Guitarist dies (Wade Brown)
February 23, 2010
By STEPHEN COOKE
TheChronicleHerald.ca
Nova Scotia lost part of its blues music legacy on the weekend with the death of musician Wade Brown, a member of the Dutch Mason Blues Band during its 1970s heyday.
The 62-year-old guitarist was found dead at his home in Truro on Friday evening by a neighbour, according to friend and former Mason bassist Greg "Fish" Fancy.
Although an official cause of death wasn’t known at press time, according to Fancy and other friends, Brown had been in declining health for a number of years, suffering from various ailments including Crohn’s disease.
"It’s quite a shock, he was a great person," said Fancy, who was asked by Brown to join Mason’s band during the Wyse Owl stint in 1974. "He influenced a lot of local guitar players. I’m really hoping we can get together and have some kind of musical tribute, to let people know about his musical accomplishments and who he was."
Brown joined Mason’s band as rhythm guitarist in the early ’70s, around the time of the Canadian music legend’s famed residencies at Sullivan’s Lounge at the Willow Tree and the Wyse Owl in Dartmouth. The band moved to Toronto in the mid-’70s and spent months on the road, a period during which Mason earned the title "Prime Minister of the Blues." After two years of travelling, Brown returned to the East Coast, where he later teamed up with New Brunswick blues singer Theresa Malenfant.
Brown would occasionally play with Mason again in the ’80s and ’90s, eventually becoming his former band leader’s housemate and caretaker in the years leading up to Mason’s death in Truro in 2006. Halifax blues bassist Morrow Scot-Brown (no relation) remembers sharing the stage with the late guitarist in the ’80s and experiencing the special quality he brought to Mason’s sound.
"When you played with Wade, there was never any doubt about what you were supposed to do, he really set up the groove," said Scot-Brown, who was initially awed by Brown’s playing with Mason in a bar under the Sun Kee Kee Chinese restaurant on Quinpool Road in the early ’70s.
"He was really the heart and soul of that band, everybody used to study his playing. They could do four swing shuffles in a row, and they’d all be different."
Those who knew Brown say his life took a sudden downturn when he was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail for impaired driving causing bodily harm in 1993, for an incident that permanently disabled Truro teenager Lyle Densmore.
"The last 20 or so years have been fairly tragic for Wade, really," said Fancy. "Between the car accident and his declining health … he’d been in and out of the hospital for most of the last decade."
Fancy said Brown always took great pleasure in passing his skills along to others, from fellow bandmates to young musicians like 14-year-old Halifax guitarist Brendan Gallagher, who joined Brown onstage in August at the Dutch Mason Blues Festival in Truro.
"He taught me a lot about music, his feel for it and his dedication to the whole thing," said Fancy, "He was willing to share everything he knew with everybody."
Brown’s final live performances took place at the home town festival that bears his former employer’s name, at the all-star jam sessions featuring Dutch Mason Blues Band veterans and Nova Scotia blues music notables like Joe Murphy and Andrew Gillis.
"Wade played great, people were freaking out," recalled Fancy. "They’d say, ‘Wade, play a solo!’ and then afterwards they’d explode with applause. Wade was really taken aback, he practically turned purple."
Plans for a memorial service for Brown are expected to be announced later in the week.
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Herby gallant says: | 2010-03-15 13:32:20 |
| I played with Wade in two lineups ''74 & ''75,out of Halifax. He was playing bass in these,what a player!!! and what an amazing guitar player. I myself am a singer but what Wade taught me on guitar I''ll never forget. We''ve lost one of God''s gift''s. A good friend and a precious man. I''ll miss him very much.I''m sure everyone who knew him will. | ||
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