Blackie & the Rodeo Kings

It takes more than a global pandemic to keep musical veterans like Blackie and the Rodeo Kings down, as the trio’s 11th studio album O Glory ably demonstrates. While much of the planet struggled to find new ways of working, singer/songwriter and guitarists Stephen Fearing, Colin Linden, and Tom Wilson coolly leveraged the flexibility that’s sustained them for 25 years, sheltering in their respective home bases of Victoria, BC, Nashville, TN, and Hamilton, ON, while using technology to bridge the chasm separating them from each other and from their rhythm section of Gary Craig and John Dymond.

With Linden producing from his Nashville digs, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings wrote and recorded 13 alternately roots-rock, folk, country, and Americana-style songs, ultimately crafting what Linden confirms is the band’s most “spiritual and political” musical statement to date. Also, it’s most multihued. Witness lead single “O Glory Lost Those Blues Again,” a wistful corker powered by the testimonial hum of organ behind Wilson and Linden’s shared vocals, one of six such co-leads on the album. As they have since forming as a one-off to honour late folk hero Willie P. Bennett continuing as smitten audiences demanded it — the JUNO Award–winning Blackie and the Rodeo Kings chase musical excellence while having a ball playing with their friends. Talk about a great gig.