After 20 studio albums, 8 Juno Awards, 31 Maple Blues Awards and multi-platinum record sales, Colin James remains at the top of his game, continuing to challenge himself musically.
His upcoming release, Chasing the Sun, finds the blues-rock singer-songwriter’s electrifying 21st studio album featuring the kind of towering musical guests typically found on the other side of velvet ropes. Co-produced by Colin Linden, guest artists include Americana icon Lucinda Williams, bassist Darryl Jones and drummer Charley Drayton (who have backed Miles Davis and The Rolling Stones) plus American harmonica ace Charlie Musselwhite and gospel greats Ann and Regina McCrary.
His 2021 release, Open Road, for which he won a 2022 Juno Award for best Blues Album and was nominated for the Blues Foundation 2023 best Blues Rock Album (his first), is a celebration of personal connections. It includes original tunes written with long time collaborators as well as reinterpretations of covers by a diverse group of songwriters.
His 2018 album Miles To Go garnered worldwide attention, debuting on the Billboard Blues Charts and held a position on the RMR Blues Chart for 24 weeks, 14 weeks in the top 10.
Colin’s career is a timeline rich in highlights. His 1988 self-titled debut, featuring his two self penned hits “Voodoo Thing” and “Five Long Years,” was the fastest-selling album in Canadian history. It won him his first Juno and an opening spot on tour with Keith Richards. His second album, Sudden Stop, featured his hit “Just Came Back,” which reached #3 on the U.S. radio charts and earned him the Juno Award for “Single of the Year.” Colin was next credited with launching the swing revival, thanks to his wildly popular Little Big Band, which has released four successful albums to date. In 2013 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame.
However, it wasn’t until 2016’s Blue Highways that James found himself on a blues chart: the album spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart. It also landed him one of his biggest hits: “Riding in the Moonlight,” a Willie Dixon song that garnered millions of streams on Spotify. Colin has often been put in the rock category because of his early pop hits, but if you really look at his past there’s a lot of blues in there.
Over the years Colin has worked with some of the world’s most revered artists including, Bonnie Raitt, Albert Collins, Pops Staples, Robert Cray, Albert King, Keith Richards, Mavis Staples, Luther Allison, Roomful of Blues, Bobby King and Terry Evans, John Hammond Jr., The Chieftains, Carlos Santana, Jeff Healey, and Buddy Guy.
For over 35 years, Colin has been a consummate professional, a superb guitarist, and a musician’s musician. The confidence that comes with maturity can be heard in his voice and seen in his electrifying stage performance. He does what comes naturally – he always has – he knows no other way and no other life. As he approaches his 60th birthday, he still finds joy in making music and touring and loves what he does.
