Colin Linden
Encyclopedia
Colin Linden is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 musician, songwriter and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

. He has worked with a wide variety of artists including Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...

, Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...

, T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...

, Colin James
Colin James
Colin James is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, who plays in the blues, rock, and neo-swing genres. He grew up as a Quaker.-Early years:...

, Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone is a singer and guitarist specializing in interpretations of early 20th-century music, including jazz and blues standards and Tin Pan Alley classics....

, Rita Chiarelli
Rita Chiarelli
Rita Chiarelli is a Canadian blues singer. She has been dubbed "the goddess of Canadian blues" by CBC Radio One's Shelagh Rogers.-Biography:Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Chiarelli began performing in Ronnie Hawkins' band in the early 1980s. She subsequently spent several years in Italy...

, Chris Thomas King
Chris Thomas King
Chris Thomas King is an American New Orleans, Louisiana-based blues musician and actor.-History:King was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. He is the son of blues musician Tabby Thomas. He has won awards including "Album of the Year" for both Grammy Award and Country Music Awards. King...

 and The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...

.

Linden is primarily a electric blues
Electric blues
Electric blues is a type of blues music distinguished by the amplification of the guitar, bass guitar, drums, and often the harmonica. Pioneered in the 1930s, it emerged as a genre in Chicago in the 1940s. It was taken up in many areas of America leading to the development of regional subgenres...

 guitarist, although he frequently collaborates with country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 performers. He is also a member, with Stephen Fearing
Stephen Fearing
Stephen Fearing is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter.Fearing was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in Dublin, Ireland. He returned to Canada in 1981 and began pursuing a career in music. In addition to his solo career, Fearing was one of the founding members of Blackie and the Rodeo...

 and Tom Wilson
Tom Wilson (musician)
Tom Wilson is a Canadian rock musician from Hamilton, Ontario.A veteran of the Canadian music scene, Wilson has been a writer and performer for many years. Wilson's eclectic musical style has ranged from the psychobilly sound of the Florida Razors, to the western/roots style of Blackie and the...

, of the group Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are a Canadian folk rock/alternative country band with blues and country influences. The band was formed in 1996, in Hamilton, Ontario, by Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, and Colin Linden.-Early Period: 1990s:...

.

Early years

Linden was born in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. When he was still an infant, his family moved to White Plains, New York
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...

. The ten-year old Linden heard rock performers in New York venues, such as Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

, the Flying Burrito Brothers, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....

, John Mayall
John Mayall
John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...

, Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...

 and Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...

.

1970s

When the family moved back to Toronto, Linden became interested in performers such as Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...

, Mississippi Fred McDowell
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Fred McDowell known by his stage name; Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American Hill country blues singer and guitar player.-Career:...

 and Howlin’ Wolf. When Howlin’ Wolf played at Toronto’s Colonial Tavern, the then-11-year old Linden spent three hours talking with the elder bluesman. A young Linden began performing at a local coffee house, the Fiddler’s Green Coffee House, singing and strumming a guitar. By 1973, Linden began learning how to finger pick. When Linden met David Wilcox
David Wilcox (Canadian musician)
David Wilcox is a Canadian rock musician.-History:Montreal native, David Wilcox drew inspiration from musician Elvis Presley at the early age of six...

, Linden decided to learn how to play slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...

. Wilcox gave 140 blues albums to young Linden, to help Linden to learn about blues styles.

Paul Mills, the producer of Sylvia Tyson
Sylvia Tyson
Sylvia Tyson, CM , is a musician, performer, singer-songwriter and broadcaster. From 1959 to 1974, she was half of the popular folk duo Ian & Sylvia with Ian Tyson....

’s Touch the Earth show, at the Winnipeg Folk Festival
Winnipeg Folk Festival
The Winnipeg Folk Festival is a summer folk music festival held in Birds Hill Provincial Park, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It features a variety of folk artists from all around the world, as well as a number of local folk performers....

 and an outlet on CBC Radio
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...

 for acoustic roots music, booked Linden in 1975 . At the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Colin met Mississippi bluesman Sam Chatmon
Sam Chatmon
Sam Chatmon was a Delta blues guitarist and singer. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks and may have been Charlie Patton's half brother.-Life and career:...

, and later that year made a pilgrimage to US to meet South Detroit's Sippie Wallace
Sippie Wallace
Sippie Wallace was an American singer-songwriter. Her early career in local tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale". Between 1923 and 1927, she recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records, many written by herself or her brothers, George and Hersal Thomas...

. North Carolina's Peg Leg Sam
Peg Leg Sam
Peg Leg Sam was an American country blues harmonicist, singer and comedian. He recorded "Fox Chase" and "John Henry", and worked in medicine shows...

, and Mississippi's Son House
Son House
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music...

.

In 1976 Wilcox had asked Linden to join his band, the Teddy Bears, which meant that Linden had to learn to play the electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

. In 1977, he played solo gigs and did his first western Canadian tour, which was booked by Holger Petersen
Holger Petersen
Holger Petersen, CM is a Canadian businessman, record producer and radio broadcaster. He owns and operates the independent roots music label Stony Plain Records, and hosts the programs Saturday Night Blues on CBC Radio One and Natch'l Blues on the CKUA Radio Network. Petersen was a founder of the...

. In Edmonton he met then 13-year old Colin James
Colin James
Colin James is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, who plays in the blues, rock, and neo-swing genres. He grew up as a Quaker.-Early years:...

, also a budding blues performer. In the late 1970s, Linden formed his own group, the Group du Jour, which played a mix of covers and a few Linden originals. In 1979, Linden recorded the Sam Chatmon album.

1980s

In 1981, Linden recorded his album Colin Linden Live!. As well, he played as a sideman for Joe Mendelson
Mendelson Joe
Mendelson Joe is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, painter and outspoken political activist and uses his art to express political themes. His most famous painting depicted Prime Minister Brian Mulroney with his face superimposed on a pair of human buttocks...

, Willie P. Bennett
Willie P. Bennett
Willie P. Bennett was a Canadian folk-music singer and song writer.-Life and career:Born William Patrick Bennett in Toronto, Ontario, Bennett was part of the 1970s folk music scene in Canada, alongside such figures as Bruce Cockburn, Stan Rogers and David Wiffen...

, Gwen Swick and Amos Garrett
Amos Garrett
Amos Garrett is a Juno Award-winning American-Canadian musician, performer, and author. He holds dual citizenship and was raised in Toronto and Montreal...

. Linden's second album, Colin Linden and the Immortals was released by the Stony Plain Records
Stony Plain Records
Stony Plain Records is a major Canadian independent record label, which specializes in roots music genres such as country, folk and blues. The label was the recipient of a 2003 Western Canadian Music Award for "Independent Record Label/Distributor of the Year"....

 label in 1986. Linden has acknowledged the influence of The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...

. In the early 1980s, Linden met three of the original members, Rick Danko
Rick Danko
Richard Clare "Rick" Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band.-Early years :...

, Garth Hudson
Garth Hudson
Eric Garth Hudson is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist. As the organist, keyboardist and saxophonist for Canadian-American rock group The Band, he was a principal architect of the group's unique sound...

 and Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....

. Members of The Band contributed to Linden's recordings, and songs like "When the Spirit Comes" got radio airplay and "Miles Away from You" made the rock charts. When the Spirit Comes was released by A & M in 1987. Linden signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell and did producing for Mendelson Joe, Morgan Davis, Jackson Delta and Hans Thessink.

1990s

In 1991, Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...

 recruited Linden as a sideman, and for three-and-a-half years, Linden playing guitar. Subsequently, Linden became Cockburn's co-producer. Linden's blues album of 1993 titled South at Eight, North at Nine was distributed by Sony Music in Canada, and won a Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...

 in the Blues and Gospel category. Guests on the album included Bruce Cockburn as well as Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of the Band.

As Linden got more interested in gospel records, he began taking vocal lessons from Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir were a Canadian alternative rock band that formed in 1985 in Toronto, Ontario. Their R&B-flavoured rock made them a mainstay on Canadian campus radio in the early 1990s, but the band never quite broke through to the mainstream....

 singer Dave Wall, such as breathing and warm-up exercises. In 1996, Linden won a Juno in the Blues/Gospel category for his producing Lennie Gallant
Lennie Gallant
Lennie Gallant, CM is a Canadian singer-songwriter. His music crosses into the folk, Celtic, rock and country music genres...

's The Open Window. Linden co-wrote Colin James
Colin James
Colin James is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, who plays in the blues, rock, and neo-swing genres. He grew up as a Quaker.-Early years:...

' hit song "Real Stuff". As well, and, Linden joined with Tom Wilson
Tom Wilson (musician)
Tom Wilson is a Canadian rock musician from Hamilton, Ontario.A veteran of the Canadian music scene, Wilson has been a writer and performer for many years. Wilson's eclectic musical style has ranged from the psychobilly sound of the Florida Razors, to the western/roots style of Blackie and the...

 of Junkhouse
Junkhouse
-History:Formed in 1989 in Hamilton, Ontario, the band consisted of vocalist and guitarist Tom Wilson, guitarist Dan Achen, bassist Russ Wilson and drummer Ray Farrugia....

 and Stephen Fearing
Stephen Fearing
Stephen Fearing is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter.Fearing was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in Dublin, Ireland. He returned to Canada in 1981 and began pursuing a career in music. In addition to his solo career, Fearing was one of the founding members of Blackie and the Rodeo...

 to form Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are a Canadian folk rock/alternative country band with blues and country influences. The band was formed in 1996, in Hamilton, Ontario, by Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, and Colin Linden.-Early Period: 1990s:...

. This band was a tribute to Canadian singer songwriter Willie P. Bennett
Willie P. Bennett
Willie P. Bennett was a Canadian folk-music singer and song writer.-Life and career:Born William Patrick Bennett in Toronto, Ontario, Bennett was part of the 1970s folk music scene in Canada, alongside such figures as Bruce Cockburn, Stan Rogers and David Wiffen...

. After the album High or Hurtin’ on True North Records
True North Records
True North Records is a Canadian independent record label. It was founded in Mississauga, Ontario in 1969 by Bernie Finkelstein. On December 17, 2007, True North was acquired by an investment group led by Linus Entertainment...

, the second album Kings of Love won a Juno.

In February 1998 Linden shared the Maple Blues Producer of the Year award with Colin James. A Tribute to Howlin’ Wolf was released by Telarc Records in 1998. In 1999, A Tribute to Howlin’ Wolf was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 in the category Best Traditional Blues Album. In 1999, Linden received the Toronto Arts Award.

2000s

In 2000 Linden won three Juno awards, of which the "Blues" category award was as the producer of Ray Bonneville's Gust of Wind. In the Roots and Traditional: Solo Artist category, Linden won as the producer of Bruce Cockburn's Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu. Finally,in the Roots and Traditional: Group category, Linden won as a member of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. In 2000, Linden produced Sue Foley
Sue Foley
Sue Foley is a Canadian blues singer and guitarist.-Career:Foley has been writing and playing professionally since 1984. She has recorded ten albums, for both Antone's Records and Shanachie Records. She has spent over fourteen years on the road as a bandleader, lead vocalist, guitarist and...

's Love Comin' Down and Paul Reddick and the Sidemen's Rattle Bag.

For the album Big Mouth, a more acoustic recording, Linden recruited Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo is an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.-Early life:From early on he had an appreciation for the blues and gospel music...

, Bruce Cockburn, and other musicians. In 2002 Big Mouth won a Juno for Best Blues Album. In 2002, an album Linden worked on, Timeless, won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year. In 2002, he co-produced Stephen Fearing's That's How I Walk and Bruce Cockburn's You've Never Seen Everything
You've Never Seen Everything
You've Never Seen Everything is an album by Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, released on July 10, 2003.-Track listing:-Album Personnel:*Richard Brown - Bass*Jackson Browne - Harmony*Greg Calbi - Percussion, Mastering...

. In 2003, a third Blackie and the Rodeo Kings album, BARK, was released, and in 2006 they released Let's Frolic and Let's Frolic Again.

Solo

  • Colin Linden Live (1980)
  • The Immortals (1986)
  • When the Spirit Comes (1988)
  • South at Eight, North at Nine (1993)
  • Through the Storm, Through the Night (1995)
  • Raised by Wolves (1997)
  • Sad and Beautiful World (1999, greatest hits
    Greatest hits
    A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...

    )
  • Big Mouth (2001)
  • Southern Jumbo (2005)
  • Easin' Back To Tennessee (2006)
  • From The Water (2009)

Compilation inclusions

  • Orphans of God
    Orphans of God
    Orphans of God is a 2 CD compilation of songs performed by various artists in tribute to songwriter Mark Heard.Recorded and released after Heard's death in 1992, proceeds benefit the Heard Family Fund....

    , A Tribute To Mark Heard
    Mark Heard
    John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....

     (Fingerprint
    Fingerprint Records
    Fingerprint Records is an independent record label formed in 1990 by Mark Heard and Dan Russell.The label went on to release not only Heard's albums, but also albums by The Call, The Vigilantes of Love, Ramona Silver, bob., as well as two tribute albums to Heard after his death in 1992.Heard also...

    , 1996)
  • Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash
    Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash
    Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash is a 2003 compilation album, released by Northern Blues Music, of blues-oriented songs made popular by Johnny Cash, sung by various Canadian and American performers.- Track listing :...

    (Northern Blues, 2003)

External links

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