Jim Byrnes is probably not familiar by name to most folks here in the U.S. as a blues musician. No, you probably recognized him from his extensive work as Joe Dawson, The Watcher in the Highlander television series. Born in St. Louis, MO; Byrnes has lived in Canada since the 70s and has been a working blues and roots musician since the 80s.
Jim Byrnes is better known as an actor, at least in the States - he played "Lifeguard" to undercover agent Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl) in the great '80s TV series Wiseguy. But the St. Louis-born singer and guitarist is also a superb roots musician, and in Canada a multiple award-winning one.
Canadian bluesman Jim Byrnes cites the approach of the pre-blues "songster" tradition – in which the blues would be but one part of a repertoire that also encompassed gospel spirituals, country, folk and popular songs – as indicative of his intentions on his own albums.
Jim Byrnes is a triple threat, not just a singer-guitarist but an actor and writer as well. He penned and co-wrote only three songs on My Walking Stick, but they're all dynamite, especially Ol' Rattler.
It's impossible to say whether the St. Louis born and raised Byrnes would have found more success in the States had he stayed there than in Vancouver, where he moved a few decades ago and remains as of this recording's 2009 release.
Blues music with a kick, performed by a man who’s shoes are scuffed and worn
A music veteran of 40 years Canadian resident, but St. Louis-born Jim Byrnes cross pollinates an exciting selection of genres on this his umpteenth album.
My Walking Stick finds Canadian-based Jim Byrnes reunited with the Vancouver gospel trio The Sojourners, as well as acclaimed producer/guitarist Steve Dawson. Brynes and crew delve into to a number of diverse genres, ranging from gospel and ‘60s R&B to country, blues and Americana.
Before we begin this review we're going to state right off the bat that blues/pop is not our usual choice of music here in the sometimes pretentious yet plush babysue office suite. This kind of music isn't necessary bad...it's just not the kind of thing that normally makes our sprightly little cheeks puff up right.
"Those who remember Ry Cooder's great late '70s/early '80s albums with Terry Evans and Bobby King as supporting vocalists will be thrilled by Byrnes, who travels in comparable territory. Dawson's sympathetic touch as guitarist and producer keeps the atmosphere dusky, but it's Byrnes who joins together the musical strands.
The back cover of "My walking Stick" shows versatile country-blues singer/guitarist Jim Byrnes having a leisurely cup of coffee while sitting in a diner booth looking the very personification of the term "Old Pro"; this being his eighth album since 1981, Byrnes can make an honest claim to the description.
"I've been at this professionally for more than forty years, and I really feel that I'm only now discovering my true voice,"
Said multiple June and Maple blues award winner Jim Byrnes, commenting on this wide ranging roots release.
Listeners will delight in this discovery too as Byrnes delivers blues, gospel, R&B, and country on this gritty effort.
All of Jim Byrnes’s long-simmering interests blend perfectly in My Walking Stick, an album that finds deep blues, rough gospel, playful swing, and dreamy-eyed country getting along like distant relatives swapping tales at a well-oiled family reunion.
Everyone needs a walking stick, a little help to get along. Jim Byrnes of Vancouver uses Steve Dawson, the producer who co-dominates this blood-red, rich album of roots music.
Singer-guitarist-songwriter Jim Byrnes has won numerous Juno awards (the Canadian equivalent to the U.S Grammy).'My Walking Stick', is produced by Steve Dawson whose long collaboration with Byrnes as producer and musician has contributed to Byrnes successes.
Canadian roots run dark and Jim Byrnes channels the crossroads, the menace and the depth of fear. Covering blues to gospel to the Band, Jim gives new meaning to the realities. A double amputee thanks to a careless driver, Byrnes walks on through his amazing talent. Hailing from Vancouver now, Jim’s St.
Jim Byrnes new album My Walking Stick was just released this week. While other singers are quick to capitalize on any previous claims to fame, the press release for this album doesn’t even mention Byrnes’ acting career. I personally know him best as watcher Joe Dawson on Highlander the Series (my biggest guilty pleasure), but the general public may remember him better for his role on Wiseguy.
Upon looking at the cover photo for "My Walking Stick," Jim Byrnes' latest release on Black Hen Records, one might say "this guy sure looks familiar." That's because he has done quite a bit of acting, portraying one of the "Watchers" on the "Highlander" TV series, and as the "Lifeguard" opposite Ken Wahl on CBS-TV's "Wiseguy" from 1987-1990.
There aren’t many albums like My Walking Stick being recorded today. Then again, there aren’t many singers like Jim Byrnes around anymore either. Originally from St.
Though he may be best known for his acting skills, Jim Byrnes is well worth checking out as a musician. Having played several recurring roles, including television show Highlander, Byrnes has a list of projects on IMDB that will keep the mouse button scrolling. In 1972, Byrnes lost both of his legs in a car accident.
If -- as it was to me -- Jim Byrnes' face looks curiously familiar, it's because (in common with English folksinger John Tams) he works as a character actor on television and elsewhere. If you aren't Canadian, however, you probably have not have heard his music.
Having spent his life as an award-winning musician and actor, not to mention appearing with everyone from John Lee Hooker to Muddy Waters, Jim Byrnes has still got plenty to sing about. My Walking Stick finds him in a very comfortable place musically, carving out blues classics to be, re-telling folk tales and laying down the occasional cover.
Canadian bluesman Jim Byrnes cites the approach of the pre-blues "songster" tradition – in which the blues would be but one part of a repertoire that also encompassed gospel spirituals, country, folk and popular songs – as indicative of his intentions on his own albums.
Juno-winning blues and roots vocalist Jim Brynes strikes pay dirt with producer Steve Dawson for the third time with My Walking Stick.
Whether covering Irving Berlin, Mel Tillis, Robbie Robertson or Oh Susanna, among others, or serving up originals, Byrnes warm, smoky voice caresses all the right notes.
If your taste in double-dipping into the College of Musical Knowledge tends toward
smoky blues, back of the swamp grooves and seen-it-all lyrics being served
up by a band of old pros who know exactly what they’re doing when the record
button is pushed, look no further and step inside and check this little waffl e out.
OK, we're all agreed that air travel these days is a no-fun proposition, what with all the nutty security impositions -- I mean really, that whole shoe-removal thing is an elaborate practical joke, right? -- and then having to go find a Subway to get food before you board. And the seats the size of a magazine. Rolled up.
It's easier to stay home and just watch the Discovery Channel.
Most of Jim Byrnes’ roots are grey, but the rest are surely blues-soaked soul and gospel.
My Walking Stick — named for the dirgy cover of the Irving Berlin classic on the disc — is his third collaboration with Black Hen Records producer Steve Dawson, and the best.
Busy Vancouver actor and bluesman Jim Byrnes is releasing a new CD this week, penning his memoirs and getting ready for his first spin as a professional radio host with a three-hour weekly Saturday night show called Slipping into Darkness on Shore 104 FM.
With half dozen or so fine albums already under his belt, transplanted Yank bluesman and actor Jim Byrnes returns with the solid My Walking Stick. The former Wiseguy and Highlander dude has a knack for the authentic feel, and with the help of the near-legendary Canuck musical team of Jesse Zubot and Steve Dawson playing and producing, this baker's dozen tracks really shines.
If gritty blues and fold are your thing, My Walking Stick serves up great stories with fine playing, especially by producer Stew Dawson on guitar. It's menacing in some parts, joyful in others, and always full of soul. -GH
Jim Byrnes is a blues and roots singer, songwriter and actor who has spent most of his adult life in Canada. He has the Juno Awards (Canadian Grammy), Maple Blues Awards and Canadian Folk Music Awards to prove his popularity up there, including 2007 Blues Album of the Year for his last one.
Multi-instrumental talent Jim Byrnes is a legitimate blues music hero in Canada, but he remains, sadly, unknown and underrated in the United States. Hopefully My Walking Stick will earn Byrnes the stateside respect that he deserves.
The title track might be as close as Byrnes has been to autobiographical, but the album is personal in other ways. It's in his choice of covers, such as The Band's "Ophelia," Bobby Womack's "Lookin For a Love," or the Ray Charles version of "Drown In My Own Tears." These are true to Byrnes' devotion to rhythm and blues. It's in his continuation of the gospel-themed album, House of Refuge.
As an actor, Jim Byrnes may create fiction, but as a musician and singer, he’s always told the truth. It’s no surprise to learn, then, that the legendary bluesman named the gospel group currently accompanying him after a 19th-century African-American abolitionist and women’s-rights activist.
Musician and actor Jim Byrnes is respected in the Canadian music scene. The Vancouver singer-songwriter is especially noted for his gruff, soulful voice and a respectful approach to the blues.
Jim Byrnes, who was brought up in St. Louis but who has been based in Vancouver since the mid-70s, is known both as an actor and as a blues singer. His latest album, his best yet, is bound to show up on plenty of 'Best of the Year' lists.
The cover shot of an urban church exterior signals an album of spiritual bent. Rousing opener “Didn’t It Rain” confirms that. Justin Rutledge’s “Lay Me Down Sweet Jesus,” Thomas Dorsey’s “Today,” Skip James’ “Be Ready When He Comes,” David Wall’s “Fortify Me” and two Byrnes originals extend the theme.
If in the past ten to fifteen years, gospel’s lyrical content hasn’t strayed too far from its origins, its musical foundation sure has. North of the U.S./Canada border, it seems to have shed even more of its musical modesty, fraternizing openly with worldly sounds that church folk would have considered off limits back in the day.
Vancouver blues musician, sometime actor and general man about town Jim Byrnes goes to the fortress in his latest album, House of Refuge. That fortress is the house of the Lord, the rock on which Byrnes builds his house.
Byrnes is focused intently on the life of the spirit here as he tells us inside the CD cover that these are the songs of hope, longing, sin and redemption.
When Jim Byrnes moved from St. Louis to Vancouver, Canada's blues scene got immeasurably better. The prolific guitarist has played with the greats – Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray – and his new disc proves yet again why his name should be included among these bluesmen.
Musician Jim Byrnes is a seeker. In a career marked by performances that range from gospel to blues to country and R&B, Byrnes has one common thread: he’s after the truth.
One way to find that is to simplify and that’s exactly what he’ll be doing when he performs in the New Calgary International Jazz Festival this month.
Jim Byrnes is one of the most soulful singers to ever call Vancouver home, but on his new gospel-blues release, House of Refuge, the veteran musician gets some pretty stiff competition from the Sojourners, aka vocalists Marcus Mosely, Will Sanders, and Ron Small. The trio performs on seven of the CD’s 12 tracks and sets the tone for some seriously spiritual sounds.
A wincing God looks down at a crazy world and can't help but catch a case of the blues. He has no problems with JimByrnes, who sings tunes that are sacred and secular, side by side, in a voice that is worn, wise and sweater-comfortable. (Byrnes, a Vancouver-based American -- he is "St.
"for billy,
oh come angel band,
come and around me stand."
So goes the simple, poignant dedication on the inside cover of Jim Byrnes' new CD House of Refuge.
It doesn't take a genius to know it's a message meant for late Calgary artist Billy Cowsill.
"We went back a long way," says Byrnes from his home in Vancouver, where the two became acquainted.
""Another big winner for Vancouver bluesman Jim Byrnes, again working in tandem with multi-instrumentalist/ producer Steve Dawson. This has strong Southern gospel currents and features local gospel trio The Sojourners--Marcus Mosely, Will Sanders and Ron Small--throughout.
I thought it would be hard for Jim Byrnes to top his 2004 recording Fresh Horses, but you can never sell this guy short. The singer-songwriter populates his new disc, House of Refuge, with fellow Vancouver musicians, but has them play the music he grew up with in his Missouri youth-blues, gospel and acoustic soul. Call it a successful border crossing.
For every boy band that flares briefly into the night sky then dies equally quickly, there are guys like Jim Byrnes out there, peddling their craft, making music that has more integrity, soul, meaning and passion than anything a shipload of Westlifes could muster in half a minute.
Gruff, smoky, and soulful vocals greet the first-time listener of blues journeyman Jim Byrnes, a veteran of the genre who has been on that blues highway for the past 40 years. Backed by the multitalented instrumentalists Jesse Zubot and Steve Dawson, legendary Missouri musician Jim Byrnes creates a dozen swampy and freshly brewed blues numbers.
Growing up in a true blues city, St. Louis, Missouri, Jim Byrnes discovered that even as a teenager he knew he had a calling for the blues. With his rough-stock smoky vocals and pure blues approach it is simple to see that his dreams have come true. The major problem is being recognized as a blues performer.
Jim Byrnes tears it up on this release. Fresh Horses is blues on the edge. But in the middle of great music. In your face blues with a rock feel best describes this album. Jim delivers it all with his raspy vocal performance. This is an album that has it all for the blues and rock fan.
I will put a bid in for this being the best album of the year. Byrnes hooked up with his friends in Vancouver's Zubot and Dawson to put together one of the tightest acoustic blues albums i've heard in a long time. The inclusion of Zubot and Dawson's "archaic" instruments (fiddles, mandolins, etc) add flavour to a genre that's been around longer than we've all been alive.
Jim Byrnes is familiar to many people from his appearances on TV shows like Wiseguy (as Lifeguard) from the late 80’s, or as Joe Dawson from the late 90’s syndicated favorite, Highlander, but he’s always considered himself a musician first and foremost. Born and raised in St. Louis, Byrnes absorbed all the great music emanating from the city during the glory days of blues and R&B.
Vancouver-based Jim Byrnes, an accomplished actor in addition to his award-winning musical activities, returns with another eclectic collection that draws material from all over the map, yet remains firmly rooted in blues and gospel.
This veteran actor (Wiseguy, Highlander), television host, singer and musician has won two Juno Awards for best blues album, and this collection of covers and originals could put him in the running for a third. Steve Dawson produced and contributes his customary fine work on all things with strings.
Jim Byrnes is probably better known as an actor than a Juno award-winning blues singer. Yet, music has always been Byrnes’ primary craft and his last two collaborations with Vancouver roots producer Steve Dawson have created some truly sublime moments.
It’s always funny when you come across a first class Americana record and find it comes from Canada. Just ironic like a for rent sign on a real estate office.
