan, Gordie Adamson on drums, Jody Golick on tenor saxophone and the professional lawyer, harmonica player Martin Boodman. All cracks on their instruments.
We will have a thought for guitarist Michael Jerome Browne who was briefly in the squad.
This band of Anglos from Montreal has always spread outside the metropolis.
Filmed in Gaspésie, on the North Shore up to Natashquan, not a corner of La Belle Province escaped them.
“Everyone in the band had two blondes, it was a different era. I remember hearing from an [admiring] spectator in the region: you only find this kind of blues band in New York! »
Another anecdote, this time from Saint-Hyacinthe.
“A small entertainment bar full of young people too happy to see us, it smelled of cannabis everywhere. In the middle of a song, a girl comes on stage, joint in mouth, offering shotguns blown directly into the musicians’ mouths. Once she gets to Reissner [who is 6’7″ tall], she steps forward, ready to inject him with her comical tobacco, and he, mid-guitar solo, thinks she wants to kiss him, so he gives her a kiss on the mouth! »
The Stephen Barry Band rubbed shoulders with blues legends from Chicago and Mississippi who arrived at the Rising Sun showbar on Sainte-Catherine Street owned by the late Doudou Boicel. Most often, the latter arrived alone and our Montrealers of the blue note were the chosen ones who would give substance to their songs. It’s the late 1970s.
One day, Big Mama Thornton (Hound Dog was recorded by the singer in 1952, Elvis made it a hit) reacted strongly to a couple of women sitting very close to the stage who were constantly chattering and not listening to the Mama.
“Heavily soaked, one of them exclaimed: “In French!” Big Mama, originally from Mississippi and not barred at forty, retorted in quick succession: “Shut your hole!” (shut up!) even though she barely knew English! »
If Céline Dion once grabbed us by the guts by expressing her disillusionment with her song, the album Only a Dream: 50 years of blues, under the Disques Bros label, is of a completely different roughness.
To be honest, even those most familiar with the Stephen Barry Band repertoire are speechless at the selection of songs released on June 21: Freedom Jazz Dance (Eddie Harris), Inner City Blues (Marvin Gaye), Addicted to Love (Robert Palmer ), If I Had a Tank (by the unwavering Stephen Faulkner, performed here in duet with the co-author of the classic, Sylvie Choquette). “I learned to pronounce “char” correctly in Joual,” our man confesses.
Without forgetting the immortals, Born in Chicago, That’s How Strong My Love Is, Shakey Ground (Phoebe Snow, Etta James), which are covered with the same cool assurance of the last 50 years. As a bonus, a cover of Happy Man, an autobiographical song written and recorded by Barry over 20 years ago.
Proud of his little new one recorded at Studio Piccolo in front of an audience, he contemplates its release with lucidity.
“It’s a big milestone, 50 years, but I see it more as a test of endurance than anything else. I often wanted to disband the group and move on to something else. »
