VINCE HALFHIDE
Vince Halfhide
Master guitarist Vince
Halfhide is a veteran Ottawa musician. Decades ago, he played with Terry Gillespie in Heaven’s Radio and in more recent years I’ve seen him as an MVP sideman
for artists like Sneezy Waters and Missy Burgess. I’ve also seen him on
occasion playing solo and quickly came to appreciate that he’s a fine
singer-songwriter himself. I’ve long hoped that he’d release a CD that I can
enjoy and share on the radio.
With the eponymously named Vince
Halfhide, Vince has delivered that CD – a fine collection of 12 well-crafted
original songs mostly in folk and acoustic blues veins.
The album open with “Memphis Rounder,” an infectious ragtime blues
that hearkens back to the days when legends like Furry Lewis and Gus Cannon
were playing for change on Beale Street in Memphis. Other tunes drawing on the
blues include “Sonny Boy Said,” a tribute to delta blues legends Sonny Boy Wiliamson and Robert Johnson, and to blues mythology,
featuring some hot licks from Vince’s guitar that are matched by Monkeyjunk’s Steve Marriner on harmonica, and “Devil Made Rock & Roll,” a
heaven-and-hell tune on which Vince’s guitar and vocals are underpinned by
producer Ken Whiteley on the organ
and Rebecca Campbell’s haunting
harmonies.
One of the most compelling of the folk-styled songs is “Teizo’s
Song,” a ballad sung from the perspective of an immigrant who arrived in Canada
from Japan in 1910 and worked hard to build a life for himself and his family
only to lose his property, rights and freedoms – along with 22,000 other
Japanese Canadians placed in internment camps – during the Second World War.
Other highlights include “Sleepy Little Town,” a gentle song that
captures the scene in a quiet place far removed from urban life, and “The Junk
Man’s Singing,” a character study featuring some nice fiddling by Rosalyn Dennett.
But my very favorite song is “Cobalt Miner’s Daughter,” a beautiful
love song set in northern Ontario.
Vince will be launching Vince
Halfhide with a concert on Friday September 7, 8 pm, at the Westboro
Masonic Hall in Ottawa. Tickets are available at his website.
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–Mike Regenstreif
