This Friday night, April 13, we are featuring a wonderful concert with Vancouver guitarist Tony Wilson. If you don't know Tony's music, I'm glad you're here.
Tony Wilson is one of finest guitarists in the country. How to describe his sound? Well, it's certainly beyond categorization, but his approach is informed by a life that has had it's share of highs and lows. Tony plays with abandon, yet is melodic; tight and free at the same time. It's emotional playing that pulls sounds and styles from everywhere, including the rough and difficult world of Vancouver's downtown eastside. So, unpredictable and emotional might sum up Tony's sound.
Tony Wilson is considered by many local musicians to be the emotional centre of the Vancouver new music scene, and he has surrounded himself with some of the most creative musical minds in that city. We recorded his new project on February 17 in Vancouver at The Ironworks. He was playing with A Day's Life Band, with Peggy Lee on cello, JP Carter on trumpet, Jesse Zubot on violin, Russell Sholbeg on bass and Skye Brooks on drums.
It was also a night celebrating Tony Wilson's new novella, A Day’s Life, which is a fictional account of a day in the life of a crack-addicted musician who lives and busks on the streets of the downtown eastside in Vancouver. What you are going to hear in the concert is music inspired by the writing of the book. Here's what he has to say about A Day's Life:
“I’ve never written anything before in my life save for a few record reviews for Coda,” says Wilson. “But I have had my problems with drugs in the past and lived down in the Hastings and Main area binging and busking and I met these people who just lived all the time in that really crazy place. It really got me thinking about their lives, how they never ever left and I just started to write a story about it.”
You can read more about the book in The Province, and tune in on Friday night at 10 p.m. on CBC Radio 2 for Tony Wilson on The Signal