Big Sugar
Comprising Gordie Johnson (vocals, guitar), Terry Wilkins (vocals, bass), Al Cross (drums), Kelly Hoppe (saxophone, harmonica), Paul Brennan (drums) and Gary Lowe (bass), Big Sugar were one of the newest sounds to blow out of Canada, combining the blues vocabulary of the Tony D Band with a visionary abandon more akin to the Rheostatics. Leader and mastermind Johnson grew up in Windsor, Ontario, listening to Jimi Hendrix and the music that followed his example. Later, in Toronto, he supplemented that with the music of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and the ska and reggae he heard in the city's Jamaican clubs. On Big Sugar's debut album, the basic trio was augmented by members of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir on a set that combined blues by Skip James, Robert Johnson and Otis Rush with Monk's "Bemsha Swing" and Henry Mancini's "Shot In The Dark". Johnson coarsened the band's approach for Five Hundred Pounds, favouring an ambient, open sound reminiscent of Led Zeppelin. Once again, blues suffused the material, sometimes appropriated ("How Many Times" and "Wild Ox Moan"), at others attributed (Muddy Waters' "Standing Around Crying" and Al Green's "I'm A Ram"). Two years after its first release, the album was reissued with obligatory fanfares by the band's new label, which tried to play down the band's obvious inspiration.
Listen to Big Sugar
at Finetune.
Albums
- (1999) Heated
- (1995) 500 Pounds
Top Tracks
- Diggin' a Hole
- Turn the Lights
- Dear Mr. Fantasy
- Better Get Used to It
- Ride Like Hell
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