Thursday @ THE EXCHANGE - Colin Linden

Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist, Producer, Sideman, Film/TV Music Supervisor and Score Composer!

Colin Linden’s tale is the stuff of legend, the kind told in the Coen brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou or Inside Llewyn Davis, both of which featured his guitar playing on the soundtracks. That film would begin with an 11-year-old meeting with his musical idol Howlin’ Wolf at a matinee show in Toronto.

Colin has been performing since he was 12 years old, leaving home as a teenager to travel the south at the invitation of Mississippi Sheiks delta blues guitarist Sam Chatmon which took him to Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, St.Louis, Memphis and Hollandale, Mississippi, meeting and visiting the sites of his heroes, visiting the landmarks and juke joints, many of which he’s played in during the course of a 45-year career producing and playing blues and roots music.

Canadian born Colin Linden has called Nashville home for 27 years.  He was the main contributor to the music for the Nashville TV show and subsequent live tours.  Along the way, Linden played on over 500 albums and produced 140, including his Grammy in 2020 for producing Keb Mo’s Oklahoma, winner for Best Americana Album. He has also nabbed a staggering 25 Juno Award nominations and nine wins.

Linden’s lastest solo album , bLOW is his 14th in 40 years but first electric blues release. bLow offers a blues travelogue much like the odyssey he took in his youth.

“Roots music and blues do speak to a lot of people right now,” acknowledges Linden.  “Much of the healing and release you get from listening to this music, the power and form of expression, has shown itself to be so vital in these times.  It feels timeless because it’s such raw nerve.”

Although following in the footsteps of his heroes was the beginning of Linden’s story, with bLOW he continues a journey that began even before he met Wolf.  That magic moment and so many others continue to live on in the music.