40 fingers

Article by Roxanne Delage
Seaway News
March 19, 2015

What has 40 fingers, a dozen or so guitars, and more soul than you can shake a riff at? Well, probably the best Blues and Rock party you'll catch in town this year! Four of the most accomplished Rock/Blues guitar players in the area, Rod Robillard, Marc Muir, Jamie Heath and Camil Lapointe are putting the proverbial "band back together" on March 28, at La Maison, for their one night only, Forty Fingers Rock and Blues Party.

Robillard, the' ''godfather" of the quartet, was honoured a couple of years ago, by a now 'legendary' collaboration at another local venue, by his one-time students, now long-time friends, which "blew the roof off the joint'' ... and so they felt it was about time that they caused some more damage.

''The audience can expect to hear a lot of stuff that they've never done before, together, or with their perspective bands," explained Lapointe. "We're going from blues of the 20s to Rock of the 90s" and everything else in between, including some Country, Funk and Jazz.

"We're each going to do a small set of our own, and then some mixing and matching, a variety of combinations,'' said Robillard."It's going to end up with the four of us ripping the place apart.''

"I'm doing a lot of stuff from the 20s and 40s; that's my specialty, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, slide, harmonica, kazoo.'' said Heath. "I call it popping-string-slapping-loud-dynamic blues. Its good whiskey-drinking' music.'' "We're stretching as musicians too'', said Muir, who always thrilled audiences with his versions of Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and the like."Last time, we were still a little more mainstream and this time it's a little more out of the box. It's going to be a good time!'

Joining the guys are some other fabulous, musicians, in their own right.
"We've got the best back-bone in town, Sharp on drums, Bobby 'The Beast' Tessier and Steve Lefebvre on bass, as well as Mike Lalonde trumpet," said Lapointe. "Those guys are the stars of the night.''

"It's a pretty relaxed event, a fun time,'' said Heath."If it doesn't go perfectly, we just keep bending until it makes the note" - a great metaphor for life, something they all learned from their mentor, Robillard.