Hey everyone!
It’s Gonna Be Alright is now available on iTunes!
This is the first single off of the upcoming release “Take it From the Top: The Best of Colin James”, in stores March 15th. Don’t forget to request the song on your local radio station. Thanks for your support!
Happy Tuesday,
-Team CJ
COLIN JAMES COMES HOME TO EMI AND RELEASES ‘TAKE IT FROM THE TOP: THE BEST OF’
FEATURING TWO NEW SONGS PRODUCED BY BOB ROCK
Colin James has returned to the EMI family to release Take It From The Top: The Best Of. The album is a collection of the 15 most essential rock tracks from his impressive multi-label career, featuring hits like “Just Came Back” and “Why’d You Lie,” along with two new songs recorded this month with legendary producer Bob Rock (Bon Jovi, The Tragically Hip, Metallica, Michael Buble).
“It’s Gonna Be Alright” co-written by Colin, will be released as a single next week and fits perfectly on this album as it destined to become one of his finest rock performances to date. The other new recording is a cover of the Buddy Miles song “Them Changes,” in which Colin honours this classic, yet brings his own unique flavour to the arrangement.
In 1988, Colin signed with Virgin America and released his debut platinum selling self-titled album worldwide a year later (featuring hit singles “Five Long Years” and “Voodoo Thing“). This was followed by three more albums on Virgin, which garnered him three JUNO Awards. Since then, nine more albums have been released and Colin has won three additional JUNO Awards and a whopping 16 Maple Blues Awards. His fanbase and success has been International and resulted in performances on Late Night with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien and stellar reviews in Rolling Stone.
“I am excited and honored to be back with EMI after all these years,” says Colin. “There is a real sense of coming home here and I can’t wait to get started. Working with Bob Rock on two new songs for the upcoming best of is a hell of a way to begin! Off we go!”
“We proudly welcome Colin home,” comments Deane Cameron, President of EMI Music Canada. “He is an iconic artist who continues to make important musical contributions to this country’s soundscape. These new recordings have us very excited.”
Happy new year to all and I hope things have started well for you this year.
We had a super nice relaxed Christmas until around the 28th of December when I went to Maui to meet and play with Mick Fleetwood. He was a real gentleman and I got to play Black Magic Women and Shake Your Money Maker with him and his band at a show in Lanai, and a couple days later at a New Years charity show featuring…. wait for it….Mick Fleetwood and Band, 2 Doobie Brothers, 1 Nickleback , Alice Cooper, James Hetfield of Metallica , …..oh yeah….. and me. I also met Mick Fleetwood’s mother which was a huge honor.
We might have a chance to play some more music down the line so it was great to finally get together. Guess we’ll see what happens there. After that I got to hang out a bit , get some sun, and road biked almost everyday .
Then it was right back to work here in Vancouver where I got to record a couple songs with Bob Rock. It was a blast to work again with Bob after so many years. He lends a super chill vibe in the studio and gets fantastic guitar sounds. We had some vintage 60’s Marshall heads and my trusty Matchless as well. Also used my brand new black custom shop 59’ reissue strat for the first time which has kind of become my temporary fave. (It’s awesome!)
My blue guitars are jealous.
Stay tuned for a special announcement on Monday January 24th regarding those new songs!
So that’s all for now, Best, Colin
*Follow me on Twitter @ColinJamesMusic
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Colin has been nominated for the following Western Canadian Music Awards:
Blues Recording of the Year
Colin James – Rooftops and Satellites – B.C.
David Gogo – Different Views – B.C.
Jim Byrnes – My Walking Stick – B.C.
Rich Hope & His Evil Doers – Rich Hope Is Gonna Whip It On Ya – B.C.
The Jimmy Zee Band – Devil Take Me Down – B.C.
Independent Album of the Year
Colin James – Rooftops and Satellites – B.C.
Corb Lund – Losin’ Lately Gambler – AB
Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice – B.C.
Dojo Workhorse – Weapons Grade Romantic – AB
Library Voices – Denim On Denim – SK
Songwriter of the Year
Colin James – B.C.
Corb Lund – AB
Dan Mangan – B.C.
Doc Walker (Chris Thorsteinson, Dave Wasyliw, and Murray Pulver) – MB
Dustin Bentall – B.C.
The Weakerthans (John K Samson and The Weakerthans) – MB
Check out the other categories and nominees HERE.
I just got back from Norway and the Notodden Blues Festival. It was really great and I saw the great Solomon Burke and Lazy Lester as well as Tommy Castro and a host of other bands from all over the world. This town(Notodden) and Norway are very passionate about their blues and soul music and I had a great time sitting in with Downchild Blues Band. Great guys.
Got to know Lazy Lester a bit and he is really an interesting and talented guy. Of course he wrote “I Hear You Knocking” and “Sugar Coated Love,” that the Fab T’s covered years ago – and at the age of 77 is rocking harder than people half his age. We sat around singing old Ray Price and Buck Owens songs of all things and it was an amazing experience.
Solomon Burke sang ,”If You Need Me”, which I covered on LBB 3. He was fantastic…. what a singer!!!!
Had major jet lag but hopefully sowed the seeds for some future work in Norway and Europe down the line.
Talk soon,
Colin James
ps I just got a brand new Sonic Blue Telecaster from the Fender Custom shop and think it will be an awesome guitar. It’s soooooooooooo beautiful!!!
Be sure to watch “All Access – Colin James In Concert” which airs this Saturday night at 7 PM on CBC TV in B.C.
Hello one and all,
Just got back to Vancouver after a crazy few days. Played a charity up at Casino Rama which was really fun. Had the whole band with horns and all for that show and the Navy ships the next day in Halifax. We then went flew to Toronto where I played an acoustic set with my friend Chris Caddell supporting Steve Miller at the Molson Amphitheatre.
Wasn’t sure how an acoustic thing would be received at that venue but the people were awesome and were very receptive to it. Then, much to my surprise Steve Miller asked me to join him as soon as I got off the stage for 4 songs almost right at the start of his set. He’s a class act and was totally generous and fantastic. We talked guitars and amps and about our favorite players. Turned into a great time.
I then ran downtown in the hopes of catching Mavis Staples at the Jazz Festival. I just got there in time for the last song where she called me up to play with her fantastic band. We played “I’ll Take You There” and at least I got to hear one of the most distinctive and soulful voices known to man for at least one song. I’ve known Mavis and Yvonne for quite a few years now and she is always so kind and lovely to me. She sang on my song Freedom many years ago when I recorded in the Bahamas and she came down there. My parents were big fans of the Staple Singers so I grew up on her voice.
To cap my Toronto night off, I ran into James Cotton when returning to my hotel and had the chance to say hello and chat a little. We had played to gather on the Downchild anniversary show earlier this year at Massey Hall. Anyway it was a perfect Toronto night.
Playing here and there through summer and I’m actually heading over to Norway to play the Notodden Blues Festival in Norway as a guest of Downchild in early August. Should be fun. We are starting to plan the next recording and I like where we are going with it so….. I guess that’s about it for now.
Have a great summer,
Colin James
Hi everyone, hope your doing well.
I played a few songs in a two night event featuring songs of the Mississippi Sheiks this last weekend. What a riot. Vancouver producer and musician Steve Dawson put this together and did a fantastic job keeping a ton of musicians on stage at the right time and in the right key.
John Hammond, Dave Alvin, Geoff Muldaur, Van Dyke Parks, Bob Brozman, Jim Byrnes and a host of other fabulous artists. Each played 3 songs or so a night and then often played together as well to make a really interesting show. I have been a huge fan of John Hammond for years and although we’ve met a number of times over that time, I had never played on stage with him so it was a real honour. What a gentleman. Geoff Muldaur was great and if you don’t know his singing, he sang on the Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s Better Days recording years ago. Great singer.
The house band was fantastic and I had a really good time. Well I guess that’s it for now.
Talk soon,
Colin
Colin James has been nominated for a 2010 Indie Award for Favourite Blues Artist/Group
Here are the nominees:
Colin James (MapleMusic)
Colin Linden (True North Records)
Harrison Kennedy (Electro-Fi)
Jim Byrnes (Black Hen)
Monkey Junk (Beefy Productions)
For more information click here: http://www.indies.ca/nominees-winners/
Well, I’m back in Vancouver in the middle of the Olympic madness and it’s great to be home. It is unbelievably warm these days anyway. Wow!
So much going on here it’s hard to believe. The Canadian/Somalia artist K’naan along with Universal Music and World Vision and many many others got together to re record his song Waving Flag with all proceeds going to Haiti. I got to catch up with Kathleen Edwards, Serena Ryder, Sam Roberts, Tom Cochrane and many others. Cool to see everyone rally together and donate their energies. I sang along with everyone on the chorus and it was lots of fun.
We ended the shows in beautiful Victoria at the Royal Theater and the audience was awesome. Always slightly bittersweet to end a run although we are still doing some shows here around the Olympics.
I want to thank everyone who came out and supported our shows across the country. It feels good to know that I have friends in every province in Canada and I’m so glad I get to see you every couple of years or so. Coast to coast it always astounds me how much we have in common as Canadians. When you think of the miles (or should I say kilometers ), that separate us, …. it’s pretty cool .
Hopefully we’ll have an idea of how Spring/Summer is shaping up as far as shows go and we’ll be coming to your town soon.
Again thanks for supporting live music,
See you soon,
Colin