EDMONTON JOURNAL
Tuesday, April 2, 2000
By Peter North
Edmonton, AB
Fans Patient During 10-year Recording Break
Along with Toronto's Downchild Blues Band and Vancouver's Powder Blues, Cape Breton's Matt Minglewood is one of the true veteran survivors of this nation's blues-boogie circuit.
Since the '70s, this madman of the Maritimes has been churning out his brand of hard-edged, gut bucket blues-rock to rabid fans from one ocean to the other. Despite taking a 10-year break from recording, the guitarist, writer and bandleader has been able to sustain a solid fan base -- one that will be collectively pleased to learn this latest tour finds him with a new album in hand, The Drivin' Wheel.
As hard as Minglewood puts out on stage, the tour that brings him to Cook County Saloon on Wednesday could turn out to be a break compared to what he's just endured.
"We just finished our local men's hockey tournament and I was on two teams. After a week of that, I need a few days to recover," laughs the marathon man, who did manage to contribute a couple of performances to outside recording projects during the 90's.
One found him on the live Stan Rogers tribute disc and the other had him singing a duet with fellow Cape Bretoner Rita MacNeil on her last album, A Thousand Nights.
What kept Minglewood out of a studio was that Savannah Records, which he was signed to, kept pushing him towards a straight country sound and he balked. "We did one album with Savannah in '89 and worked it hard for a couple of years. I didn't want to move any closer to a country sound than what we did on that album" admitted Minglewood, who kept right on performing as a touring artist and as member of the Cape Breton Summertime Revue.
"I also produced a record for Wayne Nicholson and the Revue for Loggerhead Records and over time finally went after some investors to make a new record for myself. When we finally got into Gordie Sampson's studio, it ended up being the most enjoyable experience I've had making a record," continued the man who has sold close to 400,000 discs in his career. One of his biggest tunes, Me and The Boys, was picked up by The Charlie Daniels Band.
The thing with The Drivin' Wheel album is that there was no outside input and I knew exactly what I wanted," Minglewood said of the eight originals and three covers from distinctly different sources. One cover is a gritty interpretation of Sonny Boy Williamson's Somebody Help Me that's powered by Minglewood's reverberating slide guitar. The other two are Black Spruce River, which Lennie Gallant pitched to him, and the title tune, a Canadian classic penned by Ottawa's David Wiffen. "My old pianist gave me a tape of the Tom Rush version of Drivin' Wheel and after hearing it again, I thought I had to do it even though it's been recorded dozens of times. My engineer Jamie Foulds, who just won an East Coast Music Award, really pushed me to go crazy vocally on the tune,"continued the musician, who saw his own How High is High Enoughrecently go to number one in Halifax.
Radio is a tough nut to crack but between some of the classic rock stations and blues programmers, it's getting out there.
Tickets to see him Wednesday night at Cook County are available at the venue. Phone 432-2665 for more information.