CanCon Friday - The Downchild Blues Band

Some of you youngsters might be familiar with the Blues Brothers, who did memorable versions of such tunes as Big Joe Turner's Flip, Flop, And Fly and Shotgun Blues.

But there wouldn't have been a Blues Brothers revue...without the Downchild Blues Band.

Formed in the Big Smoke (Toronto) in 1969, led by brothers Donnie (on guitar and harp) and Richard 'Hock' Walsh (on vocals), this powerhouse act made Flip, Flop, And Fly their own hit in 1973, and wrote the original (and, IMO, played the superior versions of) Shotgun Blues and I Got Everything I Need (Almost).

Top comedian and noted blues aficionado Dan Ackroyd used to spend a mighty amount of time digging them in his Second City days, and even though weathering storms such as the passing of Hock Walsh, Tony Flaim, and dynamite pianist Jane Vasey, the turnover of over 120 musicians on the roster over the years, and all the other usual tribulations that can befall a touring band on the endless highway, they still play the circuits today as Downchild...An act well worth the cash on the counter when they come to your town, should you feel like feelin' the Blues.