Orillia Concerts
An Evening of Blues and Gospel
Photo Review of a Fantastic Concert, February 18th, 2012
with Chris Whiteley, Diana Braithwaite, Johnny Max, Amoy Levy and hosted by Lance Anderson
Award winning multi-instrumentalist Chris Whiteley has performed with many great artists during his storied musical career including recording and touring with Leon Redbone with whom he appeared on Saturday Night Live in New York. Chris appears on over 200 recordings, playing guitar, trumpet, harmonica and pedal steel, and his own recordings have led to many awards and accolades including Jazz Report Blues Album of the Year, six Juno Award nominations and 4 Maple Blues Awards. A gifted songwriter, Chris wrote a number one country hit for the band, Prairie Oyster, and his songs have been recorded by diverse artists including Amos Garret, Cindy Church, Penny Lang, The BeBop Cowboys, Lunch at Allens , Quartette and Juno winning blues band Fathead. Recently, Chris has collaborated with acclaimed blues singer Diana Braithwaite.
Diana Braithwaite
Diana Braithwaite is unquestionably one of the most authentic blues singers of today. She grew up listening to Delta blues and country and western records, and as a young singer she sang in performances with her brother’s Victor and Cecil, and sister Charlane. Diana’s career as a solo singer-songwriter emerged as a teenager, but it was opening for John Lee Hooker at the Brunswick House in Toronto with the Chaser Blues Band that acclaimed her talent as a blues singer. Later on that same year, Albert Collins invited Braithwaite on the road to open the show for his band. In 1999, Sarah McLachlan chose Diana to open Lilith Fair in Toronto. Touring internationally, Diana has shared the bill with greats like Eddie Clearwater, T-Model Ford, Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Tracey Chapman, John Lee Hooker, Jeff Healey, Big Bill Morganfield, Mel Brown, Pinetop Perkins, and Buddy Guy.
Johnny Max
To listen and watch Johnny Max, you understand very quickly that there’s more to creating great music than performing well. It’s much more all encompassing than that. Max engages the audience, feeds off of it, and makes it part of the experience with his good natured wit. Max’s music doesn’t always follow conventional Blues lines. Rather than be confined to the traditional 12-bar influenced forms, this veteran of the musical wars favours substance over convention. His first three releases firmly established Max in the Blues idiom, but it was on his fourth, the Juno nominated A Lesson I’ve Learned, that Johnny really found his groove. And that groove had more to do with Southern Soul than straight up Blues. His new disc, It’s A Long Road, picks up where Lesson left off – with a wallop! Max also finds time to host a radio show called Sunday Morning Soul on The HAZE FM, www.thehazefm.ca, Canada’s only commercial web radio station.
Amoy Levy
Anointed, inspired, refreshing, and focused are just some of the adjectives used to describe the vocal ability of Amoy Levy. Her first foray into music as a young girl was with a family group called Zion’s Youth, and she went on to become the Choir Director for the Youth Outreach Mass Choir where she recorded on Just Look, which was nominated for a Juno Award and Urban Music Award in 1998. Amoy has toured across Canada and the United States, performing with artists such as Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Olivia Newton John, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tom Cochrane, and Gospel greats including Toronto Mass Choir, Danny Brooks, Ken Whiteley, Fred Hammond, Hezekiah Walker, Ricky Dillard, and John P. Kee. Amoy is energetic, high spirited, and talented. With a vocal range of three octaves, she plies her impressive voice in a variety of musical styles.
Lance Anderson (Host)
Lance is a successful producer, with recording credits such as Leahy (double Juno, Platinum Virgin Music recording artists) and a number of recent recordings under his own label, Make It Real Records. These include the internationally acclaimed 2B3 the Toronto Sessions, Live at the Wolf by Garth Hudson (The Band) and Brotherhood by Blackburn. Lance also initiated and co-produced the Oscar Peterson Multimedia CD ROM, now treasured by jazz fans and players worldwide. He is an instigator. He has toured Europe, Australia and the US with critically acclaimed singer Shakura S’Aida, and as the musical director for international recording artist Roger Whittaker and continues to be in demand for Festival appearances either with Anderson & Sloski or the All Star Genius+Soul= the Music of Ray Charles and the Tribute to the Last Waltz – The Music of The Band. Lance has performed and recorded with Canadian Gospel/Blues great Danny Brooks, and produced 2009 Blues Juno award winning Fathead’s latest CD, Where ‘s the Blues Taking Me. His recording credits also include the latest Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) CD, One Eye to Morocco. Lance has performed as far away as Darjeeling India, in the Himalayas and from Dubai to Austin Tx.
