Preview
GRADY
Sunday, July 10
Coyotes
Often, the story goes something like this: young Canadian hotshot guitarist, dividing his love between rock and the blues, lays down some incendiary licks and kicks out a few great records. The years pass. His chops grow accordingly. For one reason or another, the band that built his name comes to an end and he moves into mellower territory where he churns out critically acclaimed but far less rocking material for the rest of his days. Names like Pat Travers and Colin James are prime examples. So what the hell happened to Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson?
Given his penchant for taking time off from his arena-friendly rock/reggae/blues hybrid and embarking on solo acoustic tours with sideman Kelly Hoppe, one could naturally assume that was the direction Johnson yearned to take. Instead, he vanished for a little while, returning with the heaviest band he’s ever fronted. Choosing Johnson’s nickname, Grady, as their moniker, the trio blasts out gutsy, distorted blues rock tunes with a ferocity that was only sporadically exhibited by Big Sugar.
"I didn’t quit Big Sugar to get mellow," laughs Johnson. "Y’know, I’m still hungry and determined and anxious to play – and everything in Big Sugar was just geared towards a slowdown."
Indeed, mainstream Canadian radio is saturated to the gills with Big Sugar’s output. With the U.S. displaying its usual standoffishness to the maple syrup nation’s more popular acts, life was pretty much destined to be as Johnson outlines – play less, crank out a record once every three years and sleepwalk through the making-a-living-but-not-a-killing life of a Canadian star.
"I said ‘Man, I’ve got stuff to play and stuff to say,’" Johnson says disgustedly. "I started asking some of my rock star friends, ‘Look at some of these younger bands out there, piling into rusty vans, tuning their own guitars, driving home in a sweat-soaked wet T-shirt. If you couldn’t have your own tour bus, your own security guard and wine on the rider, would you still be doing this?’" He pauses, just a tad overdramatically. "No one could give me an answer. So I just had to answer this question for myself."
Answer it he did. Taking a day off for laundry after Big Sugar’s 2004 farewell concert on New Year’s Eve in Edmonton, he and then-soundman, now Grady bassist Ben Richards, jetted to Austin, Texas. Examining some possibilities exposed in previous hobby jams with Chris Layton, famed drummer of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, it didn’t take long to decide they had something worth pursuing.
"A week before South by Southwest, we went into the studio, just in a panic to record anything we could," Johnson recalls. "We went to Kinkos and made up an album cover, got a box of them printed up and ended up passing out about 500 of them off a flatbed truck. We drove around town and played all day until the cops shut us down."
It didn’t take long to become a cult fave in Austin. Retailer’s requests for the indie CD, peppered with a few gritty takes on old Big Sugar material and now entitled Y.U. So Shady?, escalated from handfuls to boxfuls. Back here in Canada, where record execs are far more willing to bank on Gordie Johnson’s name, a distribution deal with Warner Music Canada materialized and the band is now on tour. So far, reaction has been good, with some old fans applauding the absence of reggae influences in Johnson’s new band, and some not so impressed.
"One guy almost ended up with a black eye over the insinuation that I sold out and moved to the U.S." says Johnson. "Yeah, I sold out, buddy. I’m sleeping on couches, tuning my own guitars and driving home in wet pants. At the end of the day though, everyone’s digging it."
Johnson says he’s pleased that his pre-existing stature in Canada will help compensate for lost time and hopefully ease his new act into household name status. After all, it’s not like he truly hated having a tour bus and all that good stuff. "It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have it all again. But that’s not why I worked so hard."
What he did work hard for, he’s getting – new fans, in other words. And the U.S., where he’s forced to earn them one gig at a time, is where Johnson’s having the most fun these days. "I appreciate the reaction down south because it’s honest. They have no preconception. We’re playing with other hungry-as-a-pack-of-wolves punk rock bands, metal bands. Everyone has their gear out in the alley waiting for their 30 minutes onstage and it’s like ‘Fuck yeah! This is energizing and life-affirming.’" |
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