One of Canada's leading roots rock acts,
Blackie & the Rodeo Kings is a collaboration between three well-respected blues, folk, and rock musicians,
Stephen Fearing,
Colin Linden, and
Tom Wilson.
Fearing is a Vancouver-born, Irish-raised singer/songwriter who returned to the city of his birth in 1981; since 1986, he's released a number of critically acclaimed albums, and is a multiple Juno-award winner.
Colin Linden hails from Toronto, and has collaborated with artists as varied as
Leon Redbone,
Bruce Cockburn,
Robert Plant, and
the Band, as well as producing albums for a number of artists and releasing several fine solo albums. And
Tom Wilson, from Hamilton, Ontario, was the leader of the celebrated blues-rock band
Junkhouse before going on to a successful career as a solo artist and songwriter.
Fearing,
Linden, and
Wilson were friends and colleagues who had frequently appeared on each other's albums, and in 1996, they joined forces to pay homage to
Willie P. Bennett, a singer and songwriter from Southern Ontario who won a cult following (and later a Juno award) for his powerful, evocative story songs. The trio recorded an album of
Bennett's songs called
High or Hurtin': The Songs of Willie P. Bennett, and released it under the group name
Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, a reference to the title of an album
Bennett released in 1978. The album was well received both commercially and critically, and in 1999, the three reconvened for a second album,
Kings of Love, in which they covered songs from a variety of different tunesmiths, as well as presenting a few original numbers. In 2004,
Blackie & the Rodeo Kings released
Bark, their first album dominated by original material, which solidified the group's solid, scrappy fusion of blues, country, and rock influences. In the fall of 2006,
Blackie & the Rodeo Kings issued
Let's Frolic, which also featured what had become the group's regular rhythm section, bassist
John Dymond and drummer
Gary Craig, as well as guest vocals from
Pam Tillis. The band cut enough material during the
Let's Frolic sessions that a second album of outtakes,
Let's Frolic Again, appeared in the spring of 2008.
The Rodeo Kings returned to their collaborative roots on 2011's
Kings and Queens, in which each of the 14 tracks featured duet vocals from a different female artist, including
Emmylou Harris,
Pam Tillis,
Lucinda Williams,
Rosanne Cash,
Cassandra Wilson, and
Patti Scialfa. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
