(Colin Kendall Linden)
DISCOGRAPHY 1981-2021 (17CD/DVD)
BIOGRAPHY
Linden was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. When he was still an infant,
his family moved to White Plains, New York. The ten-year-old Linden heard
rock performers in New York venues, such as Van Morrison, the Flying Burrito
Brothers, James Taylor, John Mayall, Johnny Winter and Taj Mahal.
When the family moved back to Toronto, Linden became interested in
performers such as Taj Mahal, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Howlin' Wolf.
When Howlin' Wolf played at Toronto's Colonial Tavern, the
then-11-year-old Linden spent three hours talking with the elder bluesman.
He began performing at a local coffee house, the Fiddler's Green Coffee
House, singing and strumming a guitar alongside his two older brothers Jay
and Harley. By 1973, Linden began learning how to fingerpick. When Linden
met David Wilcox, Linden decided to learn how to play slide guitar. Wilcox
gave 140 blues albums to young Linden, to help Linden to learn about blues
styles.
Paul Mills, the producer of Sylvia Tyson's Touch the Earth show, at the
Winnipeg Folk Festival and an outlet on CBC Radio for acoustic roots
music, booked Linden in 1975. At the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Colin met
Mississippi bluesman Sam Chatmon, and later that year made a pilgrimage to
the U.S. to meet South Detroit's Sippie Wallace. North Carolina's Peg Leg
Sam, and Mississippi's Son House.
In 1976 Wilcox had asked Linden to join his band, the Teddy Bears, which
meant that Linden had to learn to play the electric guitar. In 1977, he
played solo gigs and did his first western Canadian tour, which was booked
by Holger Petersen. In Edmonton, he met then 13-year-old Colin James, also
a budding blues performer. In the late 1970s, Linden formed his own group,
the Group du Jour, which played a mix of covers and a few Linden
originals, and a group called the Lucky Charms, which was featured on his
first album "Colin Linden Live!!!!!" (1980). In 1979, Linden recorded the
Sam Chatmon album.....
(Wikipedia)