Big Hank’s Christmas Blues Show Featuring The Smoking Hot Toasters

Big Hank has his “Ho Ho working” and the highly regarded, veteran bluesman and bandleader is certain “it’s going to work on you.”

Big Hank has been touring his Blues Christmas show for a number of years now and this unique, variety filled program of blues-basted Yuletide tunes is one that has left audiences drenched in the Christmas spirit and coming back for more when the next holiday season rolls around.

Touring from Vancouver Island to the snowbound prairies of Alberta, this Christmas show has consistently tied together a variety of classic blues styles, some r&b and a touch of soul. Blues Songs of Christmas is a show where every song puts a different spin on the season and everything that goes with “the most wonderful time of the year.”

He’s armed with a muscular voice, one that can be as warm as the hearth surrounding a well-stoked winter fire, and one that can alternately rattle the rafters and shake the snow off a 30 foot Christmas tree.

This refreshing take on holiday concerts finds the singer and his talented, veteran band rolling through music that includes tunes going back a century to Christmas blues tunes that have been favourites of the boomer generation that grew up listening to B.B. King and Eric Clapton.

Tunes from the books of Big Joe Turner, Charles Brown, Etta James and Louis Jordan also find their way into the festive mix that has received rave reviews.

It’s been quite the road for Big Hank originally from Stettler Alberta who cut his teeth on the Edmonton bar and cabaret circuit early on in his career. He immersed himself in the blues with two of the best blues bands to have come out of Western Canada in the seventies and eighties, those being the Edmonton-based Hot Cottage and Victoria’s Uncle Wiggly’s Hot Shoes Blues Band. The latter group signed with RCA, sold an impressive number of albums and opened for the greats like Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker, James Cotton, Paul Butterfield and Koko Taylor.

His love of blues has also been the foundation of acts like The Toasters, A Fistful of Blues and The Kingpins that were also regional favourites.

The Band are:

Big Hank Lionhart - Vocals / Steve Cross - Guitar / Mick Woodhouse - Bass / Matt Pease - Drums / Steve Ranta - Keys / Paul Wainwright - Sax / Jerry Cook Sax

Some of the previous concert halls and venues over the years:

Mary Winspear Charlie White Theatre - Victoria BC

Festival Place - Sherwood Park AB

The Old Bailey Theatre - Camrose AB

The King Eddy - Calgary AB

The Ironwood - Calgary AB

Performing Arts Centre - Stettler AB

Dream Cafe - Penticton BC

First United Church - Salmon Arm BC

Heritage Theatre - Gibsons BC

Horizon Stage - Spruce Grove AB

Vernon Jazz Club - Vernon BC

Hermann’s Jazz Club - Victoria BC

Alex Goolden Performance Hall - Victoria BC

Sid Williams Theatre - Courtney BC

Blue Frog Studios - White Rock BC