There are some people, I believe, that you are just destined to meet. In the late 90s, living in Nashville, I haunted the clubs; Exit/In, 12th and Porter, 3rd and Lindsley, making the rounds to immerse myself in the most imaginative and celestial music the era and the city had to offer. And there were fellow travelers, ones with whom I shared many an evening, though in many cases I didn’t know their names, I just recognized them from their attendance at the same shows as me all the time. Some emerged out of the mist of anonymity. One was Colin Linden. I would see him in his Amish style hat and we would greet each other by the glint of an eye, of being a fellow traveler. After months of finding ourselves in the same spaces so often, we finally introduced ourselves and started getting to know each other. And through the years since, I have watched with glee as Colin plied his abundant craft. There are his solo projects, others that he produced, and then there is the entity Blackie & The Rodeo Kings.

Photo Credit: Bob Lanois

The band, Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden, formed in Ontario, Canada fifteen years ago. They spent the last two years or so working on an album they had been thinking about for way longer, Kings and Queens, on which they have lots of well-respected folks contributing. Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Pam Tillis, Serena Ryder, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Amy Helm, Janiva Magness, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sam Phillips, Sara Watkins, Exene Cervenka, Patti Scialfa and Holly Cole. It was a very satisfying exercise indeed. I saw the trio in Boulder, Colorado this August and made my plans to get them before the Music Fog cameras in Nashville, during the Americana Music Festival. They brought their Nudie suits (Manuel, actually) and Bryan Owings and John Dymond along to play.

- Jessie Scott