On Wednesday October 15 blues rocker JW-Jones and his band played a lively set at the Blue Grotto. The trio included a bass player, drummer and Jones on lead guitar and lead vocals. The other two contributed backing vocals from time to time. JW-Jones is from Ottawa, Ontario. He is something of a road warrior and the rest of his tour includes Vancouver Island, the BC Interior, California, Arizona, Memphis, Tennessee and Texas. He has recently appeared in Alberta, Minnesota, Deleware, New York, Vermont and Nebraska.

The JW-Jones set list included some older blues tunes, some brilliant originals and a fun segment at the end of the show. One of my favourites was “Papa’s In The Pen.” It is a tune about one’s father being in jail. They also played a beautiful bluesy/swing tune. While Jones is definitely influenced by old school blues, the show is full of amazing guitar pyrotechnics. Jones mentioned recording with Jimmy Vaughn and Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar in Texas.

Jones has a great stage presence and engages with the crowd in a very friendly way which resulted in conversations with a few people.

The next to last portion of the show had the musicians change instruments. Jones played drums, the bass player played lead and the drummer played bass. While it was perhaps done for humour, all three acquitted themselves fairly well. The ending segments had a the trio playing short bits of really rocking songs back-to-back for a period of time. The audience loved it.

After the show, the band stuck around to sell merch and talk with their happy fans.

Jones won the “Best Guitarist award” at the 2020 International Blues Challenge in Memphis and also has been nominated for a Juno Award.

JW-Jones and his band have upcoming shows in Dewdney, Parksville and Nanaimo before heading off to the U.S.A.