HomeMy WebLinkAboutLakeshore Advance, 2013-11-06, Page 1312 Lakeshore Advance • Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Chicago blues band bangs the Heat to the Gables
November 23rd Mississippi
Heat concert raises funds for
the Grand Bend Art Centre
Casey Lessard
for the Grand Bend Art Centre
Grand Bend - Their latest album hit number
one on the Living Blues radio charts worldwide,
and this month Grand Bend blues lovers have the
chance to hear one of Chicago's finest, Missis-
sippi Heat, at Gables November 23. The event is a
fundraiser for the Grand Bend Art Centre.
"I've always said that if blues did not exist, I
would have hoped to create something like it,"
said band founder and leader Pierre Lacocque,
during a phone interview from Chicago.
Lacocque, who plays harmonica, is not your
typical Chicago bluesman. A white, Belgian born
in Israel, he discovered the blues after a child-
hood that saw his family move regularly around
the world. Feeling unsettled, he came by the
blues honestly.
"I didn't have the happiest of childhoods, and I
remember feeling very young quite sad and dis-
connected from the world," he said. "I struggled
with that emotion for years and years until I
heard blues music.
"My father bought me a harmonica at two or
three years old. I would literally cry at hearing
those sounds. I knew the harmonica was calling
me. I carne to Chicago at age 16, and heard a har-
monica player named Big Walter, and it changed
my life when 1 heard a harmonica played through
Bot Bandon courtesy of Mississippi Heat
Lead singer Inetta Visor and bandleader Pierre Lacocque (on harmonica) will be In Grand Bend
Nov. 23 when Mississippi Heat performs for a fundraising concert for the Grand Bend Art Centre at
the Gables.
a microphone and amplifier. It has horn sounds
but a distinct unique warmth that just changed
my life. It was like a religious experience. 1 felt
understood."
In bands until his mid-20s, he grew disillu-
sioned and followed in his father's footsteps as an
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academic. But after earning his Phl) in
clinical psychology, music called again
and the former sideman decided to
start his own band. With some help
from his brother Michel, who offered
to be his manager, he gathered his
friends, most of them musicians from
Mississippi, and formed Mississippi
Heat.
"It came to a point where I felt that I
had a need to be more creative by writ-
ing my own materials and playing my
own songs," Lacocque said. "We have
an original sound. We (10 covers but
not many. Our body of work is like a
passport to keep us going. Fresh mate-
rial gives you openings and legitimacy.
We have a worldwide reputation, and
this helps to get work, including festi-
vals and gigs in Canada and Europe."
It's not an easy life, though, and it's
certainly not about the money, he
said.
"It's not a lucrative lifestyle, so it's
hard to find someone who will stay
with you," he said. "Brut my singer
Inetta has been with us for 13 years,
and my drummer has been here since
1997, so some people will stay faithful.
But you have to he adaptable. 'l'o go to
Canada it's very difficult for peop
who have DUIs (a record of drunk dr,
ing). It's unbelievable how difficult it is
to find musicians who can go to Can-
ada because (of something they (1i(1) at
16 or 17 years old, even if they're 50
now, they're still unable to cross."
Challenges aside, Lacocque is com-
mitted to the life.
"I'm very much a team person, 1 love
the togetherness, the ensemble," he
said. "It's a feeling 1 had never had
much of in my life, so there are a lot of
positives. 'I'he negative is being away
from the wife and children 1 adore, but
this is a soul thing. Some people may
not like what we do because maybe
we're not traditional enough. But to be
doing what we do, you have to know
the tradition. Don't give me rock
chords and rock solos. We have to stay
within the blues notes 011(1 vocabulary
that is given to us. We (do what we do
honestly, sincerely with integrity."
Mississippi I lent, tickets are $40 and
available at the Colonial, !Willie's
Framing, or by calling Casey Lessard of
the (rand Bend Art Centre at 519-672-
7824. Tax receipts are available for half
of the purchase price.
Advanced to Namibia
"I'll be a monkey's uncle," says Peter Phillips at Namibia's Naankuse Animal
Sanctuary, es he roads the Lakeshore Advance.