Downchild Blues Band Tour Dates and Upcoming Concerts
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On tour
Yes
Followers
8,090
Category
Blues
Concerts
Nov
12
FAREWELL TOUR - Hugh's Room Live!
Toronto
Tickets
Nov
13
FAREWELL TOUR - Hugh's Room Live! (SOLD OUT)
Toronto
Tickets
Nov
20
FARWELL TOUR - Babs Asper Theatre (National Arts Centre)
Ottawa
Tickets
Nov
21
FAREWELL TOUR - The Port Theatre
Cornwall
Tickets
Nov
22
FAREWELL TOUR - Regent Theatre Picton
Prince Edward
Tickets
Nov
28
FAREWELL TOUR - The Studio
Hamilton
Tickets
Nov
29
FAREWELL TOUR - Aeolian Hall Performing Arts Centre (SOLD OUT)
London
Tickets
About Downchild Blues Band
Can You Hear the Music starts the way all things Downchild should: With the jump blues sound that makes you want to jump up and dance.
And, as band leader Donnie Walsh will tell you himself, that’s the sound Downchild audiences all over the world want to hear.
Forty-four years on, Downchild remains a blues force, true to itself and without equal.
For just about every waking moment since he formed the Downchild Blues Band – Canada’s best known and best loved blues outfit – Walsh has been living the dream that changed his life back in the mid-1960s when someone dropped a Jimmy Reed album onto the turntable at his girlfriend’s 16th birthday party in suburban North Toronto.
It’s a moment Walsh – he also answers to his “given” name, Mr. Downchild, taken from a song by Sonny Boy Williamson II – says he will never forget.
“That was it. I was hooked. I never wanted to play anything else.”
He drove his girlfriend crazy learning Reed’s lip-splitting harmonica technique, then James Cotton’s. He locked himself away from the world while he picked apart Muddy Water’s and Albert King’s guitar licks, reconstructing them in his own distinctive style on a beat-up electric guitar. And when he did venture out, it was to one of Toronto’s legendary blues dives to catch his heroes Luther Allison, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, all of them regular visitors in those days to Walsh’s hometown of Toronto, Canada’s blues capital.
Walsh was a good student. He is recognized around the world as both a blues harp virtuoso with few equals, and an unusually expressive guitarist.
He wasn’t the only one, of course. They say Toronto’s built on the blues, but all across Canada the blues, particularly jump-style and Chicago blues that used to blast across the border from radio stations in northern U.S., is a basic, shared language.
Singer Chuck Jackson, tenor sax player Pat Carey, drummer Mike Fitzpatrick, bassist Gary Kendall, and pianist/organist Michael Fonfara – Walsh’s compadres in Downchild for the past decade and a half, and, he says, the “best musicians I’ve ever played with” – were soaking up the blues in their teenage years as well, in different parts of the country.
Downchild’s 17th album, Can You Hear the Music, drops October 29, 2013, on the Canadian independent label Linus Entertainment.
The album is both distinctly Downchild and proudly Canadian, right down to its cover art, which features the iconic "Sam The Record Man" sign from the landmark Toronto record store on Yonge Street.
Much like that record store, Downchild has given music lovers all over the world what they want. Walsh penned eight of the eleven songs on the album, delivering the mix of jump blues and classic blues songs that Downchild audiences crave.
“I wrote most of the songs over the four months before heading into the studio,” says Walsh. “A couple, "Scattered," which is an instrumental, and "One in a Million," came together during the recording sessions.
“"One in a Million" is different from other songs I’ve ever written. I had the guitar riff in my head. For weeks before and during recording, if I sat down with my guitar, it’s the first thing I’d play,” he continues. “Over time, it became a song. It has a lot of old-style acoustic slide guitar elements and it lent itself nicely to a smooth gospel sound.”
Walsh really enjoys the production side of making an album; although he’ll tell you it’s not really producing when you’re in a studio with musicians you know as well as the Downchild members know each other. However, the most recent trip to the studio took a bit of a turn.
“A funny thing happened on the way to the studio,” he says. “I was planning to book time at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, where we normally record but I was surprised to discover there was no time available in any of their studios. It turns out that Drake had booked the entire facility for a month or so to record his album.”
Fortunately, L. Stu Young — “engineer par excellence,” as Donnie calls him; he’s engineered Downchild albums since 1994’s Good Times Guaranteed — got the situation under control. Can You Hear the Music was recorded at the Drive Shed Recording Studios in Toronto, with additional recording and mixing at Loud Mouse Studios, also in Toronto.
Walsh and his band mates have won countless music industry awards, including a Juno (Canada’s Grammy) for “Best Roots and Traditional Album” in 1991. They also received a Juno Award nomination in 2005 for “Blues Album of The Year” for their album Come On In. In 2007, Downchild was named “Entertainer of The Year” at the annual Maple Blues Awards (the Canadian equivalent of a W.C. Handy Award).
With more than 80 great musicians on the payroll during its long life, Downchild is a robust road beast, having racked up thousands of performances at concert halls, fairgrounds, saloons and roadhouses in every corner of the continent.
The inspiration for Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi’s fabulous creation, The Blues Brothers – they recorded Downchild’s “Shotgun Blues” and Walsh’s “(I Got Everything I Need) Almost,” the latter shortlisted as one of Canada’s Essential Songs in a survey conducted by the Toronto Star in 2007 – Downchild is an institution in their homeland, and revered by blues fans around the world.
America’s National Public Radio service pays regular tribute, featuring Downchild in concert specials and blues programs.
For years a favourite on the North American festival circuit, the band made its first concert appearance in Europe in 2008, at the Lille Blues Festival in France, returning in 2010 to perform at the largest blues festival in Europe, the Notodden Blues Festival in Norway.
Apart from its earliest incarnations, with Donnie’s brother, the late “Hock” Walsh as singer, Downchild was always more than a bar band. A party band, sure – good times guaranteed, just as it says on one of Downchild’s album titles.
But musicianship of the highest order, sharp arrangements, strict adherence to its legitimate sources, slick pacing and a steely fix on the moods of its audiences, have always set Downchild apart. This has been a class act for the better part of its 40-plus-year life.
About the reasons for Downchild’s success, Walsh is succinct and unequivocal.
“First, it’s knowing your audience, and knowing when to give them what they want,” he says. “If they want to dance, you step up the groove. If they want to watch, you give them lots of solos.
“As for keeping a band together for as long as Downchild has been around, it’s an unspoken thing, finding a balance between what I need and what I know each musician can give. Every member of this band is well equipped to do what each of us wants and needs. Downchild has always been bigger than the sum of its parts, and I can’t really explain why.”
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Genres
Blues
Band members
Chuck Jackson - Lead Vocals/Harmonica, Donnie Mr. Downchild Walsh - Leader/Guitarist/Harmonica, Gary Kendall - Bass, Michael Fonfara - Organ/Keyboards, Pat Carey - Sax, Mike Fitzpatrick - Drums
Photos
What fans are saying
Anonymous
The Legendary Downchild Blues Band - Great show in a nice small venue (160 seats) - Fair well Tour may be the last chance to them.
Bancroft Village Playhouse
Bancroft, ON
Oct 19, 2024
Nancy
EXCELLENT!! The reason they are still drawing crowds after all this time is because they are all so darn TALENTED!
Wish they would come to Ottawa!!
Festival Hall Centre for the Arts
Pembroke, ON
Jun 12, 2022
Anonymous
Legendary, because they've earned it! Great show. Donnie and Chuck both playing harp at same time was awesome. Nice theatre, too, very good staff.
Sault Community Theatre Centre
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Nov 12, 2022
Doug
We had an excellent time at your show ! Venue was very nice .... Great to see a live concert again !!
Showplace Performance Centre
Peterborough, ON
May 30, 2022
Anonymous
Chuck wasn't there but the new singer did a good job. Very much enjoyed it! Donnie plays like he's 30 years old.
Wingham Town HAll Theatre
Wingham, ON
Nov 26, 2023
Downchild Blues Band Tour Cities
Frequently Asked Questions About Downchild Blues Band
Concerts & Tour Date Information
Is Downchild Blues Band on tour?
Yes, Downchild Blues Band is currently on tour. If you’re interested in attending an upcoming
Downchild Blues Band concert, make sure to grab your tickets in advance. The Downchild Blues Band tour
is scheduled for 7 dates across 6 cities. Get
information on all upcoming tour dates and tickets for 2024-2025 with Hypebot.
How many upcoming tour dates is Downchild Blues Band scheduled to play?
Downchild Blues Band is scheduled to play 7 shows between 2024-2025. Buy
concert tickets to a nearby show through Hypebot.
When does the Downchild Blues Band tour start?
Downchild Blues Band’s tour starts Nov 12, 2024 and ends on Nov 29, 2024.
They will play 6 cities; their most recent concert was held in
Toronto at Hugh's Room Live and their next upcoming concert
will be in Hamilton at The Studio at Hamilton Place.
What venues is Downchild Blues Band performing at?
As part of the Downchild Blues Band tour, Downchild Blues Band is scheduled to play across the following
venues and cities:
2024 Tour Dates:
Nov 12 - Toronto,
ON @ Hugh's Room Live
Nov 13 - Toronto,
ON @ Hugh's Room Live
Nov 20 - Ottawa,
ON @ Babs Asper theatre
Nov 21 - Cornwall,
ON @ The Port Theatre
Nov 22 - Prince Edward,
ON @ Regent Theatre
Nov 28 - Hamilton,
ON @ The Studio at Hamilton Place
Nov 29 - London,
ON @ Aeolian Hall Performing Arts Centre