So Wednesday night I was going to run, but it was hot and I decided to eat first and then run, mistake! While it was cooler at 7:45, my old body had shut down by that time and really didn’t feel like starting again. So last night after work it seemed ok, pretty good when the sun was behind the clouds, hot when it was blazing. So I checked the cloud cover which seemed pretty large so I took off! legs seemed really good, not perfect but the best they’ve been in a long while! Thankfully the sun stayed behind clouds almost all of the run! My pace was around 10 minutes per mile throughout most of the run. Near the end of the run my pulse rate was climbing so I shut it down a little and ended at 10:07 pace! Better than the last few runs and good enough for me!
The soundtrack for the run was some more blues and for the second time this week, it was a Canadian artist! This time it was Steve Strongman and his 2009 release Blues in Color. I saw his name on the Roots Music Report, where his new acoustic blues album A Natural Fact was listed!
Strongman was the 2011 Maple Blues Award winner for Guitar Player of the Year.
Here’s some more info from his biography at his website – Strongman was voted –
one of Hamilton, Ontario’s “Top 40 Achievers Under 40 Years Old” by the area’s major newspaper. There are reasons why in the last three years Strongman has performed at major blues festivals in Rio de Janeiro, France, Switzerland, Mexico City, Memphis and Canada, including two appearances at the famed Montreal International Jazz Festival, four appearances at the Mont Tremblant International Blues Festival, and the Ottawa Blues Festival.
Strongman has spent over 20 years touring Canada, Europe and, more recently, South America. Along the way he’s been chosen to open shows and perform with Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Randy Bachman, Roy Clark, Otis Clay, Jeff Healey, Sonny Landreth, and British legend, Joe Cocker, to name a few. A Maple Blues Award winner, he was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Mel Brown Blues Award, as well as the 2010 Hamilton Music Award winner for Blues Recording of the Year for his second studio release, Blues in Colour.
Not bad, eh… I really enjoyed the album I liked both his guitar playing and the vocals and there was some really good harp on a few of the tracks!!
Here’s a performance Live at the Barn. of “Take My Arms” that’s on Blues in Color