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CKMS Community Connections for 12 June 2023 with the FOG Blues & Brass Band

Show Notes

Members of FOG Blues & Brass Band in the CKMS-FM studio with Bob Jonkman
FOG Blues & Brass Band

Bob Jonkman talks with Dan Jancar, Hills Walter, and Tim Palser of the FOG Blues & Brass Band about the origin of the band, recording the album, writing Twelve Bar Prescription, their trip to Memphis, and, of course, about the blues. And they perform two songs, Live, On-Air, In-Studio!

The interview starts at 3m52s.

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Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2023-06-12-episode130-The-FOG-Blues-and-Brass-Band.mp3 (52 MB, 56m54s, episode 130)

Index

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Time Title Album Artist
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc CKMS Sunflower logo (yellow petals surrounding a black centre with white wavies all on a teal background)
CKMS Community Connections
Steve Todd
0m46s Too Deep CKMS Logo - yellow sunflower with a black centre with diagonal wavies on a circular teal background, transparent background to corners
Live, On-Air, In-Studio
FOG Blues & Brass Band
3m52s Introducing the band. In the studio is Dan Jancar, Hills Walter, and Tim Palser; other band members are Bobby Becker, Joe Dublanski, Domenic Di Nino, and Al Hosack. In studio we have Tim playing guitar and Hills on harmonica, and everyone on vocals, other instruments in the band are saxophones, bass, keyboards, and drums. Sometimes Dan plays baritone sax. But there are no horns, so there is no brass in the FOG Blues & Brass Band. Even though the sax is made of brass it’s considered a woodwind. But the band was named “Blues & Brass” through marketing genius. Orginally the band was a five-piece, and named for “Five Old Guys”, hence the capitalization.
7m40s How does a seven-piece band get gigs? Not all venues can afford all the musicians, but they stand their ground. They all have day jobs, even though managing the band is a full-time job. Band members have different hours, so they can take shifts in doing the admin work. Talking about other people, producer Robi Banerji, and recording in Dan’s basement, the Jancar Studios. How the album Twelve Bar Prescription came to be. The title song was written by Grant Heywood, then reworked by the members of the band. Working through the Covid pandemic, working with software, building the studio, doing all the Covid mitigation.
15m44s Twelve Bar Prescription FOG Blues & Brass Band | Twelve Bar Prescription (B&W photo of band members centered on a blue background, typeface as though made from shiny cut metal)
Twelve Bar Prescription
FOG Blues & Brass Band
19m07s Analyzing the song Twelve Bar Prescription, how it changed from the way Grant Heywood wrote it. Grant and Hills have both been in Musician’s FAQ. Coral Andrews first broke the first record on CKMS.
21m47s Talking about their trip to Memphis representing the Grand River Blues Society for the International Blues Challenge. Starting with 12,000 bands, the organizers knocked it down to 300 bands, including FOG. It was a contest, with stringent time constraints. And FOG made it through to the semi-finals! They went not expecting to win, but to make contacts. They made quite a few, but then Covid shut it down. Then they had some smaller gigs like the Kitchener Blues Festival in 2020 at Bobby O’Briens, but there were lots of constraints for Covid.
29m13s Beaterland CKMS Logo - yellow sunflower with a black centre with diagonal wavies on a circular teal background, transparent background to corners
Live, On-Air, In-Studio
FOG Blues & Brass Band
33m33s This is a first, FOG Blues & Brass Band haven’t done their music acoustically before. Why blues? Each band member has their own story. Dan has a metal background, Hills is wearing a Bob Dylan T-shirt. Blues only has five chords, but they stretch every facet of five chords, and throw in some jazz elements. They’re playing “Canadian Blues”. Kitchener has a rich history, not just Mel Brown, but others like Sonny Boy Williams. Each performer has the opportunity to play with others. Hills did a dance album during Covid, and he does jazz, classical, funk, blues, rock, even country. Everybody in the band is pretty diverse in their musical interests. Talking about the other members’ contributions.
42m25s Adapting their music to different circumstances, like doing Beaterland acoustically, which was the biggest production number on the album. Talking about working with other musicians. Talking about live music in Kitchener, new venues opening, including The Boathouse. Guelph has a buzzing underground scene, very eclectic.
46m14s Hey Lucy FOG Blues & Brass Band | Twelve Bar Prescription (B&W photo of band members centered on a blue background, typeface as though made from shiny cut metal)
Twelve Bar Prescription
FOG Blues & Brass Band
49m27s Hey Lucy ends with Jacob The Cat purring, he gets a credit on the album liner notes. Discussing how many chords there are in Hey Lucy. Talking about upcoming gigs and events. Covering the various social media accounts. Talking about the Grand River Blues Society, how FOG got the gigs in Memphis. Talking about the work they do with the Youth Blues Camp.
55m12s Introducing Why Get Up as the regular closing song.
55m30s Why Get Up
Bob gives the end credits.
FOG Blues & Brass Band | Twelve Bar Prescription (B&W photo of band members centered on a blue background, typeface as though made from shiny cut metal)
Twelve Bar Prescription
FOG Blues & Brass Band

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

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Bonus Video

YouTube: CKMS Community Connections for Monday 12 June 2023

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2023 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

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