There's a bunch of really, really, good players in the Calgary area. If you remember the lead break in an old Maria Muldaur song, "Midnight At The Oasis", then you've heard Amos Garret, who still fronts a band here called "The A Team". A lot of the ones who are best known around here tend to be too flashy for my taste, perilously close to the kind of wanking that ruined metal. (But that's a whole 'nother topic!)

I think the most honest blues hereabouts come from a fella named Bill Dowey, who fronts a band called the Blues Devils.

If I cast my net a bit wider, I think the ultimate in tasteful blues guitar is played by Jack Semple. I've heard some of the most famous players in the world, and sometimes they're flat-out amazing, but sometimes they're just flat. Jack, though, never disappoints! Albert King was talking about SRV, but he might well have been describing Jack Semple when he said "You got both speed and soul."