Page 33 - From Talks with Matt Minglewood

ISSUE : Issue 49

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/8/1

sax player I was looking for. And meanwhile this harmonica player came along Roily Pratt and he was so good at what he does that I hired him. At this point I was without a recording contract because I was out of the CBS thing and I was not on any label. I had some friends in the industry who had always ex? pressed interest in managing and doing things with me, so when the time came--when I got this band together--I figured we were ready to do -something. I got ahold of Brian Terryman who owns a country record company called Savannah. At the time, it was called Summit Records, but he changed it. He had two artists, both Canadian, and doing well. He ended up being "Country Manager of the Year" last year. My direction was going to lean towards what I was doing in the earli? er days, which was country and blues with edges of rock-and-roll in there. So, we got together and we managed to scrape up the money to do another al? bum, because at this time I was broke after spending so much money on those tractor-trailers and gear. This is the hard-time segment of my life, right? This is the down-and-out segment. I was down but I wasn't out, because I had my family and kids. No matter how bad it got, we had that. I was proba? bly- -I don't know--thousands and thou? sand of dollars in debt. Anyway, we didn't lose hope. We scraped the money together from various deals and did the last album, "Me and the Boys." It turned out to be my comeback album. My first comeback. Everybody has to make one or two. But anyway, that's where it went at this point, and the album did very well for me. Back in the spotlight and back in the industry. People who had thought I had gone and retired some? where with all my money realized that I wasn't gone anjrwhere and that I was back. And that's where we are today. I've done the touring with this album, had a few singles released, did a vid? eo- -that was a whole new thing for me, totally new. I had done lots of TV, but videos are a whole different ball of wax. So that was interesting and it helped a lot, made me a little more visual to the world or at least the Canadian world. I had another artist record one of the songs, "Me and the Boys." This gave me some creditability in the U. S. again. So that's where I stand right now. I'm working on anoth er album (just out, called "The Prom? ise"), and I'm taking this new band and this new comeback another step further. (One more thing. Matt: do we have any way of defining for our readers what you mean when you say "blues"?) To me, I'm talking about 12-bar blues. Different peo? ple get different things from it. Some peo? ple hear it and they say, "It's all the same." But it isn't. It's a feeling. Blues is a feeling--basically sad songs, with a nice pulse that make you want to dance, make you feel good. It's singing about pain and suffering, but makes you feel good at the same time. You know what I mean? That's what I define blues as. (You'd think it would find a real home here in Cape Breton, in a .way.) It has. It does. There's a lot of people that really like blues in this .area. There's an affinity with other forms of music here. A lot of people doing, over the years, interviews, would ask about my connection. 'Cause I got labelled earlier on as a Southern-style blues rocker, kind of country blues, what? ever. And they always equated it with Southern music. And they'd always ask me, "Why would somebody from Cape Breton be CAPE BRETON, TUNE IN TO THE NUMBER ONE NETWORK. The Canadian Airlines network is the one to watch in Cape Breton. EVERY BUSINESS DAY ] Halifax Montreal Toronto Boston 6 flights 6 flights 6 flights 6 flights 2 flights Same Plane Service to Calgary | has the number one inflight service and frequent flyer program. You'l Air Atlantic and Canadian Airlines a minimum of 800 Canadian Plus offer more flights in Atlantic Canada, across the country and to five conti? nents than any other airline network. And we're expanding too! With twice a day service to Boston. The number one network also points when you fly within Atlantic Canada. For the best reception in Cape Breton, tune in to the number one network. For reservations call your travel agent or Canadian Airlines at 1-800-565-1800. Csaadiyn-A/rA/hnft • The Number One Network in A llanlic Canada •

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