For nearly 60 years Morgan Davis has been playing the blues, travelling across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. His performances draw from a lifelong study of the rich tradition of country blues, re-interpreting songs of the 1920s and 30s on electric instruments. His original compositions are infused with wit and a good dose of humour. https://www.shakurasaida.com
A Saskatoon native transplanted to the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada, Suzie Vinnick is the proud owner of a gorgeous voice, impressive guitar and bass chops and an engagingly candid performance style. Suzie is a 3X Juno Nominee and has won 12 Maple Blues Awards, 2 Canadian Folk Music Awards and a 2024 ECMA with her project A’Court, Spiegel and Vinnick. She has also twice won the International Songwriting Competition – Blues Category. Her latest album is entitled “Fall Back Home”. https://www.suzievinnick.com
Originally from Detroit MI, Morgan Davis grew up listening to a rich variety of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and the emergence of the Motown sound. The music of Jimmy Reed, Ike and Tina Turner, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino was in the air, emanating from car radios and jukeboxes. In 1962 his family relocated to southern California, where Davis found the preponderance of surf music unappealing. He discovered Bob Dylan, whose music introduced him to Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger and Blind Lemon Jefferson. The psychedelic era ushered in bands like Jimi Hendrix and Cream, he attended concerts by the Doors, Grateful Dead, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Buffalo Springfield, Mothers of Invention and the Electric Flag. Davis began to play guitar at 16 years of age.
Graduating from high school in 1965, Davis enrolled in Long Beach State College, where he became active in the campus anti-war movement as well as SDS. Being of draft age and refusing his 2-S student deferment, he made the choice to remove himself from the U.S. war machine and move to Canada. He settled in Toronto, which he happily found to be a city on the circuit of the great Chicago blues bands, and a rich musical education began by watching Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Davis also had the opportunity to see and meet many great country blues players – John Hammond, Son House, Booker White, and Johnny Shines.
Her career has seen triumph after triumph. Among her most recent successes: being awarded the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Singer of the Year, a 2024 ECMA award for Blues Album of the Year with her project A’Court, Spiegel and Vinnick, the 2023 Maple Blues Acoustic Act of the Year, the 2022 Maple Blues Female Vocalist of the Year and the 2019 Saskatchewan Jazz Festival Special Recognition Award. Suzie achieved finalist status in the Solo/Duo Category at the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN; received the 2012 CBC Saturday Night Blues Great Canadian Blues Award and the 2012 Sirius XM Canada Blues Artist of the Year. Suzie has won 12 Maple Blues Awards, 2 Canadian Folk Music Awards and is a 3X Juno Nominee.
In May 2024, Suzie performed at the Teatro Nazionale in Genova, Italy, as a guest of Italian acoustic guitarist and singer Beppe Gambetta and she also performed at the Baltic Blues Festival in Eutin, Germany. In July 2024 Suzie and her band opened for Burton Cummings at the Kemptville Live Music Festival; she also appeared as a special guest of Blackie & the Rodeo Kings at Ottawa Bluesfest in 2023, performing alongside Daniel Lanois. She has also toured nationally with Downchild, Stuart McLean’s The Vinyl Café, with ASV (Charlie A’Court, Lloyd Spiegel and Vinnick), the John McDermott Band and she performed for Canadian Peacekeepers in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf. She was also the voice of Tim Horton’s for 5 years.
Her latest album is entitled “Fall Back Home”.
Tune your ears to one of Canada’s music greats, with “…a voice of spun gold and honey” Access Magazine