Jamie Browning (lead vocals, author, composer) and Iain Green (drums, back up vocals, composer, arranger, musical director)
WITH (2008 home games line up): Jason Farrar (bass, back up vocals) and Adam Rawski (guitar).
WITH (2008 away games line up): Andrew Stewart (bass) and Dave West (guitar). WITH (upcoming/2009): combinations of Jason Farrar (bass, back up vocals), Adam Rawski (guitar), Justin Snikkar (bass) and Russell Williams (guitar).
WITH THANKS TO (2005 - 2007): Jerome Tucker, Dane Wedderburn, Curtis Robinson, Kenmi Chank, Damon Hines, Victor Cruz, and Frank Horvat.
STUDIO BLUES ELEMENT:
BABY'S GOT THE BLUES (2005)
Jamie & Iain were joined by Rod Phillips R.I.P. (B3 organ), Michael Fonfara (piano & B3 organ), Dave 'Slopie' Powell (piano), Bryan Huntley (bass), Alec Fraser (bass), Michael Keith (guitar), and Kenmi Chank (guitar) for "Baby's Got The Blues", produced by Alec Fraser.
ARE YOU READY (2008)
Jamie & Iain were joined by Jason Wilson (piano, B3 organ, Rhodes), Justin Snikkar (bass), Kenmi Chank (guitar), Garfield Stoddart (guitar), and Rebecca Campbell (back up vocals) for "Are You Ready", produced by Jamie & Iain.
CD NUMBER 3 (2009 or 2010)
Jamie & Iain will be joined by....? STAY TUNED!
Influences
"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best." ~Henry Van Dyke~
What do people really mean when they ask who your influences are?
"Without music life would be a mistake." ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche~
The people that inspire us do not necessarily inspire us to sound LIKE them...
Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, James Brown, Louis Jordan... they are just a few of the folks that Blues Element covers if a cover song suits the moment.
Ruth Brown is the main reason why Jamie started singing and writing jazz & blues.
A surprising number of people have told us that our original tunes remind them of Steely Dan. (see our blog on that subject)
Iain and Jamie both LOVE Prince. Iain wants to produce and arrange like Quincy Jones. Jamie has been to almost as many punk gigs as Iain has played Soca gigs.
Iain's top 5 are:
Duke Ellington,
Miles Davis,
The Police,
Bob Marley, and
James Brown.
Jamie's top 5 are:
David Bowie,
Iggy Pop,
Nick Cave,
Ruth Brown, and
Nina Simone. Although she is considering changing this to a "Top 6" so she can add Martha Wainwright.
Some of the other artists that one or both of us likes or at least liked at some point on the path to here and now, in no particular order, all mixed up together so you get a sense of what it's like to stand in front of the cd racks and try to decide what to listen to at any given moment: Thelonious Monk, Grace Jones, Billie Holiday, Julian Fauth, Dubmatix, Nirvana, Frank Sinatra, Frank Nevada, PJ Harvey, AmoebA QuichE, Paul Simon, The Jam, Bauhaus, Kate Bush, Buddy Guy, Johnny Cash, The Velvet Underground, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Patti Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Sonny & Brownie, Sonny & Cher, Hafdis Huld, Ronny Size, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Nick Drake, The Cramps, Robbie Robertson, Saturnalia (of the 1/2 dozen or so bands we know of with that name, we mean the one that was from Toronto), Ray Charles, Dead Can Dance, Karen Dalton, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Pretenders, The Funk Brothers, B.B. King, Seal, King Tubby, Antimatter, Ann Magnuson, Angelique Kidjo, Dinah Washington, Daphne's Purple Closet, The Supremes, Tabarruk, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, Lee Scratch Perry, Tina Turner, The Stranglers, Groovy Religion, Neil Diamond, T. Rex, DropDeadBeats (of the 3 bands we know of with that name, we again mean the one that was from Toronto) and all the other musicians and bands that we have added as friends - there are too many to list here!
So, does that answer the question? What was the question?
"He who sings scares away his woes." ~Cervantes~
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic
hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side." ~Hunter S. Thompson~
"Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music." ~Ezra Pound~
Oh, and a big thanks also goes to Ernst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature (Kunstformen der Natur) for our background image. As a scientist he was pretty much a fraud, but as an artist he was pretty much amazing. If you like this image and are curious you should Google "Ernst Haeckel" to see more of his amazing work.
Thanks for visiting. This is where we are supposed to put our bio, but our bio is posted in a few other places already. But we decided we might as well at least include a mini bio here.
Blues Element
Main Ingredients:
Composers Jamie Browning and Iain Green
1 bowl of blues
1 pinch of pop
1/2 jug of jazz
1/4 cup of country
A dash of folk and a splash of funk
Jamie sings
Iain drums
Mix well (with others)
Toronto's Blues Element is the vehicle that has been bringing the song writing skills of Jamie Browning and Iain Green to the stage and into the studio with the help of the best session players money and barter can buy.
The duo has yet to find their fellow Musketeers (all for one and one for all!) but has instead enjoyed working with an amazing array of talent for their first 2 album releases and live performances since they started writing together in 2004.
They are currently writing songs for cd 3 which they hope will join "Baby's Got The Blues" (2005) and "Are You Ready" (2008) in homes on and on radios around the world.
2004
- writing & recording
2005
- 10 track cd "Baby's Got The Blues" is released
2006
- BGTB track "It's Not You" included on the soundtrack of Canadian film "Chicknapping"
2005 - 2007
- writing, performing, recording
2008
- 12 track cd "Are You Ready" is released
- AYR track "Good Strong Drink" included on 272 Records cd comp "Blues Highway Vol 1"
- AYR voted 6 in the CHMR FM 2008 Blind Lemon Top 20 Canadian Blues Albums
- writing & performing
2009
- Blues Breaker feature on House of Blues Radio
- AYR track "(In) The City" included on the soundtrack of Canadian film "In Fear and Faith"
- writing, performing, ...recording, releasing?
If you'd like more details you can also visit us here. There's also tons of reviews and feedback there about our 2005 (and 1st) release, "Baby's Got The Blues" as well as a few other tunes. But admittedly, it is a rather boring website. We've spent zero dollars and not much more in time on it. Sorry. Music uses up all of both commodities :)
Here's another place to visit us and hear a few other tunes: Blues Element at MusicDirectx - Discover, Download, Watch
To contact the band remove the extra bits from: blues (at) blueselement (dot) com
MUSIC: We're pleased to take advantage of the new ten song limit here on MySpace! We've posted half and half - 5 songs from each cd are now on the player. We are pleased and amazed that BGTB received airplay in over 30 countries and is still receiving regular airplay, most recently/at the time of writing this in Belgium, The Netherlands, St. John's Newfoundland, Montreal and Kamloops B.C.
"Are You Ready" was officially released in January 2008 (see video below) and we've started to receive radio play lists and emails from djs around the world. (France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Australia, Spain, Portugal and the U.K., Georgia, Texas, New York and Nebraska in the U.S, and Kamloops, Montreal, St. John's, Waterloo, Hanover, Thunder Bay, Ottawa & Toronto in Canada so far)
ARE YOU READY - shot during sound check at our January 2008 cd release party at the Cadillac Lounge (sorry about the sound...we plan to replace the clip someday with one that has sound from the board, but in the meantime...)
Here are more Blues Element videos neatly tucked into a YouTube playlist to keep this page tidy. Just click the arrows to scroll through the list:
If you'd like to add Blues Element to your record collection we'd be happy to be there! We always have cds with us at our gigs, so please come over and say hello!
Also, this
link will take you to a page on our main site with digital download shopping links and info. (most likely we are available at your favourite online store)
Also, for your shop at home comfort Blues Element is also available at CD Baby in hard copy cd for those of you (like us) who still collect cds but are perhaps too far away to come over and say hello:
As a special deal for members of our myspace ministry we have put together 2 amazing sale packages in conjunction with Ebay.
Package 1: Buy a copy of our latest album "Get Somewhere" and we'll throw in a copy of our "No One" EP + a copy of our "Self Titled" EP + a "T-Shirt" all for the low price of $25 (plus postage).
Package 2: For those who already have a copy of our latest album "Get Somewhere" but want to hear more of our music just follow the link below to get a copy of our "No One" EP + a copy of our "Self Titled" EP + a "T-Shirt" all for the low price of $15 (plus postage).
Just click on the link below (or copy and paste it to your browser) to be taken to our Ebay store to purchase either of these great packages.
Dear My Space Friend.. My New Album "Tell Me Tomorrow" IS HERE!! Please click the link to view and Purchase.. Free track available for this week only.. http://www.snapmusicmanagement.com/billysstore.cfm
Billy Lofton's new album "Tell Me Tomorrow" is here. With one of those voices that feels like velvet wrapped in silk, Billy has delivered an album that will suit all musical styles. With a mixture of Adult Contemporary, R&B and Dance tracks this is one of those albums that is sure to be a global hit.
Hi everybody, just here to say our new RORY GALLAGHER HAWK BOOSTER is ready for shipping. Have a listen if you get a chance, All the best, Stevie Flynn.
Hey guys. How are you both doing? I just got back from playing five months on a cruise ship. Way too long!!! LOL. I hope that you both are doing okay. Talk to you soon. HUGS!!!
Oh boy! You're sweet AND lucky. So you get an audio lollipop! Go get your free downloadable lollipop of The DoneFors song "In a Cornfield" from www.thedonefors.com. You'll feel all sugar-rushy inside. Love, The DoneFors
Thanks for stopping in! I have got to come and see you someday soon! Man, I've been song writing up a storm! I already know you'll love the songs! Plenty of Naughty in Nature! I'm in the recording studio starting next Thursday! Woo Hoo!!!
Rhythm Festival 2009
21-23 August
Twinwood Arena, Clapham, Beds, MK41 6AB
The Proclaimers, Alabama 3, Gandalf Murphy & The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, The Beat, Terry Reid, Glenn Tilbrook & The Fluffers, James Hunter, Alvin Youngblood Hart, The Blow Monkeys, Pentangle, The Strawbs, Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash and LOADS more...
http://www.rhythmfestival.net
A special DVD set of the February shows is now available to pre-order at the wire-sound shop
This strictly limited edition 2 disc, region free, PAL format DVD set will be shipped in June.
The ‘Real Life + Thereafter’ DVD contains the entire concert filmed at Manchester Academy …
PLUS … Extra features include ‘Feed The Enemy’ filmed at the rehearsals, an alternate take of ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’ and exclusive images from the period …
PLUS … On the second CD disc, you get an audio recording straight from the desk of 11 songs from the show at The Forum, London …
PLUS … In the package, you get a free tour T-Shirt in any size you like ranging from Super Small to Mighty XL and all stops in between.
To order please go to http://www.wire-sound.com/shop
Hello darling, it was wonderful seeing you too, that groovy show was really groovy...wow...the TOM thing blew my mind. can't wait to get a copy of that so i can play it during one of my DJ sets. talk soon...rock on angel.
Hi Jamie & Iain, How are ya?? Hope all is well... Showing some Bluesy good love, and wishing you a wonderful great day n week.. Peace n Hugs, Rosa n UBHOF
