The steps have been small and at times might have seemed frustrating to David Gogo, but it is no longer a matter of debate: he is one of Canada's best bluesmen of all time.
The title doesn't come with a bejeweled belt, a golden crown or even a pair of commemorative blue suede shoes. As it is with almost everything in the blues world, it's something bestowed proudly and silently by the dusty miles on the odometer, the calloused fingers from scratching a living off of six steel strings, and the praise of your peers when you aren't asking for it.
That praise has always come Gogo's way from the music critics and bar fans. Dating back to his youth in the Vancouver Island rock band The Persuaders, he was consistently a favourite. He had some record label glitches, made some choices maybe he'd like to take back, but the one path that kept clearing in front of him was the blues.
Perhaps this was preordained early in Gogo's career by blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan himself, who personally counselled a teenaged Gogo to hitch his gifted guitar-playing and character vocal sound to the growly deep-south genre. Gogo took the advice and although the rock 'n' roll fever sometimes burned in him, he humbly sought out the blues masters and studied at their feet.
He's still evolving. Although in his mid-40s - a young man by blues standards - he has consistently bowed to touch the roots of the seminal form of music. That is, for every album of electric blues he blasts into the airwaves in the Chicago and Austin styles, he balances that with equal offerings of the acoustic Mississippi sounds. The blues has radiated around the world by now, but its hardscrabble beginnings were almost entirely laid like railroad tracks between Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans - straight down the Mississippi River.
That's where Gogo logged a lot of miles this past year. He and wife Shiloh Durkee of Prince George went driving backroads and byways seeking out some of the less glamorous locations in the encyclopedia of the blues.
"I've read about this, and studied it, but to have the time to breath the air and eat the food and meet the people, that was another level," Gogo said. "We just rented a car and drove around to the towns these great early blues players used to sing about. We dropped in on a little radio station and the host, Sonny Payne, had me on the air and he even had Shiloh reading live ads. It felt surreal." (Sunshine Sonny Payne has hosted the King Biscuit Time blues show on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas since 1942.)
It triggered the writing and interpretation process for his latest album Come On Down which is an equal split of original material and covers he has given new life to. So effective was he that he received his fifth Juno Award nomination and it is also up for a Western Canadian Music Award (his third nomination by that organization, winning in 2012). His efforts last year also got him two Maple Blues Award nominations, bringing his lifelong total there to 14, two of them wins. (The 2014-15 Maple Blues nominees will be announced Oct. 1.)
The trophies are nice, and so are the screen credits. Gogo's music was used for the action film Kill Switch in 2008, then his tune Where The Devil Won't Go was picked as the theme song for the Discovery Channel show Dangerous Flights.
But it was a different song, picked in a different way, that has perhaps solidified all of Gogo's work to date. He co-wrote Never Gonna Change hoping to convince blues great Johnny Winter, who had become a friend, to cover it. Before that could happen, it got into the hands of someone who called dibs on it instead - the man who occupies the No. 30 position on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and inductee in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
"When I found out Buddy Guy was covering a song I was part of writing, well, as my British friends would say, I was chuffed," said Gogo. "To sit there and listen to one of your heroes sing and play your song, instead of the other way around, well that is an unbelievable feeling."
Gogo is bringing that song, the Dangerous Flights song, and all his mix-matched tunes from his blues-rock career to play a building in Prince George that has an interesting history of its own. The Brunswick Street Seniors Activity Centre is one of the city's oldest buildings, the former home of the public library. On Saturday night it will be home to a Canadian blues giant who even the legends tip their hat to.
Tickets are $30 each on sale at Books & Company. Group tickets are $28 each and can be purchased by contacting bluespg@shaw.ca. Showtime is 8 p.m.
I'm bringing the band. its been awhile since we've all been there.
records, Juno, theme song Where The Devil Won't Go for Dangerous Flights On discovery
Buddy guy just covered a song I co-wrote. I was well chuffed, as our Btisih frinds would say. To suit there and listen tyou one of your heros sing and play a song that you write (Never Gonna Change) was an unblevble feeliong.
- was written for Johnny Winter, a friend, then he died.
Now his management has ocntact me to be the Canadian guy (for JW tribute series in Ontario)
The first time I saw JW I snuck in at the Commador when I was 16, and then to be sitting in the back of the wiinbgo chatting about Elmore James was oneo of those many cool things that have happened for me.
As much as I've read about this, and studied it, but to have the time to breath the air nad meet the people, was another level. I just rented a car and drove around to the towns where hjggjghjgj used to sing about.
- got set up spontaneously on the Sonny Payne - Shilo was reading live ads
Clarksdale, etc.
That was the genesis of the album which was up for a Juno and now up for a Western Canadain Music Award.
I like to keep things fresh, but I dont want to flood the market.
I love doing both. When I do my acousitc act, its very diffeent. I think there are one or two songs that might be in both. Its a diff performance. The rock shows are high-energy and people rock out, but the acoustic stuff is more rooted in the traiditns of the blues, I get to talk more aboutthe songs from the stage, so its differnet in everu way.
