Local boy makes good music

Last night, The Guy took me to a concert.  A Colin James concert.  It was a surprise he left on the fridge for me to discover.  It might have been a week before I looked up and saw the tickets posted up there.  I was thrilled.  I have always loved Colin James.   He's from our fair city, he went to the same high school as my cousin and rumour has it that she dated him for a bit.  So, that's my claim to his fame.

For the Americans out there, Colin James is awesome.  His best album Just Came Back is totally great from start to finish.  He's a mix of jazz and blues guitar and rock.  Here (go here) is one of his best known songs.  And he does a version of Into the Mystic that is better than the original.  And since the original was one of my favourite songs EVER, that is saying something.  Go and download these songs:

• Just Came Back
• Voodoo Thing
• Why'd you Lie
• Into the Mystic
• Five Long Years
• Keep on Loving Me Baby
• Surely (I love you)

When we arrived at the concert, we were surprised to see the number of middle aged hippies who had crawled out from their VW buses for the evening.  The number of soccer moms and hip professors.  The number of people over 50!  But, since Colin got his start in the late 80s early 90s, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised.

We went and took our seats.  To our surprise, the set up on stage was for Suzie McNeil.  Now, until that moment, I only knew her from those lame Thrive Lozenge commercials.   I was expecting... crap.  But she came out and started to sing and... HOLY CRAP!!!!  She was great.  Now you could tell she had been a smoker -- she has that deep, sultry, smoky voice.  I loved it.  She was like Sheryl Crow but better.  I was pleased.

Then Colin came on.  I'm pretty sure I didn't stop grinning the entire time.  Everyone in the place was tapping and grooving in their chairs.  Apart from the one dude/chick (I never knew which one he/she was -- black tight jeans, black T, long hair) dancing in the aisle.  The music was incredible.  Colin rocked out on about 35 different guitars.  He played and played and played.  For 2 hours he played some of the best guitar I'd heard in years.

I kept thinking it would be over and then NO!  He was still going!!!  After 2 hours, he finally shut it down.  But it was great.  We all left high on the talent of a local boy.