BLUESSHOW

WHAT: Sherman Doucette and Tankful of Blues

WHEN: Saturday, 8:30 p.m.

WHERE: Plaza Heritage Hotel

TICKETS: $15, available in advance from the Plaza front desk, Perry's Recording Studio, 711 Seymour St., or by contacting Brant Zwicker at 377-3988 or brant@atcblues.ca

It's been a while — too long, some would say — since Sherman “Tank” Doucette let loose on his blues harp in Kamloops, but he'll make up for lost time come Saturday.

Doucette and his Tankful of Blues perform at a CD release party this Saturday in Blackwell Hall at the Plaza Heritage Hotel. His eighth CD, Blown' Through Town, was recorded in Kamloops recently at Perry's Recording Studio.

“I liked playing there in the old days when people were coming to see us as opposed to the meat market aspect,” the Kelowna bluesman explained of his absence.

By “old days” he means the late, great Blues Underground Network, founded by Tony Robertson. Robertson, longtime front man for the rockin' southern blues band Vaqueros, organized Sunday blues lineups at the Yale Hotel, Vancouver's unofficial home of the blues. Doucette was his alternate as “the house guy,” running the jams on Saturdays.

The local network galvanized a following for the blues in Kamloops that remains unrivalled, although it lost its volunteer momentum after a few years, once the Blue Grotto began booking shows directly. Doucette was one of their regular acts.

Originally from North Battleford, Sask., Doucette began singing and dancing at home while growing up. He left home at 15, headed west to Vancouver where he fell under the influence of the Chicago blues.

“I heard a Muddy Waters record when I was 15. It changed my life.”

It took him months of bleeding lips to be able to play the Willy Dixon classic Hootchie Kootchie Man. By age 18, he was following in the tracks of the late Paul Butterfield.

Not until nine years later did he take it up full-time, partly out of necessity. He was working at a lumber mill near Prince George when a paint shed blew up. Doucette was inside and was left half-covered with third-degree burns.

“I was really lucky to have lived. I was still in therapy and already playing blues bars. I knew where I wasn't going to get hurt again.”

His determination to overcome his injury earned him the nickname Sherman “Tank”. His band at the time, Icognito, became a fixture of the Vancouver blues scene.

“It was a good thing. Let's face it, the first rule of the blues is to hurt sometimes.”

At the Yale, he shared stages with the legends, artists including John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Pinetop Perkins and Long John Baldry.

“At different points in my career, I'd get to play with horn sections and I'd twist the guys' arms to give me horn stuff. I'd fill in with the horn section, saying, ‘Show me that line and how it goes.' That's how I developed my own style, listening to horn and guitar players.”

Recently the high point, for the first time in a long time, was Salmon Arm,” where Tankful of Blues played four shows and shared a workshop with Gordy Johnson of Big Sugar.

“It was a pretty amazing weekend. Probably the most fun I've had in 20 years.”

Doucette is so passionate about harmonicas that he collects them. His online museum Harptown (www.shermandoucette.com), represents a collection of more than 700 antique instruments.

What makes a good harp player so hard to find?

“It's just a rare little tool. A lot of people try it and just don't take it seriously enough. Myself, I loved it and just had to get that tone.”