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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hello, I'm Mario Tondagusey, managing editor of Canada's Podcast.
[00:10] SPEAKER_01: Joining me today on Edmonton's Podcast is Blues Musician Gary Martin,
[00:16] SPEAKER_01: based out of Edmonton right now. Thanks Gary for joining us today.
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: Thank you. Thank you for having me on.
[00:23] SPEAKER_01: All right, let's talk a little bit about your history first, Gary. Where are you from originally?
[00:30] SPEAKER_00: Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and you know started my music and life learning lessons in Chicago.
[00:41] SPEAKER_01: And was music always part of your life even as a youngster?
[00:47] SPEAKER_00: Yes, my mom was a singer-songwriter. My granddad was a musician and I started very young as a kid.
[00:55] SPEAKER_00: I was mimicking them and trying to play the blues and later on in 1965 my uncle Hubert Sumbland,
[01:02] SPEAKER_00: the guitarist for Halen Wolf, gave me my first lesson and taught me my first blues song that he had recorded.
[01:08] SPEAKER_00: And the rest of my life I've been pursuing it.
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: All right, so tell me Gary when you know your story about coming to Canada.
[01:17] SPEAKER_01: How did that come about?
[01:20] SPEAKER_00: I was living in Detroit and I met a young lady and we got together and found out that we were having a child.
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: And she decided she was coming back to Canada, having the baby.
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: And I told her, well you can't go and take my baby without taking me.
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: So he landed in London, Ontario.
[01:45] SPEAKER_00: And that's why I started my Canadian career in music as was in London, Ontario.
[01:51] SPEAKER_00: And you know, I got here and since there was very low ratio of gains and guns,
[01:57] SPEAKER_00: which really was a big plus to me and a bit of a way of living, you know, coming in 1977,
[02:04] SPEAKER_00: Canada was really, really open arms.
[02:07] SPEAKER_00: And I just decided to stay here and make it home.
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: So what were you playing initially in London, Ontario?
[02:15] SPEAKER_00: I was playing blues and I was doing a bit, you know, a rhythm blues and so on.
[02:20] SPEAKER_00: I was playing mainly rhythm blues and so on. That's what I was playing, but I came to Canada.
[02:24] SPEAKER_01: Okay. And just in clubs around that area or?
[02:29] SPEAKER_00: Yes, I did. I hosted a jam.
[02:33] SPEAKER_00: Also my band at the time, affirmation was the name of the band.
[02:37] SPEAKER_00: We did a lot of touring and I was very fortunate in the late 70s to get an opportunity to play with the London Symphony Orchestra
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: through the means of the Canadian music association, the union.
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: They gave me the nod and I went and performed with them.
[02:55] SPEAKER_00: And I went on to Toronto and Montreal and played with some pretty outstanding musicians and groups.
[03:00] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Now what brought you initially to Calgary?
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: I was working with, you call C.C. Caravan, which was really the Motown Touring Band.
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: That was a Choker Campbell and Johanter.
[03:16] SPEAKER_00: I was on tour out there with them and came across into Calgary.
[03:21] SPEAKER_00: I kind of checked the place out.
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: I wasn't sure if I was going to stay or not.
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: Married my second wife came back out west and in Vancouver, at that time, the music industry was dying.
[03:34] SPEAKER_00: And very clicky.
[03:36] SPEAKER_00: So I had friends here who had been in the band, divying Taylor some of the other shop-shop different ones.
[03:41] SPEAKER_00: And I had spoken to them and they told me about Calgary music industry was starting to open.
[03:46] SPEAKER_00: So we moved to Calgary and I've had a great time since then.
[03:51] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Now just for full disclosure, Gary and I met years ago when you were first in Calgary.
[04:02] SPEAKER_01: And you were working at that time with youth at risk, so to speak.
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: Can you talk a little bit about that, what you were doing in that regard?
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: Yes, I was specialized at youth at risk programs, design programs, and also work with youth in the community.
[04:20] SPEAKER_00: Also, I was involved with the rehabilitating ex-game members.
[04:25] SPEAKER_00: So when I got into Chicago, I got into Calgary.
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: I contacted all of them in small and I explained what I was doing.
[04:33] SPEAKER_00: And he pointed me to different directions including the Calgary police.
[04:36] SPEAKER_00: Then I teamed up with a buddy of mine, Dennis Roe Ray.
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: We put our organization together and we started going through the wire in the schools and stuff and anti-rape programs.
[04:47] SPEAKER_00: And also teaching kids how to avoid gangs and what would be the gang issue.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: And I did that straight through and still hearing that I'm thinking about to do the same thing.
[04:59] SPEAKER_00: But that was one of the bigger things that I did outside of my music career.
[05:03] SPEAKER_00: And you moved up to Edmonton when?
[05:05] SPEAKER_00: I moved up into three years ago.
[05:08] SPEAKER_01: Right after. Right during the pandemic.
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[05:12] SPEAKER_01: When you look at the Canadian music scene when it comes to blues, how would you describe it today compared to some of those great places like at Chicago or elsewhere?
[05:31] SPEAKER_00: Well, what I find in Western Canada, we don't get enough of publicity if we live locally.
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: That's the issue I find. No matter where our status is, we don't have sufficient coverage from the public to reach out and let them know what we do.
[05:49] SPEAKER_00: And on to and probably most important of all, we do have venues that are open to the blues, but trying to make that work out where people are aware of it and follow it and pay to see you play live.
[06:05] SPEAKER_00: It's still a struggle, but it's much better than what it was when I came in the mid 80s.
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: I can say that for sure, you know, it's much better. And since I've came to Edmonton, you know, a new start, you know, I'm the new kid on the block.
[06:20] SPEAKER_00: So I'm starting to get a lot of little openings and doing things as well back in the mic, you see, and all some stuff like that.
[06:25] SPEAKER_00: So the blues, we need help by media allowing us to come and be seen in people's living rooms. That's probably the bottom and radio as well without having to record or having to bring in some Americans.
[06:40] SPEAKER_01: Because that's where the issue comes. Yeah. Yeah. Now you do still do a lot of touring and you go into the States quite a bit, right?
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: Yes. I last, last year I was at the King Biscuit Blues Festival. I was in Clarksdale playing with all my friends. And then just a couple of months ago, I was at Buddy Guides in Chicago.
[07:01] SPEAKER_00: I recorded one of Tamika Dixon's a song that she wrote. I'm covering it. And Peter Hurley, the writer for Living Blues, he's put an article in a Living Blues in the November issue, we have an article on me and talking about what I'm doing in Edmonton and the blues and my career.
[07:19] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Now, you know, the people you've played with over your career, the name of you that that would be recognizable to all of us.
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: Well, I will start with performing with my uncle Hubert Somway when he was doing this thing. I also performed with the legendary platters and was the musical director for them across Canada, the Canadian legendary platters.
[07:47] SPEAKER_00: Also, I was in the first black group to be nominated for a Juno called Something Extra. And the highlight of my career outside of Blues, which is a lot, was working with Soakak Campbell and Joe Hunter and then eventually the funk brothers before they all passed.
[08:04] SPEAKER_00: I graduated out of the School of Music, sort of speak at university and did two recordings with them and did some touring with them as well. So that's, that's my career, you know, since in Canada.
[08:15] SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so Gary, what do you think Blues music is becoming more popular these days? They are getting in Canada.
[08:27] SPEAKER_00: A lot of people got the blues. I think the economy across, you know, to decline. A lot of people, a lot of us Canadians are confused at such an outgrowing number of violence.
[08:43] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, with lip making a living just to try to keep roof over your head and the food. So the blues is the perfect way of understanding and finding a way of dealing.
[08:53] SPEAKER_00: The blues music heals you, but it also gives you affirmation to it's okay to feel this way. It's okay to feel like there's no hope. But then we give you hope at the end of our songs. We give you the hope.
[09:07] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah. So when you're looking at being a musician, can you talk a little bit about that? Obviously you've made a career of it. It's not an easy life, is it?
[09:21] SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's not. And when you get into music, you're definitely going to need mentors. This is the biggest issue I've found to a lot of the musicians in my age group, most of them have retired.
[09:33] SPEAKER_00: So a lot of the younger generation don't have mentors. You need mentors to navigate yourself through the music system. And the biggest catch is I tell a lot of young musicians they ask me,
[09:46] SPEAKER_00: you know, I want to be a professional musician. What should I do? I said, if you want to be a professional musician, I'll give you one choice. You go, you do not work for a whole year. You try to make it as a living.
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: If you can make it that first year, you're a musician. If you don't go, get some education, pay your bills and do it on the side. So it's either or process.
[10:12] SPEAKER_00: It's not one that you want to keep hacking at year after year after year, you know, just just depleting all your funds and dying.
[10:20] SPEAKER_00: The most important part is learning the craft because musicians and music is a craft. And a lot of musicians doesn't understand that you have to pour a lot more time than you would normally do in other careers.
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: Because it's mainly an old JT on the job training issue that once you get into the public, you know, that's the catch where most musicians don't understand. So I tell them, you know, try a year.
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: And if that year is not working for you, then go and get something that will secure your finances and still keep working at it.
[10:50] SPEAKER_01: So what do you do as a musician, you know, especially if you're an aspiring musician and just starting out or whatever, do you basically take any gig that's there, just even if it's in front of five people?
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: That's the other catch you always want to be in the public, you want the public to know you, but what young aspiring musicians is most important.
[11:19] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to keep me emphasizing finding your mentors going to the jam sessions, you know, wherever the jam session go and meet the musician, try to catch it with the veterans so you can get some idea and guidance on how to navigate yourself through there because there's a lot of pitfalls with music.
[11:36] SPEAKER_00: You did a lot of time you're playing people don't pay you, you know, it has its ups and downs shall I say, but the main thing is, if you're playing and the people are liking what you're playing, the interest and what you're playing, you're probably going to have a decent career.
[11:53] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I remember reading something once about Burton Cummings, right, and guess who and how they, you know, they're from Winnipeg, but they grabbed a hotel in a scungy hotel in Regina, you know, when they're first starting out and used Regina as a base and then they started traveling to all these small little Saskatchewan towns and playing.
[12:21] SPEAKER_01: Is that the key in terms of exposure just to play anywhere and everywhere?
[12:28] SPEAKER_00: Well, you're definitely going to need a home base to build your followers. That's going to be the first thing you're trying to build followers, you're trying to get people to buy into your program or your brand of music.
[12:38] SPEAKER_00: And of course, as if you can tours, especially starting out if you can tours much and get to see many people that opens your door for your career to move forward, but it's a lot of hard work and a lot of small money.
[12:56] SPEAKER_00: It's not a small money, you have to really, you know, love it to push from, you know, making the small money to making money to make a living.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, exactly. What's the biggest venue you played in?
[13:10] SPEAKER_00: The biggest venue I played was the Chicago Blues Fest played for over 100,000 people.
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: And the next biggest venue was playing at the Grays-Go-Casino and playing the PA. All the casinos in the Scatron Calgary area, those are some of the biggest venues I've been at.
[13:27] SPEAKER_00: You know, including soft seaters with the funk brothers as well.
[13:32] SPEAKER_00: Okay, and what about the smallest venue?
[13:35] SPEAKER_00: Oh my lord.
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: Well, I remember once my bad, we had a five piece and it was a club at Harvard, it was this ancient brother's in.
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: And they had a little teeny stage and they expected all of us to fit on.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: And it probably held probably about 60 people. The people were quieted through the attic.
[13:57] SPEAKER_00: We had a great time, but boy was in a crowded. And also I did James Bond, Jane Bond.
[14:05] SPEAKER_00: She has a barbecue house there. And I, me and the band, we came there for a few weeks and her place was, you know, real intimate as well.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: And we had a great time. And of course, back in the day, it was Marguise Cafe.
[14:17] SPEAKER_00: It's where Marty gave me the break, you know, and that was another small venue as well.
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[14:23] SPEAKER_01: At what point in your life did you figure that, hey, I could make a career in this.
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: I never thought of it as a career. I just had a need to play for people and make them feel good.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: I always remember I performed and one made people forget about the troubles of the week and look forward.
[14:44] SPEAKER_00: When I got with the funk brothers is when I really realized that, yeah, this is my career.
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: Up until then, even with the something extra and some of the other things, I was still real young and didn't quite understand where I was sitting in the position I was with until I got with the elders.
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: And then they, you know, they kind of put my head on straight and made me understand that this could be very, very good for me.
[15:12] SPEAKER_00: How old are you, Gary?
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: 69. I'll be 70 next July.
[15:16] SPEAKER_01: Okay. So what are your thoughts? How long are you going to keep doing this?
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: In the blues, we say we do it till we drop.
[15:26] SPEAKER_00: I would not quit until I cannot do it anymore.
[15:30] SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, with the blues, it is a lifelong journey.
[15:34] SPEAKER_00: Every time I picked a gritar, there's something new I've discovered and something more enthusiastic that I wanted to perform in the public.
[15:41] SPEAKER_01: Now, we all know that people who are guitar players love their guitars. How many do you have?
[15:53] SPEAKER_00: Well, I have on rotation about seven guitars because I, I use some and then once they, you know, start to wear out, I retire them, but I still keep them and they have by more.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: So I got about five guitars that I use on my, you know, as normal.
[16:11] SPEAKER_00: So how many guitars do you think you would have altogether?
[16:15] SPEAKER_00: About eight altogether. I have eight altogether.
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: No, but over the years, like I, I related how much?
[16:24] SPEAKER_00: Oh, my goodness. At least a couple of hundred.
[16:28] SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow. Because I normally don't change. Once I find it, try to fix me.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: I don't change when I wear it out because all my life I'm in doing jams and playing every weekend.
[16:38] SPEAKER_00: So the good target's a heck of a workout.
[16:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess it does. Yeah.
[16:44] SPEAKER_01: Okay, then. So what's up? You know, when, when you look back, you know, and growing up and I'm just curious, were you subjected, not subjected to or were you part of that gang scene in terms of the scene?
[17:03] SPEAKER_01: Are you seeing it or witnessing it? Is that why you got involved with youth at risk?
[17:09] SPEAKER_00: When I was 16 years old, my buddy and I, he was 14 and we were coming from my house, going to his house, and we were, we ran across the gang territory.
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: The gang eventually tried to rob us, which really didn't have much money. They jumped us.
[17:30] SPEAKER_00: In the course of that, 33 days later, he died in a coma, never recovering. It was being unmerciful.
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: I got away a year. I was on the witness protection plan with the police and everybody trying to keep the gangs from killing me because I was trying.
[17:45] SPEAKER_00: I was going to court, but because I did not witness his actual beating, that could not go any further than outside of mine.
[17:53] SPEAKER_00: At that time, I was very lost. I was very hurt, very angry. And I set with my family and my Catholic priests and, you know, my whole family and decided that I would start a martial art school.
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: Because I was just, just received my brown belt going to my black belt.
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: I went to my community in the West Side in Chicago and we went to a pastor and took the church and we opened up a martial art school two days a week free.
[18:20] SPEAKER_00: Within three years, we cut into the gang's activities so bad with the membership that they moved out of our community.
[18:28] SPEAKER_00: And that will start it for me. You know, I used that to educate young people and to keep the gang membership very low by giving activities.
[18:40] SPEAKER_01: What, Gary, I just want to return just to the music again. Like, what do you feel when you get up on that stage?
[18:49] SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm still 11, 12, 14 years old. It's like my living room. When I get on that stage, I see all those people smiling and anticipating what's going to happen.
[19:01] SPEAKER_00: My life transform and I become this person that just wants to please and party right along with them. And for three or four hours, I'm lost in immersed into them and the environment of which I'm performing.
[19:15] SPEAKER_01: Excellent. Excellent. Do you ever think of or you ever thought over those years of a different genre of music playing?
[19:26] SPEAKER_00: Not really because my music is my culture. Like I said, my dad, my mom, it's a culture. It's more than just art for.
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: Mind is a culture. So I feel that I'm the best at doing that. And I've played other of geruts. If you rock and other things, you know, blues and blues, funk and soul. That's where my heart is.
[19:49] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. And how do you feel like one, you're playing that type of music?
[19:54] SPEAKER_00: Like I'm 14, 21. I don't feel my age. I'm dancing and jumping and party and right along with them. I just, my whole life transforms as soon as I start performing.
[20:06] SPEAKER_01: All right. Wonderful. Well, thanks Gary for joining us today.
[20:10] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Can I give a couple of blocks here? You definitely can.
[20:14] SPEAKER_00: Okay. Every Saturday in Edmonton, I'm hosting jam at the commercial hotel from 3D 8. I just finished. We just finished doing a special for the blues fast.
[20:25] SPEAKER_00: December 1st and 2nd. We will be at the great Eagle Casino in the bar. I'll be performing there with my Motown show.
[20:33] SPEAKER_00: And December 31st, I will be at the Red Deer Casino for New Year. So all those who are looking to come and party, meet us in Red Deer.
[20:44] SPEAKER_00: We're going to party up a whole store and for that night. And I really want to thank you. The great to see all of the great things you're doing, Mario.
[20:51] SPEAKER_00: I'm really, really, really proud to know you. Let me tell you that for sure. Well, thanks very much. Gary, I really appreciate it. All right.
[20:59] SPEAKER_01: That was Gary Martin, who is a blues musician based out of Edmonton. I'm Mario Tonigusi, managing editor of Canada's podcast. Thanks for joining us today.
