THE LEGENDARY DOWNCHILD BLUES BAND To Play The El Mocambo in Toronto on November 25, 2023
It’s been over 40 years since The Legendary Downchild Blues Band played the iconic El Mocambo in Toronto, so the band thought it would be fun to play the club one more time on Saturday, November 25, 2023, at 8:00 pm with special guest Jeff Rogers.
Tickets for The Legendary Downchild Blues Band’s show are on sale here. Tickets and Seating are very LIMITED, so get them while you can for this NOT-TO-BE-MISSED performance!
Downchild has a long history with the “El Mo”, as it was known back then, as the house band for the club in the early ‘70s and they recorded their live album But I’m On The Guest List there to a packed house in 1982.
In the early days, the El Mocambo was a lowdown joint on Spadina Avenue that hosted the likes of Downchild, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy. In later years bands like Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, Joan Jett, and U2 graced the stage and of course, The Rolling Stones’s surprise performance at the club with Margaret Trudeau in tow is a thing of mystical legend.
It’s going to be a nostalgic trip down memory lane for Downchild and their fans to see the El Mocambo one more time, yet it will be a whole new experience to play the club, with its multi-million-dollar renovations and state-of-the-art sound system.
Downchild is the inspiration for Hollywood stars Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s hit film The Blues Brothers. In fact, two Downchild songs “I Got Everything I Need (Almost)” and “Shotgun Blues” are found on The Blues Brothers smash album Briefcase Full of Blues.
Leader and co-founder, Donnie Walsh, often called the ‘Father of Canadian Blues’, is a member of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, alongside some of the greatest songwriters of our time, like Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell.
The Legendary Downchild Blues Band is a Canadian blues institution with an international reputation. They have shared the stage with American blues icons B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and John Lee Hooker to name a few, and have performed around the world, leaving fans thoroughly entertained wherever they go.
Canadian roots singer/songwriter and keyboard player Jeff Rogers’ unmistakably soulful voice often evokes weighty comparisons to the past – whether that’s Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, or even Otis Redding…. yet, his tone, range, phrasing, and sincerity, all make him unmistakably contemporary – and totally original.
Jeff’s highly anticipated new solo album Dream Job was just released on October 27, 2023, and was recorded in the revered music mecca of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where many of the greats including, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Etta James, Paul Simon, Otis Redding and The Black Keys, have recorded.
For this album, Jeff is accompanied by some legendary musicians, including Kelvin Holly (Little Richard, Bobby Bland, etc.), Clayton Ivey (The Staple Sisters, Thelma Houston), Justin Holder (Keb Mo’, Delbert McClinton) and Shonna Tucker (Booker T. Jones, Drive-By-Truckers). Dream Job is co-produced by Dick Cooper of The Cooper Brothers and features special guest appearances by Grammy Award winner, Colin Linden, and Juno Award-winning singer, Kellylee Evans.