Hey. It's only been a month since the show. I told you I'd do a little something on it later!
Just like a few other times, but more on those later...

Like I mentioned a while ago, the last time Colin James was on PEI was about 14 years ago. I was a pretty big fan, but I was too young to get into the licensed show. That sucked. A large, cigar-smoking, bearded friend of mine in high-school got in. I think that sucked worse.

I've been waiting ever since for any kind of a Colin James show on PEI. Big Band, rock band, solo, I didn't care. Early in September, I just happened to hear an ad for a concert on a Summerside radio station. Colin James was coming to PEI! To make it even better, his opener & playing partner would be none other than Craig Northey, another of my never-saw-live Canadian music favourites (he was [in] The Odds, and you may know him from such songs as the Corner Gas theme).

The stage set-up was simple. And end table with a lamp on it, and a wooden chair on either side. A little lighting and smoke, and the scene was set for some relaxed musicianship.

Northey came out first. He was loose & relaxed, and played just a few of his own things: the above-mentioned theme, The Odds' "Mercy To Go", and "The Little Things" from Northey Valenzuela, on which James backed him up on mandolin. Then James came out, and did his thing, backed up and harmonized with by Northey.

What James did was pretty much what I'd always wanted to see him do. One my favourite records of his is National Steel, a solo, bluesy effort. This was, in parts, very much the same.
James avoided the full-band rock songs like "Just Came Back..." and "Voodoo Thing", but still hit lots of old favourites, like "Five Long Years", and "Why'd You Lie". He also did a Northey cover, "Something Good", that is on one of his more recent releases. After an intermission, James came back and did some solo acoustic blues. Robert Johnson, stuff like that. It was awesome. Northey came back about this time, and we were back to the duets. James told stories about the guitars he had, the people he'd met, the songs he'd turned down - like several that Eric Clapton went on to record on Journeyman, including "Running On Faith". His cover of that tune was one of the eve's highlights, I think. Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" was right up there, too.

James worked through various guitars, like his teal-green Strat (thank God we got to hear him rock out a bit on that, including on The Odds' "Someone Who's Cool"), his acoustic, the Red steel guitar he used at the beginning of "Just Came Back..." (which had good stories about it, too), he did some harmonica, and even some more mandolin on some fast folky stomper that sounded Ukrainian to me.

By any measure, it was a relaxed show that featured some great songs done with outstanding musicianship and a bit of humour by a couple of relaxed Canadian music legends (to me, anyway).

I was kind of hoping that I'd get to meet one or both after the show, but we didn't stick around for long to really try. C had emailed James' management well beforehand, to see if she could arrange a meeting for my birthday, but she got no reply. Ah well. She should have emailed Northey instead! I emailed him the next morning, and I had two replies from him personally before the day was out. Now that was cool, too.

Anyways, there ya go!