The Harpdog Brown Band, a blues ensemble from Vancouver, is stopping by Olds and is daring residents to miss their show, which the group's lead singer promises to be an “amazing, exciting, entertaining performance that they've never seen before.”Harpdog Brown – yes, that's his legal name – hopes to reach those who don't listen to the blues. He's confident he'll make a fan out of you.“Especially the ones who think they don't like the blues, I implore them to come and give this a try,” Brown said. “It's not about the genre. It's about the performance.”The four-piece band will be playing at Tracks Pub on May 15 at 9 p.m. Admission is pay-what-you-can, though the suggested price is $10.The group is currently on tour promoting its latest album, What It Is, released on March 4.According to Brown, the album is shared life experiences between people; things that help people relate to one another.“We all have a common thread in life. We all experience a lot of the same things in certain aspects,” he said. “Sometimes it's nice to be able to hear from somebody who's got a better grip on it or for that matter, even has been kicked a little harder than you have.”That is what the blues are about, Brown said.The singer, who also plays the harmonica, was drawn to the genre when he was a teenager.He was a fan of The Rolling Stones and describing himself as curious, researched the songwriters of early Stones albums.“The deeper I investigated The Rolling Stones, the more I found the blues,” Brown said. “And I found even a more kinship to that than The Rolling Stones. As much as I will always love The Rolling Stones to the day I die, I'm more of the roots where the Stones came from.”Brown is originally from Edmonton and now resides in Vancouver. He first decided to become a musician early in his life.“When I was 17 years old, I didn't want to punch a clock,” he said. “I bore easy and this is the life that is impossible to be bored at because you never know what to expect.”His band has six albums to date, including the 1995 release, Home Is Where The Harp Is, which was nominated for a Juno Award in the best blues category.It's a career that has allowed Brown to travel across Canada, the U.S. and Europe, practising show business.“All my life I wanted to join the circus and now I get to be the ringmaster.”[email protected]
