Often cited as the “Father of Canadian Blues,” Donnie Walsh co-founded Downchild (known as Downchild Blues Band until the early 1980s) with his late brother Richard “Hock” Walsh in 1969. A whopping 50 years later, he’s still happy making music.
“Yes, I’ve been fortunate,” he says. “I’ve had a good life of doing what I wanted to do.”
It all started in his teen years at a girlfriend’s birthday party in Toronto during the height of The Beatles, when Donnie first heard Jimmy Reed’s album.
“I played that music over and over that night and it totally inspired me to make music.”
Jimmy Reed (1925-1976) influenced many other musicians in his time, including Elvis Presley, Hank Williams Jr. and the Rolling Stones because of his “easily accessible style.”
Donnie says when he and Hock and their founding band members started playing in Toronto 50 years ago in Grossman’s Tavern, owner Al Grossman took a chance on them and booked them to follow a previous run of polka band music, some 15 years earlier.
“He knew the times were changing,” says Donnie. “We played there three nights a week for over a year. Grossman’s had a local clientele, and we started a whole new scene there.”
His day job at the time was driving a cartage truck for up to 10 hours a day and then playing music at night. “I was in my 20s, so I had the energy,” laughs the native Torontonian.
“At that time, the Colonial Tavern on Yonge Street was featuring American jazz and blues musicians for a week at a time. I heard so many of them there – like Dizzy Gillespie, Muddy Waters, Earl Garner, Dr. John, Bo Diddley, Bobby Bland. It was unbelievable; it was unreal. Hearing these incredible musicians definitely inspired me to take the plunge and do the music thing full time.”
Downchild was quickly considered the Canadian Blues pioneer in the 1960s. Their adaptation of Joe Turner’s “Flip Flop and Fly” was their most successful single and shot them to fame by the early 1970s.
The band then went on to become the house band at the “happening” El Mo (El Mocambo) on Toronto’s Spadina Avenue in the early 1970s, where Tom Waits, U2, and Elvis Costello performed, and where the Rolling Stones showed up for a surprise performance in ’77.
Other early originals, Donnie’s “I’ve Got Everything I Need (Almost),” and Donnie and Hock’s “Shotgun Blues,” from their 1973 Straight Up album were later picked up by The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd), who modelled themselves on the inspiration of Canada’s blues brothers, Donnie and Hock Walsh.
Musician/comedian Dan Aykroyd, who had performed with Downchild in Toronto early on, and who later joined them on their 40th and 45th anniversaries, recently rejoined them on stage at the Rochester and Toronto Jazz Festival for their 50th Anniversary tour.
Aykroyd has been quoted as saying, “There would be no Blues Brothers if it weren’t for Downchild.”
Downchild’s lead singer and harmonica player Chuck Jackson says of Aykroyd, “He truly has been and is a blues brother to us.”
“It’s great to have made a mark in my life, doing what I do,” says Donnie. “We obviously influenced the Blues Brothers, then they influenced a whole bunch more people, and that was pretty great and exciting at the time.”
“The rest,” he says, “is geography,” referring to touring across the country, doing about 300 gigs per year then, and fewer now. “We’d go east to Atlantic Canada, then back to Toronto for a while, and then we’d head out west.” All in vans and buses then, and by airplane and minivans now.
Downchild’s 50th Anniversary Tour kick-off performance at Grossman’s Tavern in Toronto on June 19/19 was sold out minutes after it was announced. “We don’t play in bars anymore, but it was fun to play in the traditional blues-style bar where Downchild started,” says Chuck.
The band is performing something from every one of their 18 albums on the 2019 Anniversary Tour, including their most recent one, Something I’ve Done. Donnie and Chuck will also be doing their powerful double-harmonica duets on the tour, which includes performances at jazz festivals in the east and in theatres across the country.
When Chuck joined Downchild as a vocalist in 1989, the band did 150-200 performances a year. Now, with their ages ranging between 60-75, they play 30-40 gigs a year.
“We’ve been together as a solid band now for 30 years,” says Chuck. “We like each other’s company and we will never retire. We do it because we love it, but we do rest a bit more now than then, when we were known as a party band.”
During their long reign as Canada’s celebrated blues band, Downchild has undergone numerous changes. Up to 100 different musicians have played with the band since 1969. As well as co-founding the band, Hock was a songwriter and the original lead singer until the 1990s. The band suffered additional losses with the passing of jazz pianist Jane Vasey (1982) and lead singer Tony Flaim (2000).
“It’s been mostly bass players and drummers that have changed,” says Chuck. “There have only been four singers in Downchild.”
Since 1990, the band comprises of Donnie (guitar, slide guitar, harp), Chuck (vocals, harmonica), Michael Fanfara (keyboard), Pat Carey (saxophone), and Gary Kendall (Bass), with Mike Fitzpatrick (drummer) joining the group in 2004. All musicians have been well recognized and have racked up a long list of nominations and awards during their stellar musical careers.
Downchild won a 2014 Juno after numerous nominations – earlier and since – and the band has been three-time winners of the Maple Blues Award for Recording of the Year or Entertainer of the Year. Additionally, each member has received multiple awards for their individual talents.
“We’ve been lucky. We’ve had a great following all these years, mostly because of the strong leadership of Donnie Walsh,” says Chuck. “The Blues has made us comfortable.”
“We’ve played every town, province and territory in Canada. We’ve played from Nanaimo to Norway, and Denmark, France, Central America and all over the USA. It’s opened up the world to us,” says Chuck, who adds that original fans are now coming back, children and grandchildren in tow. “We’ve played our gigs, and we’ve played at our fans’ weddings and funerals.”
Downchild material is mostly written by either or both Donnie and Chuck. Their latest album, Something I’ve Done, is a collaboration of songs and music by all six band members. “We all contributed,” says Chuck. “Everyone wrote at least one song.”
Chuck says the blues lyrics are about the human condition. “Everyone can identify,” he says. “It doesn’t really change that much. You’re writing about what happens in your life: you meet a girl (boy) or lose a girl (boy); you lose a job; your woman (man) breaks up with you, then you’re down; you have a better time, you write a happier song. We all go through it.”
“I can express myself by writing songs; it helps me get through the rough times when I can go out, carry on performing, and then move forward and continue with my life because I see that I’m making other people happy.”
Every Downchild band member, except Donnie, has other side gigs and projects. Most musicians these days don’t have full bands that play regularly. “You can’t be a one-trick pony anymore,” says Chuck. “I love the blues; I always have, but I play other genres now, too. It keeps me fresh.”
Chuck isn’t singing the blues on a personal front these days, though. He is a proud father of two and grandfather to one and is marrying “the love of his life” next year. “It’s all been a wonderful experience for me.”
Donnie, who lost his mother early in his life, ensures he sees his daughter and 24-year-old granddaughter regularly. In turn, they always come out and say hi when he’s performing. And then there’s Erin, Donnie’s long-time sweetheart, who he is grateful to have by his side.
Between playing gigs, when it’s time to get away from it all for a while, Donnie and Downchild Road Manager, Art Theberge, go fishing for trout and perch in the fresh-water-lake-rich Halliburton region of Ontario.
When he’s performing, Mr. Downchild says it’s always the audience that moves him and his band to really “get grooving.”
“People relate to the songs and to the music. It’s mutual inspiration between the audience and us when we play music,” says Donnie.
“Playing the blues is like medicine,” he continues. “It’s a style of music that brings you, if you’re feeling blue, out of that feeling, generally.”
“It’s the difference between when you pick up your guitar and start playing, and when you’ve finally played enough, you can put it down and feel different.”
“I played the blues then, and I play the blues now,” concludes Donnie, Mr. Downchild, Walsh, the award-winning self-taught songwriter, master guitarist, superb harp player, and Canadian Blues Legend, adding that they are looking forward to coming out west. “It’s been a while.”
New Album: Something I’ve Done (2017)
BC Dates:
October 17 – Vancouver
October 18 – Victoria
October 19 – Courtenay
October 20 – Nanaimo
October 22 – Campbell River
October 24 – Kelowna
October 25 – Trail
October 26 – Cranbrook.
For more information, visit www.downchild.com
SNAPSHOT
with Donnie, Mr. Downchild, Walsh
If you were to meet your 20-year-old self, what advice would you give him?
“Don’t quit your day job when you’re starting out as a musician!”
Who or what has influenced you most? And why?
“Definitely Sonny Boy Williamson II’s music and recordings. He was an incredible singer-songwriter. It was his songs, his band, his guitar playing – all that influenced me. Especially the song ‘Bring it on Home’. I learned a lot about playing the blues from listening to that song.”
What are you most grateful for?
“Being able to live this long. The longer you get to live, the more you get to experience in life. And, of course, my long-time sweetie-pie, Erin Darlow.”
What does success mean to you?
“It’s being able to tour around the country and meet people from different places. When I first started touring Canada, I remember Saskatchewan being so different. It was a pretty cool place. We always had a great time in Saskatchewan.”
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