Hornby Island Blues Workshop

This Victoria musician is one of Canada's top blues guitarists. Bill has spent a lifetime immersing himself in the blues. He has played with the country's finest blues acts, has opened for Delbert McClinton and Otis Rush, and played lead guitar for veteran bluesmen Dutch Mason, Hubert Sumlim, Son Seales, Donald Ray Johnson, and Cash McCall. His style is strongly influenced by the blues of the forties and fifties, but with his own fresh take. Bill's guitar is powerful yet controlled and his voice was made for the blues, deep, resonating and passionate. Bill plays with emotion, dexterity and dynamism. Bill started playing guitar at a very young age. His uncle had a 1961 Gretsch Country Gentleman with lots of knobs & levers on it, and a cool amp with tremolo. He let Bill play that guitar when he was five years old, way back in 1969. But it wasn't until Bill was about twenty years old that he heard the real black blues music. Chuck Berry was the one that really did it for him and then Bill discovered BB King and his smoother blues sound. Working mostly out of the Calgary and Victoria area Bill has been influenced by Chicago blues and country music. Bill performs on electric guitar with his band and also as a solo artist with an acoustic guitar.