JASON WILSON BAND feat DAVE SWARBRICK, DICK GAUGHAN & THE BEVVY SISTERS
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JASON WILSON BAND, DICK GAUGHAN, DAVE SWARBRICK, The BEVVY SISTERS
Head and shoulders, the most eclectic, catholic and coherent musical banquet of 2014 thus far. Toppling unlikely. FROOTS
Jason Wilson and Dave Swarbrick are a truly unique collaboration. To see them live - bringing together reggae, jazz and British folk into an utterly joyful sound all their own - is to witness cross-generational, cross-genre magic. LIVE MUSIC REPORT TORONTO
A whirlwind of a creation. FROOTS
It works so well - brass arrangements meet folk fiddle, and they happily meet each other halfway and work as a team! The tunes themselves are still enjoyable as such, and Swarb's playing still weaves happily in and around the melodies as well as it ever did. FIDDLESTIX
In January 2010 a most unusual concert took place during Glasgow's great Celtic Connections festival. Well, unusual since you don't often (ever?) find not just one of British folk music's eduring icons but two fronting a reggae band, with Dick Gaughan out front, plus renowned fiddler Dave Swarbrick most tunefully pitching in, plus the trio of Scottish lovelies, The Bevvy Sisters, who sing a bit as well - a big bit!
The overall feeling on both sides of the footlights was that the show was a great success not just because it was so surprising and unusual a line-up but mostly because the sheer quality of the ten or so musicians made it happen - there were no passengers on-stage in this magnificent musical experience.
The show came about because Dick Gaughan, on tour in Canada in summer 2009, played Edmonton Folk Festival. There he met Jason Wilson, the Canadian reggae superstar, along with Dave Swarbrick and they all shared the stage in a workshop. Jason's family background however, links into the early years of the UK's folk revival and music business. His cousin, Michael Virtue, was in UB40 with Ali and Robin Campbell, the sons of seminal folk balladeer Ian Campbell. Swarbrick was in the Ian Campbell Folk Group in his pre-Fairport Convention days.
Before this happy meeting however, Swarbrick had performed on the murder ballad ‘Matty Groves’ on Wilson’s last Juno-nominated and Canadian Reggae Music Award-winning double album The Peacemaker’s Chauffeur (2008).
Jason and his band returned the favour, by recording a reggae version of the ‘Spanish Ladies Medley’ for Dave's CD entitled simply Swarb (2010). This duo, Jason and Dave - backed by Wilson’s top class reggae band - released a first collaborative effort, The Lion Rampant. This album featured a variety of traditional and original pieces and boasted some interesting modern covers including Richard Thompson’s, ‘Why Must I Plead’, Sandy Denny’s, ‘John the Gun’, and a provocative blending of Rabbie Burns’, ‘My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose’, which segues into Bob Marley’s, ‘No Woman, No Cry’. The album also included special guest performances by Dick Gaughan and the Bevvy Sisters. See … the connections keep coming around.
A whirlwind of a creation. FROOTS
It works so well - brass arrangements meet folk fiddle, and they happily meet each other halfway and work as a team! The tunes themselves are still enjoyable as such, and Swarb's playing still weaves happily in and around the melodies as well as it ever did. FIDDLESTIX
In January 2010 a most unusual concert took place during Glasgow's great Celtic Connections festival. Well, unusual since you don't often (ever?) find not just one of British folk music's eduring icons but two fronting a reggae band, with Dick Gaughan out front, plus renowned fiddler Dave Swarbrick most tunefully pitching in, plus the trio of Scottish lovelies, The Bevvy Sisters, who sing a bit as well - a big bit!
The overall feeling on both sides of the footlights was that the show was a great success not just because it was so surprising and unusual a line-up but mostly because the sheer quality of the ten or so musicians made it happen - there were no passengers on-stage in this magnificent musical experience.
The show came about because Dick Gaughan, on tour in Canada in summer 2009, played Edmonton Folk Festival. There he met Jason Wilson, the Canadian reggae superstar, along with Dave Swarbrick and they all shared the stage in a workshop. Jason's family background however, links into the early years of the UK's folk revival and music business. His cousin, Michael Virtue, was in UB40 with Ali and Robin Campbell, the sons of seminal folk balladeer Ian Campbell. Swarbrick was in the Ian Campbell Folk Group in his pre-Fairport Convention days.
Before this happy meeting however, Swarbrick had performed on the murder ballad ‘Matty Groves’ on Wilson’s last Juno-nominated and Canadian Reggae Music Award-winning double album The Peacemaker’s Chauffeur (2008).
Jason and his band returned the favour, by recording a reggae version of the ‘Spanish Ladies Medley’ for Dave's CD entitled simply Swarb (2010). This duo, Jason and Dave - backed by Wilson’s top class reggae band - released a first collaborative effort, The Lion Rampant. This album featured a variety of traditional and original pieces and boasted some interesting modern covers including Richard Thompson’s, ‘Why Must I Plead’, Sandy Denny’s, ‘John the Gun’, and a provocative blending of Rabbie Burns’, ‘My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose’, which segues into Bob Marley’s, ‘No Woman, No Cry’. The album also included special guest performances by Dick Gaughan and the Bevvy Sisters. See … the connections keep coming around.
Born to Scottish parents, Wilson was the protégé of Studio One keyboardist Jackie Mittoo and is the cousin of UB40's Michael Virtue. Wilson played his first night-club gig with Messenjah when he was only fourteen.
Known for incorporating jazz and Scottish and English folk influences atop a reggae foundation, Wilson is a multi-instrumentalist though is perhaps best known for his piano skills. The singer-songwriter has performed and recorded with UB40, Alanis Morissette, Sly & Robbie, Ernest Ranglin, Pee Wee Ellis, Dave Swarbrick, Ron Sexsmith, The Mighty Sparrow, Percy Sledge, Brinsley Forde (Aswad), Dick Gaughan, David Francey and many more. Wilson has extensive studio-session experience on his native instruments the piano and voice, but also on bass, guitar and accordion.
Wilson has also been featured on many radio and television shows and is no stranger to the CBC where he has guested on many national and local programmes including Metro Morning; Fresh Air; The Current; Ontario Today; Big City, Small World and Mama Yama.
Jason's own life story and music was featured in a special mini-documentary entitled 'The Grateful Dread' that appeared on The National with Peter Mansbridge. Similarly, Wilson's life was featured in a documentary on BBC radio. Jason's work on the Dumbells - Canada's famous concert party of WWI - was also featured on The National in 2013.
Author of four books, including Soldiers of Song: The Dumbells and Other Canadian Concert Parties of the First World War and the award-winning Lord Stanley: The Man Behind the Cup, Wilson has been published several times in both academic and popular journals on a wide variety of historical topics.
A winner of a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, Dr. Wilson's research has included works on Canadiana, pop culture, the First World War, (ice)hockey, immigration and, of course, music. Indeed, much of the material found on Wilson's five critically acclaimed albums have largely been inspired by events in Canadian history.
Jason's song-writing combines, as journalist Nicholas Jennings confirmed, "his historical perspective and inventive arrangements on thoughtful, genre-stretching songs about human conflict."
In the summer of 2009, Jason served as the sole professional musician on the advisory committee for the 'Cantos at the King Eddy' project in Calgary that will serve as Canada's national music museum.
Wilson is currently co-authoring the Official Centenary book for the Toronto Maple Leafs (2016) alongside Kevin Shea. Wilson was the on-stage musical director for the award-winning project Jamaica to Toronto (NOW Magazine Album of the Year 2006) and is also one-half of the reggae-folk combo Wilson & Swarbrick. Wilson is also the leader of Soldiers of Song, a tribute to the Dumbells.
Jason was presented with The Karl Mullings Memorial Award for commitment to reggae in Canada in 2007. No other Canadian reggae artist has toured as much as Wilson in the past ten years. With intriguing lyrical imagery - mostly culled from moments in history - Wilson presents a uniquely irresistible take on the Jamaican art form.