When Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi sat down to create their famous skit for Saturday Night Live their idea didn’t come to them from out of the blue, but rather out of the blues and a band called The Downchild Blues Band. Modelling “The Blues Brothers” after the iconic Canadian musical act formed by Donnie “Mr. Downchild” Walsh and his brother Richard, Aykroyd and Belushi brought attention to a musical phenomenon that was happening just north of the border.
Hailed as bringing blues to Canada, Downchild has been playing to audiences since 1969 and is still earning awards and attention. In 2010 alone Downchild has been nominated for six awards at the Maple Blues Awards while co-founder Donnie Walsh received his induction into both the Canadian Blues Museum and Hall of Fame. But the accolades don’t stop here, on December 4th TMN(HBO Canada) will air the first ever Downchild documentary entitled Flip, Flop and Fly, which will help celebrate their 40th anniversary concert and is narrated by long time friend and fan Dan Aykroyd.
The press release for the documentary states: “Downchild has had a huge impact on Canadian and American musical culture but to-date, this impact has been overlooked by pop culture historians.” With interviews, archival film clips and behind the scenes footage, the documentary seeks to remedy this lack. It also features special guests James Cotton, Wayne Jackson and Colin James.
The main man himself, Donnie Walsh, took some time out to speak to Cadence about the documentary, the blues and all things Downchild.
Hi Donnie. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today.
No problem at all.
You must be looking forward to the premier of the documentary on Saturday. How much of it have you seen already?
I’ve seen parts of it, most of it actually. From what I have seen it looks like it is going to be really good. Everyone seems really excited and positive about it, so it should be great.
So you know what to expect?
Not from the audience!
Was it Dan Aykroyd or yourselves who originally had the idea to make the documentary?
Actually, the idea came from Joel Goldberg. There have been several suggestions to make a Downchild movie or documentary over the years, but this one actually made it. Joel took it on and decided to make it happen, and he did.
It was shot in several locations. They came down to the rehearsal studio when we were recording a new song and then they came to the recording studio when we recorded the same song, so they got to see if from beginning to end. And of course they recorded the whole Massey Hall performance. There’s some other stuff in there too – interview with me and some with other people. A whole range of things.
The documentary is partly a celebration of your 40th Anniversary Tour. Was there a retrospective element to making the documentary?
Actually, yes. It reaches quite far back. We went back to Grossman’s Tavern, which is the club where I started out. I sat right where the stage used to be, in the exact same spot where I used to, and played. They’ve put that in the documentary. I actually go down there still on some Saturday afternoons.
Speaking of taking a trip down memory lane, what have been some of the greatest moments for Downchild since you started?
Well, this movie was a pretty major event. And of course, having the Blues Brothers record two of my songs was incredibly significant. There have been so many.
People always ask me what my best gig was and I say the next one. There is always something new and exciting for me, which is great because I have to do this all the time. It’s my job after all.
You say there is always something new, but where do you get your inspiration from to keep writing new material?
I’m mainly inspired by events going on in the world, and in the lives of my friends and family. But my musical influences have probably stayed the same for a long time. When we started off I was listening to Black American Blues and that has stuck. My music is still coming from the same background now.
Well, it is clearly a winning formula. Why do you think Downchild have managed to stand the test of time?
I think it has something to with the songs, but also the way that Downchild presents jazz to people. It’s an uplifting experience. The idea of the blues is that you play until you don’t have them anymore. It cheers up the people who weren’t cheery already.
You’ve said before that the blues is like medicine.
It is good for the soul. I’ve definitely had people coming up to say that to me after gigs. It makes them feel good. It’s so great when you start playing and you can see the crowd start smiling and dancing.
You clearly love what you do. There’s actually a line in one of your songs on the album A Case of the Blues which goes: “All those days you said you were going out to work, you were really going out to play?” (I’ve Been A Fool). Do you ever feel that when you go out to work you’re actually going out to play?
Yes, that’s exactly what we do. We play. The line was originally written about my girlfriend – she claimed she was going to work but she was playing around with someone else. But I guess it could be taken either way!
Over the 40 years that the band has been playing, the music scene must have changed a lot?
It definitely has in terms of blues music. When we started off there wasn’t really much around. It was tough going at first – we were playing in all these little places, high schools and that sort of thing. But then we started touring and blues started to get played on popular radio. There were a few smaller blues bands around at that time too and I guess they got a boost from everything that was going on with Downchild as well.
I was just playing classic blues at that point but people didn’t really understand what blues was. When we were playing they would always shout out, “House of the Rising Sun” because they thought that it was a blues song. I don’t think I’ve ever played that song in my life!
Since then blues has got bigger and bigger, and I’m hearing new music all the time now, which is fantastic. I definitely think that blues will live on.
Downchild have come to be an icon not only of blues music, but also of Canada. Are you proud to be Canadian?
I don’t like the word proud – being Canadian is something that I didn’t have much choice about. It would be like being proud of your height or something. But I am happy to be Canadian. I love Canada and I think that it is one of the better places to live.
It’s been said that Toronto itself was built on the blues. What do you make of that?
Toronto was built on the north shore of Lake Ontario!
That’s probably a more accurate statement.
It certainly is. The bands that I was listening to came from Chicago, not Toronto, so the blues was definitely not built on Toronto.
But was Toronto built on the blues? Well, today Toronto is a great place for it and there is a great blues scene here. If you wanted to, you could probably find blues music going on all of the time, almost constantly.
A 24/7 blues fest? Sounds great! But surely you have to take some time off. What will you be doing over Christmas to unwind?
Fishing. Hanging out on the beach. During the winter I live in a small village down south, so something nice and quiet and relaxing.
And what’s next for Downchild in the New Year?
I’ll head south for the winter and play down there. Some of the guys will come to join me in February. Then we’ve got a pretty hectic tour schedule starting off in the spring. We’re heading to the US for some studio concerts in April, and we’ve got some live radio shows booked too. So we’re really looking forward to that.
So are we. Thanks Donnie!
My pleasure.
For more on Donnie and Downchild, you can visit their website at www.downchild.com
Flip, Flop and Fly: 40 years of the Downchild Blues Band airs on Saturday, December 4th at 6.25 pm on TMN (HBO Canada).
For more on Grossman’s Tavern and The Happy Pals, click here.
You can vote for Downchild in the Maple Blues Awards online by clicking here.
