There were like 8 records in the blues section”. While his musical tastes have
evolved and broadened since those early days, Drew recalls the tricky times of trying to playing Blues when musical tastes were a bit more extreme in the early 80’s. This included speeding up their repertoire to play some punk rock clubs. “There weren’t any real places to play blues at that point, so we’d just play places and hope for the best.” Drew went on to make a name
for himself locally with the Back Alley John Revue, and then on the road with legendary East Coast Blues master Dutch Mason, who served as a mentor for the young guitarist. In 1989 he went out on his own,
forming the Drew Nelson Band. Blues critics loved the band, and Drew found himself opening for the legends he had grown up listening to on his old turntable: B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Buddy Guy, just to name to few. Then came the long days and nights on the road, frustration and, finally, burn-out. “I got sick of playing all the time right across the country, and then there were life things. So, I’ve been pretty quiet for the past dozen years or so.” But, to paraphrase a famous
saying, you can take the boy out of the music, but you can’t take the music out of the boy. Drew recruited some top notch local players and started gigging again. One regular at his shows, and a frequent guest on stage, was Steve Marriner of Ottawa’s Juno Awards winning Monkey Junk. Steve urged Drew to get back on the horse as it were, and start writing new songs. They even collaborated on some tunes, and it didn’t take long for Drew to get back in the studio under the attentive ear of Marriner. Released in July 2014, “The Other
Side”, showed how much Drew has matured over the years. The music was still based in the blues, but a standout track was a re-working of Leonard Cohen’s classic “Bird on a
www.bounder.ca BOUNDER MAGAZINE 43
Wire”. He says “What I’m playing now is not just blues, it’s music influenced by rock and roll, blues and jazz.” But like many veteran musicians,
Drew Nelson is not a huge fan of the current state of the music scene. On the live front, he remembers fondly what it was like when he started out. “It’s not as easy as the old days when you’d call someone up and they’d return your phone call and you’d talk to them.”
And with music instantly available
at the push of a button, listening habits have changed dramatically. Digital technology has also taken a lot of the sweat and perseverance out of making a record. “The technology has allowed just about everybody and their dog to make a record, so there is kind of an over-saturation of stuff out there. All these new advents in technology are double-edged swords. It’s great we have the ease to create
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