Canadian stars light up Music Hall
Submitted by Doug van Wolde
The Uxbridge Music Hall played host Monday night to Blue Heron Books’ "A Prelude to the Book Drunkard Festival," an evening pairing Canadian musician Colin James and broadcaster Rick Campanelli.
Both are newly minted authors. James was on hand to celebrate Playing the Changes, his memoir tracing the years leading up to his breakout debut album, a career that has since produced 21 studio albums, eight Juno Awards, and 31 Maple Blues Awards. Campanelli, best known to a generation of Canadians as "Rick the Temp" from his MuchMusic days, brought along Tempted, his own newly released memoir.
Rick Campanelli, left, and Colin James, centre, share a laugh with Jared Bland during a double-billed Book Drunkard event at the Uxbridge Music Hall on Monday, Sept. 21. Also on stage is a drawing done by artist Danny Granger, who sketched the piece during the course of the evening, presenting it at the end of the event. This photo and teaser photo by Doug van Wolde
Guiding the conversation was Jared Bland, whose résumé includes stints as publisher of McClelland & Stewart, vice-president of Penguin Random House Canada, and Arts editor of the Globe and Mail. Bland interviewed each author separately before bringing them together on stage for a joint Q&A, a format that gave the evening shape, letting each man's story breathe before the two played off each other.
The two books have a lot in common despite their very different subjects: a positive attitude and an honest accounting of both struggle and success. Campanelli's book leans toward the cautionary, the kind of story many in the audience may recognize in their own lives. James's, by contrast, is a coming-of-age story that follows the winding road to that first record.
Campanelli shared how he won MuchMusic's 1994 "Temp Contest": two weeks holed up in his parents' basement, building a 50-foot banner and an M-shaped box, all for a 25-word pitch. The bit that got the room laughing was the aftermath. MuchMusic tried to reach him live on air to announce he'd won, but his father, working night shifts, had unplugged the phone jack for his afternoon nap. Nobody could reach the newly crowned winner for hours.
James told the story behind one of the most pivotal nights of his career: the June 1984 phone call in Regina that led to him opening for Stevie Ray Vaughan with a bass player and drummer he'd met less than an hour before showtime, borrowed via a call to the Regina Jazz Society. Midway through his own opening set, two guitar strings broke, and Vaughan's guitar tech strapped Vaughan's guitar onto James on the spot and tuned it a half-step down, which made for an interesting mid-song adjustment. It's the kind of story that explains itself once you've heard James tell it: equal parts nerve, luck, and craft.
Watching the two together on stage felt distinctly familiar, and not surprisingly, given that Campanelli interviewed James more than once back in his MuchMusic years.
Adding another layer to the night was artist Danny Granger, who live-painted the two authors from the side of the stage as they spoke. By the end of the evening, he'd produced a portrait of James and Campanelli together, with which the two of them posed afterward, alongside Granger and Bland.
Both authors then moved to a signing table and stayed for as long as anyone wanted to talk. People lined up to share their own memories of James's shows and Campanelli's MuchMusic days, and both men engaged with genuine warmth, Campanelli in particular taking the time to personalize each signature.
It's a small thing, maybe, but it stuck with me: in an era increasingly shaped by AI-generated content and social media polish, there was something quietly reassuring about meeting two well-known figures and finding them exactly as advertised, humble, generous with their time, and willing to put real, sometimes difficult, experiences down on paper for anyone willing to read them. Everyone who came through that signing line last night is going home with a good memory.
More author events are on the way; check Blue Heron Books for what's coming up next.