Motown roots run deep and wide - The Blues and Other Music Forms

Motown roots run deep and wide
May 13, 2010
BY FRANCOIS MARCHAND
VANCOUVER SUN

There's no denying Motown music's universal appeal: Smokey Robinson, the Supremes, the Temptations, the Jackson 5, and the list goes on. Just ask veteran musician and producer David Sinclair.

"They're great songs. They have really cool melodies, they're fun, they have a good groove, and so many people are already familiar with those songs, grew up with them and love them," Sinclair says. "It just makes you happy."

Simple enough?

Sinclair, whose track record includes playing guitar for Sarah McLachlan and k.d. lang as well as performing in his "family band" Shutterfly with his daughter Taryn and his son Zak, is gearing for the Motown Meltdown concert for which he is music director.

The Meltdown, an event that raises funds for the Shooting Stars Foundation and assists people living with HIV/AIDS, features an all-star cast of veteran and rising talent, from Jim Byrnes, Dee Daniels and Chilliwack's Bill Henderson to Jaydee Bixby, Dustin Bentall and Ali Milner, performing alongside a nine-piece house band and three backup vocalists.

At first glance, the cast can seem a bit odd.

After all, with so many roots, folk and blues artists in the mix, how does it translate into the true Motown experience?

For Sinclair, the answer comes easily: you can find a little bit of Motown

in everything and a little bit of everything in Motown.

"In that era, in which the Beatles were, too, the ingredients of a song were maybe more defined than they are these days in terms of melody and harmony," Sinclair says. "That era provided some of the strongest melodies of pop music, I would say."

Motown's long-lasting appeal and its cross-generational influence probably explain the presence of both fresh-faced artists and veterans of the scene in the Motown Meltdown lineup.

Take young bluesman James Rogers, for example. Rogers originally picked up the guitar and started playing Buddy Holly tunes, then he dug up Stevie Ray Vaughan, which eventually led to finding out about the origins of the blues. Listen to modern hip-hop, Rogers says, and you'll eventually trace it all back to Motown and the blues.

"At the end of the day, it's all blues," Rogers says. "When I play a Motown song, it's not just a shuffle, which is what people usually consider blues to be.

"I'm going to do Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye," he adds. "Ultimately, it's just a 1-2-6-5 [progression], which is really typical of the blues. Etta James in her early years was all 1-2-6-5. I think most Motown is blues music; it's just more of a straight-time, funky kind of blues."

Another factor explaining Motown's long-lasting appeal is its unfailing presence in pop culture, something that helped Sinclair introduce Motown music to his own kids.

"Those songs have crossed generations; they're in movies and you can't help but be exposed to them," he says.

Sinclair and Shutterfly, who work mostly in the pop-country style, will be performing Born to Wander by Rare Earth at the Motown Meltdown. For Sinclair, the song is especially close to his heart since it was composed and produced by Tom Baird, with whom Sinclair worked at the CBC in Vancouver when he was younger.

Baird would eventually go on to work with Stevie Wonder and Martha and the Vandellas, and Sinclair sang on some of Baird's original demos he pitched to Motown.

"He was a wonderful guy," Sinclair says. "Unfortunately, he died in the '70s in a boating accident. For years, I have thought it would be cool to do one of Tom's songs because of that Vancouver connection. So that's the reason for that song."

Sinclair dabbled in the original Motown experience, and Rogers can only wish he could have done.

"I think I was born in the wrong decade, right?" Rogers says.

And considering the Meltdown's fundraising aspect, it doesn't hurt that the Motown groove is able to bring people from so many different generations and walks of life together for some good, clean fun and plenty of dancing and shaking loose.

"Motown's outlook was positive," Sinclair says. "They're generally uplifting pieces."

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