In the News
OTTAWA ROCKS
Thursday, April 3, 2003
Ottawa Citizen
Best moment: Cafe Wilhelmina... there was all kinds of music telepathy going on.
Who: Tony D, a bona fide Ottawa blues institution.
Best moment in music: A show we did in Eindhoven, Holland, at an old jazz club called Cafe Wilhelmina that had been around since the '60s. On Sunday afternoons they have a band, and you're supposed to start at 4:30 and get off at 6:30. Well, we started at 4:30 and got off at 8:30. We came out kicking and everything was good; the sound was great, I was playing good, my timing was good, everybody in the band was hitting a really good moment. There was all kinds of musical telepathy going on.
Worst moment in music: When I was in Saints and Sinners we were in Halifax, as part of a six-week tour, and Tortoise Blue was in the band at the time. His brother, who was a really close friend of the band's, had died during the tour. And Ben Richardson was quitting to join a band called the Phantoms. We had been together about seven years, and I just remember being in Halifax – we had been arguing the whole time – and I just couldn't play, not out of nervousness, but out of sheer exhaustion and stress. I remember the guys in the band screaming at me to play, but it was like a quiet scream. And then I realized I was in a trance, and I just couldn't play all night. I felt like I had forgotten how.
Favourite Canadian song: Almost by the Downchild Blues Band. I rank that song as one of the great blues songs like Sweet Home Chicago or Mojo Workin'. It is as authentic as authentic can get.