If, as they say, the blues had a baby and called it rock and roll, count Colin James and Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson among the grandchildren. Both performers have forged careers out of blues and heavily blues-influenced rock, gaining legendary, if maybe a little under the radar, status in this country along the way, at least in recent years.
Since the late ‘80s, Saskatchewan-born James has built a reputation Canada’s best bluesman, a position he maintains long after his blazing early entry on the mainstream charts, followed notably by his Little Big Band swing blues project in the ‘90s and a series of mature albums in the 2000s that led to his doing a command performance in 2005 (who knew the Queen was a fan of the blues?). As an aside, listen to James’ cover of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” – many deem it better than the original.
Toronto-based Big Sugar, meanwhile, turned a mixed melange of raunchy guitars, blues harmonica, and reggae grooves into the height of artistic cool on hits like “Leave the Lights On,” “Diggin’ a Hole,” and my favourite, “If I Had My Way.”
The latter two songs belong to the Juno-nominated album, “Hemi Vision,” of which the 25th anniversary was celebrated by Johnson in 2020 with a re-issued CD featuring new material, and a pandemic-necessitated live stream concert dubbed “Hemi Revision,” performed with various musical friends – not least among them Colin James, who joined Johnson for this gritty version of the curiously titled number “Opem Up Baby.”
Another collaboration between the two, “Sleep in Late,” delves even deeper into the blues, showing off the chops of both guitar slingers and illustrating that two guitar gems are better than one.
Indeed, the Johnson-James collaboration is a marriage made in heaven – if your idea of heaven, that is, is a juke joint in Jackson, Mississippi, or simply a slightly rundown club somewhere on Queen Street in Toronto.
Lyrics
If I was to tell you what I left behind
Would you leave me?
Would you change your mind?
Would you leave me?
Would you change your mind?
I said, would you leave me?
Would you change your mind?
Come on, baby
I had a whole lot of trouble
When I was a young man
You know that bad luck
Wouldn’t let go of my hand
You know that bad luck
Wouldn’t let go off my hand
I said that bad old luck
It wouldn’t let go of my hand
So when somebody tell you
About some bad thing that I’ve done
Don’t let ’em tell you
That I’m not my mother’s son
I said, don’t let ’em tell you
That I’m not my mother’s son
And darling, don’t let ’em tell you
That I’m not my mother’s son
Come on, opem up baby
If I had a followed
What was on my second mind
I would’ve been here now
Biting my own tongue and lyin’
I would’ve been here now
Bitin’ my own tongue and lyin’
Darling, I would’ve been here now
Bitin’ my own tongue and lyin’
Bite my tongue
So, please stop your cryin’
Over some little thing that I’ve said
Come on, baby
Let me hold your worried hand
I said, come on, baby
Let me hold your worried hand
I said please stop your crying
Let me hold your worried hand
Opem up baby
Opem up baby