We’ve got rock stars and country crooners. Jazz artists and
concert bands. An impressive, world-class symphony. We were
the home of the Big 8 in the sixties and seventies, which
played to huge radio audiences throughout North America.
We’ve got the Bluesfest, River Rock, Coming Home, Eats &
Beats, and soon, the Kingsville Folk Festival. Plus, every event
and gathering from mornings at the market to coffee at the
neighbourhood cafe seems to offer us the chance to tap our
toes, sway a little and even hum along to emerging and
established musicians.
Windsor-Essex may be in Motown’s shadow, but our
music scene shines pretty brightly.
“Traditionally, there has always been room in Windsor for
rock bands, country bands, a few blues bands, the occasional
jazz act,” says Owen B. Jones, author of Music From Windsor:
Generations of Local Minstrels Tell Their Tales. A musician
himself, Jones also covered the local music scene for The
Windsor Star for many years, before his retirement in 2011.
Jones’ book is a 184-page scrapbook of Windsor’s musical
history from the 1930s to the present. The book features
memories, anecdotes, and photographs from many of the
musical leaders of the last eight decades.
There’s no question that the elephant that is the United
States has influence our own music history. “Everybody who
spends time in Windsor is heavily influenced by Detroit and
the American media machine. We can't help but be
influenced,” says Jones. “Who of a certain age growing up here
can deny the influence of Motown? For others, perhaps Iggy
Pop and the MC5 were the big influences. More recently, an
influential brand of techno music was created in Detroit, so
depending on a budding musician's age and musical tastes,
any of those genres would have to be part of who we are and
what we create.
There’s more to it than that, though. It’s also the
willingness of area artists to work together and support each
other that makes a difference. Courtney Meloche is a
singer—songwriter from Amherstburg who’s performed
locally, across Ontario, and as far away as Nashville.
“I would not have been able to create a lot of the work I've
done over the years without the people I've collaborated with,
who have mostly been other locals,” says Meloche. “With my
other musician friends from the area we have been able to
create something unique and beautiful.”
Windsor-Essex isn’t necessarily a direct gateway to
stardom, but there’s more to mak