Thanks to his locomotive guitar skills, Bill Durst is known as one of Canada's great blues performers. Thanks to his trademark long beard, Durst is also one of the most recognized blues faces.
Durst brings his Hard And Heavy stage show (it's the name of his latest album) to Shiraz Cafe on Wednesday night. His reputation is built on Austin-style electric blues, and Canadian audiences have been eating up his equal parts smooth/gravel vocals (think ZZ Top meets The Commitments) for a couple of musical generations. His affable on-stage presentation is also considered a treat.
Durst first hit the charts as a member of the early Canadian rock group Thundermug. They made noise on both sides of the border with tunes like Africa, Orbit, and Who's Running My World.
When the band dissolved in the 1990s and Durst went on to work in ZZ Top tribute band Tres Hombres and a solo career that increasingly focused on true blues.
As a soloist Durst has become a legend in the London, Ontario music scene (in the company of luminaries like Garth Hudson, The Dixie Flyers, Tommy Hunter, Georgette Fry, Helix, Guy Lombardo and many more). He has twice in the past three years made the Top 20 for Canadian Blues CDs of the Year on the fan-voted Blind Lemon Blues radio show, and Durst earned a nomination for this year's Maple Blues Awards for Electric Act of the Year just to punctuate how he is as much a force now as when his mug first thundered in 1970.
Over the years Durst has opened for Aerosmith, Rush, Bob Seagar, The Yardbirds, Sly and The Family Stone, George Thorogood, Bad Company, Jeff Healey, Edgar Winter Group, The Tubes, David Clayton Thomas, Savoy Brown, Little Feat etc. and has toured across North America and Europe.
He is live in Prince George on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Reservations at Shiraz are strongly suggested for this national blues great.
