First Ever Western Canada Rez Blues Showcase

blues concerts, Canada

Rez Blues Artists to Perform Live at the Yale

The first Rez Blues showcase on the west coast will take place on Thursday, August 23rd at the Yale Hotel in Vancouver. Taking the stage for the event will be some of the nation’s finest blues artists in featured sets, including Vancouver’s Wes Mackey (guitar), Helen Duguay (bass) and Murray Porter (keyboards), and Winnipeg guitarist Billy Joe Green.

Founded in 1993 as a live music showcase to feature Native blues musicians from southern Ontario, Rez Blues has grown under the leadership of producer Elaine Bomberry to include Rez Blues TV, the first program of its kind in the world that features native musicians and comedians. The segment featuring Mackey, Duguay, Porter and Green will air later this fall on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and Bravo TV. Bomberry also launched the radio documentary segment of Rez Blues, which explores early Native musical influence on the blues.

About the Artists

Wes Mackey

Guitarist and singer Wes Mackey has been playing his special brand of blues for over 45 years. Born part black and part Cherokee in the deep south, the now Vancouver-based artist is familiar to Canadian audiences and has also toured major festivals and clubs in Russia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Iceland, and Europe. Mackey’s latest CD release Mr. Blues continues to receive accolades, with his original song Angelgirl chosen as a semi-finalist in The International Songwriting Competition and recently featured on the nationally broadcast TV show Beyond Words.

Helen Duguay and Murray Porter

Bassist Helen Duguay has been performing since the 60′s, working in a variety of settings. As a member of the Montreal all-girl group Les Beatlettes, the group had several top ten hits and opened for Dave Clark Five at the Montreal Forum. Since then, Duguay’s versatility has seen her perform in a range of styles from rockabilly to bebop, disco to country, and now is an in-demand player in the blues idiom. The New Brunswick native now calls Vancouver home.

Five-time Canadian Aboriginal Music Award winning keyboard/piano man Murray Porter is a 5 time Canadian Aboriginal Music Award winner. Formerly of The Pappy Johns Band, the group were nominated for a 2005 Juno for their release `Full Circle’. Performing concerts around the world, he appeared in August 2006 at the `23rd Annual Roots of American Music Festival’ at the prestigious Lincoln Center, in New York. On September 16th of this year Porter will be the opening solo act for blues legends Etta James and B.B. King at the Tulalip Amphitheatre, in Marysville, Washington.

Billy Joe Green

Juno nominated Winnipeg guitarist Billy Joe Green is a seasoned blues man who has been familiar to Canadian and US audiences for over three decades. Winner in the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Award “Best Blues CD” category (2006) for his Muskrat Blues and Rock & Roll, he’s also a previous winner and multiple nominee at the Western Canadian Music Awards.

for more info visit www.theyale.ca

Thursday, August 23, 2007
Res Blues
Wes Mackey, Helen Duguay, Murray Porter, Billy Joe Green
The Yale, Vancouver