In last week's issue BluesWax's Vincent Abbate had sat down in a German café with Canadian Bluesman Colin James. Colin told of how he got started and how Stevie Ray Vaughan helped him out. Let's just jump right in with Vince and Colin and hear about the Little Big Band...

Vincent Abbate for BluesWax: Considering the amount of success you've had in Canada, why aren't you better known outside its borders?

Colin James: Because the man is trying to put me down. That's all I can tell you!

BW: The music business?

CJ: The music business. It's much easier for them to spend a little money and have success in Canada than it is to spend extra money - especially when they're ineffective, lazy, and shitty at what they do! Record companies. It's people trying to hold onto their jobs as hard as they can. Striving for excellence does not happen. They hold onto their jobs, try to spend as little money as possible, and they stick in the safety zone. So I got stuck in a safety zone. I've been with major labels, and I suppose that's part of the problem. I've never been on an indie level where I am now. I've signed with a new company, and I'm excited about it, because finally someone in Germany doesn't have to pay them tons of money to put my record out. My contracts were so stringent that a small American label would have to give half the money back to Canada if they thought about releasing it. Now there's no strings attached. So that's all I can tell you. It's hard out there. Especially when you're playing music that's not the mainstream.

BW: I guess you've had producers over the years who have tried to push you in different directions.

CJ: No. In 1993, when Blues Rock was hitting the wall, Stevie Ray was dead; Robert Cray, Los Lobos, and all those bands that were doing so well started losing their popularity. I put out a big band record with the guys from Roomful of Blues. The Americans thought I was out of my mind. Virgin America said, "Why would you ever want to do what you're doing? It's suicide." And I said, well, I think it's cool. I think the music's great and Blues Rock is dying. If I don't want to be chasing my tail, I've got to do something that's interesting. Also, it was a part of my growing up. When I was 18, all I did was Jackie Wilson, Chuck Willis, Johnny Ace; those were the undiscovered Blues guys. Everyone's heard Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. But Nappy Brown? Roscoe Gordon? When I put out that record, it was really exciting. And having Roomful do it? I got Chris Kinsey from the Stones to produce it and he brought Chuck Leavell up from Georgia on piano. Next thing you know, we're on Conan O'Brien! The [Little Big Band] album came out and got panned a bunch of times. Then it started snowballing. It was exciting. People went, "Wow, this is great."

BW: You weren't expecting it?

CJ: No one was. We did the record for nothing; $80,000 or something. Next thing you know, we're opening up for the Stones. The Little Big Band! That shocked me. I always thought that if I ever did that, I'd be with a Rock band. After that, I got signed to Warner; again, a blessing and a curse. I got all this money to make my records. Did them in the Bahamas! The bad side is, I got stuck in that thing. After I did Bad Habits, I did another Swing record in 1998. We had it done by 1997. Brian Setzer wasn't even in the studio when I had that thing wrapped up. I moved to Nashville for two months to write songs, because I wanted to do another Rock record with other writers. I remember someone saying to me that Setzer was going into the studio. We couldn't find an American label that would pick me up. It was a good record! We had some of the Roomful guys, Reese Wynans from Stevie's band on keys. My record came out six months after Brian Setzer's - a year and change after I was finished with it.

BW: So was that a blessing or a curse?

CJ: A curse, because I could have really used that leg up in America. [So that they're saying:] "This guy is not jumping on a bandwagon. He was there and he really did do it years ago." Instead, I was just late enough to get slammed in the papers for jumping on the bandwagon. I just couldn't believe it. There's no justice. But on the other hand, it was a blessing, because I don't want to do that all the time. I think if I would have got pegged as a Swing guy, the danger would have been that it's my moniker and [I can't] stray from it. I like writing songs. I write now more than I've ever written. I love Soul music. I'm a huge Van Morrison fan. That's what drives me. If I had to do Swing all the time [he snaps his fingers and imitates a "bah-da-pah" horn line], I would have gone crazy. So I suppose it's a blessing.

I never lose sight of the fact that I've been doing this for 20-some-odd years now. I love it as much as ever. I love singing more than I've ever loved singing. I think I'm a better singer than I've ever been. When I was young, I smoked and I was all up in my throat.

BW: Did you do all the vocal harmonies on your new record?

CJ: Yeah. I should have got some other people. Some of those high notes are like ... eeeek. It was a fun record. I don't have the budgets I used to, so we have to get in there and get it done. But we still had Jim Keltner on drums, Hutch Hutchinson from Bonnie Raitt's band on bass. I'm a huge Ry Cooder fan, so working with Jim Keltner, I felt like a kid. It was so cool to have him come in and play on my songs.

BW: Where did you record this time?

CJ: In L.A. the first week. Then we went up to Bryan Adams' studio in Vancouver and did some stuff there. I have a home studio, as well. So it was great - bringing the horns in, I love that. That's what I want to do more of now. More Soul and R&B.

BW: Have you ever considered moving to the States?

CJ: No. That would have been a long time ago, before I had kids. I have two kids. With Medicare and health insurance, it's just such an endeavour. I love where I live. It rains too much. I get sick of the rain. But it's beautiful. I live on the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean. In 1991 I phoned my wife from L.A. and said: "Oh my God, you can buy a house in the Hollywood hills for like $300,000." That was the moment, because they're all up over a million now.

BW: Sue Foley told me that, since 9/11, it's become harder for Canadians to get permits to work in the States.

CJ: That's absolutely true. They put you through the mill. What pisses you off is, usually I'm going down to employ Americans. I'm not getting paid a lot, because I'm not as well known as in Canada. I go down, employ Americans to play on my stuff with Canadian money, yet they quiz me like I am out to ride on their coattails. It kills you, man. You get so paranoid at the border, you start saying stuff like, "No, no, I didn't do it!" It's so stupid. They're really strict. Every time I go down there it's like I have to get ready to enjoy the luxury of going into the States. Unbelievable. It's always been tough. I was refused to come see Stevie, and that sat on my record for ten years. They'd go: "You were refused entry." Yeah, I was a kid who was going to see Stevie Ray Vaughan! Big deal! Other times, if a guy's heard me on the radio, he just waves me through.

BW: How often do you tour in the States?

CJ: Every year, we do a few Blues festivals. With this new [record] deal, now's the time to change that; I don't have that big lead weight on my feet anymore as far as foreign territories and getting it released. In a lot of ways, I think I'm getting into a part of my life where I'm stepping into what I was really meant to do. I kind of feel like it's starting now. You know? It takes a while to learn how to get it right. Not just writing-wise. As a kid, [you make] bad choices. Your tastes haven't evolved enough to make the right taste choices. To make the record that you need to make. I feel like I'm entering that zone now where I can write with focus on the musical style. The art form, as far as what I do, is finally taking shape. It takes time. In this business, a lot of people don't have that time. Because they're done. They become a lawyer, or they're wiped out and they quit. My goal was always to play for a living. So far, I've done that.

BW: So you feel fortunate?

CJ: Very fortunate. Here I am, I played a great festival last night, saw my friends from Los Lobos who I haven't seen in ages. How great is that? Saw the guys from Royal Crown Revue, had a nice talk with them, because we both had similar situations with that new Swing thing. Making a living doing what I love. I've done it for 20-some-odd years. That's all you can really ask. Everything else is a perk.

Vincent Abbate is a contributing editor at BluesWax. Vincent may be contacted at blueswax@visnat.com. Blueswax is an electronic publication from Visionation.

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