The time had come to bust out our press passes. We needed back stage. We needed the B.B.B.B interview.
Again we had a whole sleuth of questions ready. With a team your always prepared. We had an officiant introduce us to the band and everything fell completely apart. The only person we recognized here was the Santa looking fella and we weren’t even sure what his name was. Our notes were just a bunch of random names with no pictures to go with them but we are not to be deterred. We were gonna get this interview right band or not.
I started, “Hi I’m with Sicamous Local News and this is my team of colleagues. We’re hoping to get an interview with you.” I could tell they were absolutely blown away that we didn’t realize that none of them sitting in front of us were actually in the band. And they were right, we didn’t see the Ron Perlman looking fella anywhere or anyone other then Santa. Santa wasn’t even sitting down. He was still moving gear getting ready to set up his drum kit.
That was when we were thrown a bone by a man known as “Blind Dog Guido”. He introduced himself as the host of a Monday night blues show on Valley Radio in Vernon, 97.9fm. He explained how all blues players need three names. Blind Dog Guido, was blind in one eye, had Italian roots and liked the way dog sounded. He had been playing with the Blind Bay Blues Band for a couple years filling in here and there when needed. We continued chatting with Blind Dog for a bit learning about how Valley Radio came into existence. Its a neat story. Check out the link, we think they’re doing something special there.
As we continued chatting we learnt from Blind Dog that the Blind Bay Blues Band had spanned for over thirty years and that the Santa looking fella wasn’t Santa at all, he was Chris Emery. (I still think we’ve seen him at Pickadilly Mall during Christmas time).
When Chris finally had a moment to join us we started to feel that maybe, a more proper name for B.B.B.B may have been the Chris Emery Blues Band. He was the founder of the band and the only member to span the entire 30 years. Blind Dog had explained how Chris was like the cheese on a pizza holding everything together, Blind Dog Guido was just a topping that you can take or leave, but you would never have a pizza with out Chris. Or was that you would never have a band without cheese? Whatever it was, it was pretty deep.
Chris joined us and with two members there we decided the time was right to launch into our prepared questions.
Me: First off I just want to thank you guys for speaking with us. I gotta say as a blues band I expected you to look a lot more depressed, why not so blue?
Chris: (Looking at us quite disappointed) The blues isn’t about being blue, the blues is what makes you happy, the blues is a healer.
Me: I see, If you were gonna be blue what would you be blue about?
Chris: (He didn’t seem to want to answer) I dont have anything to complain about, look where we are.
Me: If I were from blind bay I think I might be Blue about the fact their are so many blind people there that they decided to call it blind bay. Why are there so many blind people in blind bay.
Chris: Yeah I really don’t know. Its not fair. And it makes it dangerous to drive.
Me: It also crossed my mind it might be about window coverings. Do you think it would be mini or venetian? Wait that doesn’t matter but answer the question anyway?
Chris: (Takes his glasses of in disbelief making him look even more like Santa) Mini.
Me: (The whole team liked that answer) Has anyone ever told you there’s a guy in your band who looks like Ron Perlman who unfortunately isn’t here right now?
Chris: (Looks at my reporting device to see a photo of himself with his bandmates) I don’t recognize anyone in that photo.
This was odd for him to say. He was clearly in the photo.
Me: You know that was a compliment right?
Chris:
Me: The best live recording I was able to find online of the B.B.B.B was from an event in 2020. The person who owns the video blocked other users from sharing that video on other social media platforms. Do you think we should contact them and demand they make that video sharable?
Chris: Oh I don’t know what your talking about.
Me: Is this person a friend of yours?
Chris: Yeah I know them, I would consider them to be a friend.
Me: Now that you know they’re trying to stifle your career would you still say that is the case?
Chris: Oh there’s the gotcha hey, i guess not huh(laughing).
Me: We noted that you play a lot of ZZ-Top because your better then them, do you think you also have a better beards then them?
Chris:
Me: I ask because I have a note here saying “Quite good beards, ask about the beards” Is there beard care involved?
Chris: At this point its gone full on Santa.(He accidentally admitted it, we knew it) It would actually be easier to shave the whole thing off, i’m hacking at it every day.
Me: Fascinating. Do you want to use this opportunity to tell our readers what is next for the B.B.B.B.
Chris: Well were doing the Mushroom Festival in Sicamous, in fact we did the first five Mushroom Festivals. So yeah we will be there.
We thanked Chris and Blind Dog Guido for there time and made our way back into the crowd. Somehow Whiskey and Rain had gotten in and were already doing sound checks. We took a seat in the grand stand again watching the crowd when we saw Chris coming out from behind back stage towards us.
I guess he just enjoyed our company so much he wanted to hang out a little longer. We don’t blame him. We’re all pretty dope. We chatted more about the band are learnt that one of his first bass players was his daughter when she was fifteen. Santa wanted to get her a piano but she wanted the bass guitar. We further explored Chris’s unique connection with old Saint Nick. All we can say his head down to Piccadilly Mall this December and you can decide for yourself.
Anyway Nick, or I mean Chris told us about how he started the Jam night in Sorrento and since its conception he has been tracking musicians through out the Shuswap and Okanagan. Making notes of what they can play and how best to get a hold of them. Kinda like another guy with a list that he checks twice. Ironically, we checked our contact info twice and were not able to get a hold of Chris prior to the show to warn him about our interview.
Chris went on about his time working on a project in Kitimat and we were really struggling to understand what this had to do with music, when he finally told us how he played in The International Brotherhood of Blues Bands. 4 jams a week on a cruise ship housing engineers for the camp. Which is kinda neat I guess.
The last thing Chris told us before he left was that “a band is a lot like a rhythm section, with a novelty act”. Which we really liked cause we’re like a “novelty act with a rhythm section”. Our lasting impression of Chris was that he may or may not have been Santa, he liked Hawaiian shirts and “Ass kicking blues”.
After Chris had departed my editor and I noticed the team was starting to look tired. After all, we had all been up since 1am and it was damn near 8pm. Whiskey and Rain from VERNON not Eugene Oregon was now into there set and the crowd was liking it. Knowing we had contacted Whiskey and Rain prior and they mentioned being willing to complete the interview via email we decided that’s what we would try to do.
As much I wanted to test out the dancing treads in my brand new band interviewing shoes, The Editor knew best and it was time to pull the plug on the operation. The crowd was really starting to pop. Our Editor had gotten Triggers contact info and gave him a call to see if he could give us a ride back to town.
We hit the donair stand Ramzis Express on our way out cause Trigger really wanted one. The owner mentioned maybe bringing his truck to Sicamous a couple times a week. That would be pretty sweet.
Thanks for having us Malakwa, I would say see you next year but i might be back three times next week, I might not come back for a couple months. It all depends on whether or not Trigger will give us a ride.
Part 1: The Malakwa Music Festival: Just Getting There
Part 2: The Malakwa Music Festival: Austin Miller, Ryan Guilbeault
sicamouslocalnews.ca 