Murray Kinsley and Wicked Grin are a rockin’ and groovin’ blues trio out of Ottawa. The band features some down and dirty vocals and blistering guitar work, backed by a solid rhythm section. The band was a semi-finalist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and has scored a Maple Blues Award. After the highly-acclaimed release of 'Murder Creek', they are back with a new album that continues the legacy of this award-winning band.
Ken Wallis interviewed Murray Kinsley for the radio show BluesSource Canada. The following are excerpts from that interview, edited and amended for clarity and brevity.
Ken Wallis
Murray Kinsley and Wicked Grin have a new release out. It's entitled Eye Of The Storm and joining us is Murray Kinsley. Murr, it's great connecting with you again.
Murray Kinsley
Yeah. Good to talk to you again man.
Ken Wallis
So first of all, a little bit of history for folks. Where did the band name Wicked Grin come from?
Murray Kinsley
The band name came from a Tom Waits tune, we used to do. It’s a Tom Waits tune called 219 and there's a line in there “Had a hat full of feathers and a wicked grin.” So actually, Leigh-Anne at the time thought there would be a great name for the band. So we took it and it works.
Ken Wallis
It sure does.
Murray Kinsley
And the first part, Murray Kinsley. That's me of course.
Ken Wallis
So who's currently in the band?
Murray Kinsley
On drums, we have Dave Tettmar. He’s British. He's won a few British awards for drumming. He lives just South of Ottawa now. Laura Greenberg is on bass. She’s a two-time Maple Blues Award winner. We quite often play as a trio, and when we're in Ottawa sometimes we'll add a harp player, Rod Williams. When we’re in Southern Ontario we add Larry Kurtz on harp and depending on where we play, we’ll add a harp player and a saxophone player.
Ken Wallis
So why the title Eye Of The Storm. I know t's mentioned in the song Dressed In Black, but what's the significance of Eye Of The Storm?
Murray Kinsley
Well, it's a line from the from the song Dressed In Black. And you could sort of take it on many levels right now. I think we're sort of in the middle of the eye of a storm right now, or we're in the eye of the storm right now. All Hell's breaking loose in lots of places. I never really thought about it that way but once I started thinking about it, it’s relevant right now.
Ken Wallis
The song Dressed In Black. Boy, do I love I and there’s some great cigar box playing in it. You really, like, unleash that cigar box, don't you?
Murray Kinsley
Yeah, it's a gritty little instrument. Sounds great. So I love playing it.
Ken Wallis
So one of the mainstay songs that you've played, and I've heard it so many times live, is Snake Farm and I love that tune. Give us some background about what inspired that song.
Murray Kinsley
Well, it's written by Ray Wiley Hubbard. He's a Texas singer-songwriter and there is actually a snake farm in Texas and I have it on good authority. I have a nephew who lives near it. Actually, he lives just outside of Austin and there's a snake farm down there. And I guess the original snake farm that Ray Wiley Hubbard wrote about was originally like almost just a storefront. Basically when you walked in there was a pit in the middle of the floor about 25 feet deep, filled with snakes. And apparently, in the back of it, of course, being Texas, it was a brothel. So at least that's the story. We started playing it long while ago when we were touring in the States.
We had two different people that didn't know each other, both said you really should play that song. Snake Farm. So we went and looked it up. And thought, wow, it's great. With Ray Wiley Hubbard, it's more of an acoustic thing and we made it raunchier with the cigarbox, and funny, and that sort of stuff.
Ken Wallis
Friday Blues, what a great toe tappin’ tune that is.
Murray Kinsley
It's almost a Chicago style. It's a love song. I don't write many love songs, so it was fun to do, and I love the groove in it.
Ken Wallis
When you’re creating your songs, what comes first, the lyrics or the music?
Murray
The music comes first. Generally speaking, I'll have a bank of ideas that sort of rattle around in my head there for lyrical themes, but they'll come on top of a music piece. I'll sit down here in my little studio in the basement and start playing guitar. If I like what I play I’ll work it up as a demo on my little system here and then after listening or working on it, different themes will pop back into my mind and then the lyrics start forming themselves.
Ken Wallis
The other one I gotta mention Is Blues For Sorrow. You've been whipping out electric tunes and then all of a sudden you go acoustic.
Murray Kinsley
We don't do any acoustic stuff live, but we have had some acoustic stuff on some of our other records. I play a bit of acoustic, and that song was written just thinking about basically the wars and strife all the way around the world and the suffering of innocent people. On whichever side you happen to be on, there's innocent people being killed and hurt and their lives destroyed. And so that's what that song is about.
Ken Wallis
And you have some very special guests on this release.
Murray Kinsley
That we have Steve Marriner playing harp. He's so good. He's great. We really like what he did and Jessie O'Brien is playing keyboards on it. He plays with Colin James and Tom Wilson.
Ken Wallis
Well, you couldn't ask for two more talented people to join you. Marriner on harp just blows me away. And Jessie, he is just amazing on keys.
Murray Kinsley
Oh yeah. We really, really enjoyed working with them. It was great.
Ken Wallis
So where did you record this?
Murray Kinsley
Actually, at our drummer’s studio in Chesterville Ontario. It's called the Railroad Recording Company. It's a small studio, but we were able to do everything we needed to do. We always work from live bed tracks. We always have the trio play live and that's the bed track and then we will build on top of it.
Ken Wallis
And, how can fans get ahold of this release?
Murray Kinsley
It's gonna be on all the streaming services, whether you like streaming or not. That's where it is right now. If you want people to hear you, that's what you have to do. If you actually want to buy it, you'll be able to get the digital copy of it at Bandcamp. And if you're in our area or come see us, we will have physical copies.
Ken Wallis
And what's up for Wicked Grin this summer, you guys doing any festivals that people can go and buy your release?
Murray Kinsley
We’re wandering into Southern Ontario a couple of times We have a couple of shows in early April. North of Toronto. And then we're gonna be down in the Orangeville area in May for a couple of shows down there. We're actually right now working on heading out to Western Canada, or Western US in in August. We're building around a festival that we're doing in northern Montana in August.
Ken Wallis
Wonderful.
Murray Kinsley
So we'll have the CD's with us.
Ken Wallis
Well, it's a really enjoyable album and I say it's typical of Murray Kinsley, because it's a great album and all the best to you and I hope we'll catch up with you.
Murray Kinsley
OK. Well, we'll be around. Thanks a lot Ken. It's good talking to you.