Globe and Mail
February 6, 2006
By Brad Wheeler

Colin James and Cowboy Junkies At Massey Hall In Toronto.

The bounding boy blues-rocker is now a man, age of 41. Now, don't get it wrong -- Colin James, the Regina Kid, is neither paunchy nor grey. In fact, in blue jeans and an untucked button-down shirt, the singer-guitarist was presentable and spry on Saturday, even taking a trademark jaunt through the crowd at Massey Hall, bending a Stratocaster's blue notes as he took to the red carpeted aisles.

But something was different here. The number James walked to was the set-closing 'Keep On Loving Me Baby', a swinging Otis Rush blues that meandered with quotes from Howlin' Wolf and the obscure Jessie Mae Hemphill. His version dates back to 1990, and can be grouped with other James hits of the era -- the cute and excitable 'Five Long Years', the guitar bravado of 'Voodoo Thing' or the oversold emotion of 'Why'd You Lie.'

The crowd, one suspects, would have loved to hear those songs, but James chose instead to concentrate on his latest album, the confident blue-eyed soul of Limelight. Here was either a sign of an artist's maturation or just plain good sense: the showoff shenanigans of youth rarely age well, and James's old flash would be no exception.

What has aged well is James' voice, always a soulful instrument, but now better employed. As a spitfire young'un, James could try his hand at Stevie Ray Vaughan's hurricane guitar, but the deep blues voice was unapproachable. With the material of Limelight, James looks to other heroes -- singers who are titans, but surprisingly within range.

On the show opener, 'Better Way to Heaven,' we heard Van Morrison. The hooky, up-tempo 'When I Write the Book,' though composed by Nick Lowe and Dave Edmonds, sounded like an old Sam Cooke outtake. And the Blind Boys of Alabama might have perked their ears to 'Far Away Like a Radio' -- "atheist gospel," according to James, but essentially a slower, darker version of his Just Came Back from 1990.

A rendition of 'If You Need Me' paid tribute to the late Wilson Pickett, and Bobby (Blue) Bland would have to approve of the last of three encores, 'Ain't Nothing You Can Do' (for a Heartache). Both those numbers, and all the rest, were completed by a band that included a pair of horn players and Colin Linden. The hirsute, ever-grinning guitarist traded slide licks with James on the rocked delta blues of Dylan's 'Watching the River Flow.'

"I've done the same old trick so many times," James sang on the Van Morrison-ish Limelight, "looking for a way to make it new." He's found it: The new James is a good James -- sha la la, sha la la.