THE BELAIRS keep the ‘spirit of blues and R & B alive with their recently released cassette
album, it’s Your Round, The album features both originals and a few by the master, B.B. King.

ie heart

NE OF the most ven-

erable and resilient

of contemporary art
forms, the blues has man-
aged to stand its ground for
nigh on a century.

However, to steal a fine (noth-
ing new to purveyors of the
form), there’s been both good
times and bad.

"The worst thing for the blues.
the thing that nearly killed them,
was the jam session,” says Deep
Covite Larry Smith, bassist/ song-
writer for top-ranked Vancouver
bluesy, R & B band, the BelAirs,
whose recently releasec! cassette
album, it’s Your Round, is testi-
mony to the love and respect its
members share for the music.

“Often you come off stage and
you get so mad because some-
body says, ‘You guys were really
jammin’ good tonight.’

“It’s like, ‘Sorry man, this stuff
is all rehearsedi.’”

Smith has good reason to be
testy.

The blues and variations of

CAPERS KITSILANO
4TH & Ving, VANCOUVER

Greg Potter
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

the genre have taken fearsome
whippings since that clark day
Robert johnson shuffled down to
the crossroads and sold his soul.

Artists have been brutally
ripped-off, certain hybrids of the
music have turned out corrplete
jokes, and there is no shortage of
‘star players that should be flayed
alive for their exploitative efforts.

Nonetheless, there are still
enough true believers around to
lend creedence to the form.

“t grew up in Toronto, which
was an R'& B mecca because
everything came fromm Buffalo

ive

and New York,” says the 41-
year-old Smith, in the business
more than 20 years and a jour-
neyman of the chitlins-to-chow-
der tour circuit.

“My first exposure to it was
through R & B and soul: Dom
Troioano’s Mandela, the Five

Rogues — that was the first band
1 ever saw live.

“It really was teenage hyste-

tia.”

But, as Smith points out, there
are no age barriers to the music’s
appeal — a feeling shared by his
BelAir bandmates, vocalist/song-
writer Joha Whitmer,
guitarist/vocalist Dave Vidal, key-
boardist Dave Webb and drum-
mer Geoff Eyre.

Their collective pedigree lists
such Canadian legends as
Downchild, Jim Byrnes,
Barrelhouse, Whiskey Howl,
Doucette and the Hometown
Band.

The latter entry, conspicuous
on Eyre’s resume, resulted in a

See The Blues page 36

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Wednesday, March 30, 1994 - North Shore News - 31

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