British Columbia’s wonders wipe away a musician’s blues

Colin James plays the blues with a vengeance, but it’s easy to settle down and forget the hard times when you live in British Columbia.

“Vancouver is such a beautiful city,” says the guitarist on his latest album open road is aptly titled for a constantly traveling artist. “You can boat in the morning, get a tan in the afternoon and ski high above Vancouver for much of the year on the same day. Winters are wet but rarely have much snow, and summers are super sunny and hot. Bike lanes take you everywhere in the city and the food scene is on fire.”

James, who was born in Regina, Saskatchewan and moved to Vancouver in the mid-1980s, appreciates the city’s historic Commodore Ballroom. Built in 1929, the ballroom has hosted musicians from Count Basie to David Bowie and was named after billboard Magazine one of the top 10 most influential clubs in North America and the most influential club in Canada.

“It’s a very cool place with a horsehair-filled dance floor,” says James. “I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan tear off the roof and float across the room. Hahaha!”

Many visitors to Vancouver are unaware of the geographic wonders of nearby Vancouver Island, a massive island 50 miles wide and 285 miles long. James loves two remote towns on the west coast of the island, about 25 miles apart and unknown to most Americans.

“Tofino and Ucluelet are magical, even in rainy weather,” he says.

Tofino is a village surrounded by old growth forest teeming with black bears. It’s a great spot for whale watching, has unique restaurants and shops, and is close to the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. A fishing village surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean, Ucluelet offers a variety of outdoor activities including kayaking and hiking.

James, who has two shows scheduled in Denver and Telluride next month before returning to British Columbia, also advises visitors to explore the interior of the Canadian provinces.

“Penticton is becoming more like Sonoma with wineries and great restaurants,” he says.

Penticton, located in the Okanagan Valley, is one of two cities in the world that are sandwiched between two lakes, according to tourism website Visit Penticton. The area offers sandy beaches and year-round outdoor recreation, and has more than 80 wineries and eight craft breweries, the website says.

Unlike the US, where Mississippi’s Highway 61 is known as “The Blues Highway,” James says there’s no comparable blues trail in Canada.

“It’s hard to define something as a blues highway in Canada,” he says. “There are Canadian artists like Winnipeg’s Big Dave McLean who paved the way for others and kept the blues alive in Canada for decades.”

James hopes to one day cruise Highway 61 while taking a blues tour from Memphis to New Orelans. He has been to two prestigious Memphis recording studios with blues pedigree, Ardent and Royal. Robert Cray and other modern blues artists recorded at the Ardent, and Willie Mitchell created the Memphis rhythm-and-blues sound at the Royal.

“I made my second record at Ardent Studios and always enjoy going there,” says James. “The last time I was in Memphis I went to Ardent and Royal Studios and then stopped on the way to Nashville to see Sleepy John Estes’ final home. I have yet to make the drive from Memphis to New Orleans with only the blues on my mind. One of those days!”

Travel is a constant theme in James’ recordings. his latest album, open roadand its two predecessors have travel-related titles.

“2016 Blue Highways was a reference to the blue marked secondary highways on most maps and miles to go 2018 was a play based on the famous poem by Robert Frost,” explains James. “open road seemed like an upbeat title for a time that was anything but! I just loved the sound of this track and the way an open road can make you feel. All possibilities and freedom are just waiting over the horizon.”