Rick Fines: The Blues had a Baby

Jeff Green | Dec 15, 2011

Photo: Rick Fines

I remember the first time I saw Rick Fines.

It was about 30 years ago in Peterborough, and it must have been one of the Saturday night dances at the college dining hall at Trent University.

It cost $5 to get in, and you could buy beer for about a dollar or sip from a small bottle of whiskey in your back pocket. There were no worries about drinking and driving because no one owned a car.

The band was called Side Effects. It was a local band and although some of the musicians were familiar 20 somethings from a number of other bands, the lead singer and guitarist was a 17-year-old kid, local musician Matthew Fines' younger brother Rick.

He was tall; he was pretty lean; he played rock ' roll and we all danced.

The Mercury Blues was the most memorable tune of the night. They must have played it two or three times, and it was a screaming, rocking version. You know the Mercury Blues – If I had the money, I tell you what I'd do, I'd go down downtown, get a Mercury or two, Crazy 'bout a Mercury Lord I'm crazy 'bout a Mercury, I'm gonna buy me a Mercury, And cruise it up and down the road

I didn't know it then, but the Mercury Blues, which was a hit for David Lindley at the time, was actually a blues song that was originally recorded in 1949. It was later reincarnated again in a country rock version by Alan Jackson. Back in Peterborough, it was a great vehicle for a young singer and fancy guitarist.

Rick Fines also did a pretty good version of “The Blues had a Baby; They Named the Baby Rock 'n Roll” but by the time he hit his own late 20s, he became a full time Blues musician, in the style of the old Mississippi Blues players. He fronted the Jackson Delta Trio for a number of years, performing his own material as well as older classic blues songs.

Last week, Fines brought a different trio to The Crossings Pub at the Sharbot Lake Country Inn. He had Rob Phillips on keyboards and Richard Simpkins on Double bass with him, and the first set of the night featured a jazzy version of the Rick Fines sound.

Although he is by no means an old man, (no one can be old when they are younger than the person writing about them) Rick Fines has learned a few life lessons as a Canadian musician over 30 years, and one that comes through in songs such as “Proud Papa” and “Riley wants his life back” and others, is the wisdom that life really won't get any better than it is, and it really is pretty good.

At the start of the second set, Fines pulled out his National steel resonator guitar and played the blues. The music fit Rick Fines like a glove and was very well received by some members of the audience who came out to hear the old Jackson Delta sound.

Fines' very particular voice and diction, which seems to be a direct response to the sounds he produces on the guitar, also suits his song writing well.

Whether playing old style blues or jazzier tunes, Ron Phillips and Richard Simpkins provided support for Fines and some spark of their own when called upon.

For his encore, Rick Fines played one of his best original tunes, “My Mistake” which is about a man who still loves a woman who has left him for another man, still one of the best themes to sing the blues about.