HAMILTON – Last Thursday night Six Nations bluesman Murray Porter got a chance to perform with the great Sam Moore of the legendary Sam and Dave. It was all part of the 10th annual Dreamcatcher Awards Presentation and Gala, which was hosted at the Hamilton Convention Centre.
It was a star-studded affair with world-acclaimed Aboriginal actor Adam Beach serving as master of ceremonies for the black-tie event.
Also on the entertainment package was Brian Wilson, co-creator of the iconic Beach Boys, along with his band.
“I was asked to sit on keyboards with Sam’s band,” said Porter about the experience. “It was great to be there. Brian Wilson was there, and it was just great to be included with legends like that.”
Last year, Porter performed, on his own, but this year, he became an honorary member of Sam Moore’s band for the night.
Porter, now living in British Columbia, jumped at the chance, not only to play with one of his musical heroes, but also to come home to Six Nations to visit with friends and family.
He is writing a new album for 2015 and plays high-end piano bars in the Vancouver area between concert dates.
“I’ve got a few good new tunes written,” he said. “But I want ‘em all to be good, so I’m taking my time with it. I don’t want an album with three or four good songs and the rest filler.”
“You know, back in the day, the guys that were playing the piano lounges and bars were doing 40’s and show tunes and stuff like that,” he says. “But with the demographic what it is now, I’m doing like Rolling Stones and Beatles and rock and roll and country tunes. That’s what the people want to hear. That’s the music they grew up with and so did I.”
He still sprinkles in some of the many tunes he has written and recorded over the years when he does the dinner club and pub circuit.
“Baby You’re My Good Thing” seems to be the original song that most people ask for and has established him as both a recognizable singer and a top flight songwriter.
“Everywhere I go people wanna hear that,” he says. “I wrote it in the 1980’s and its such a simple song, but it seems to strike a chord with people. In BC, we have satellite networks and they play that song quite a bit so people out there know it.”
He also gets a lot of requests for “Sorry Enough,” a song Porter wrote for residential school survivors, along with the song that launched his career, “1492 – Who Found Who?”
Although his song “Since You Went Away,” which appears on his latest album, was not specifically written for that purpose, he has dedicated it to the missing and murdered indigenous women across Canada.
“It’s about the sorrow you feel when somebody leaves and you don’t know where they are, so it kinds fits,” he says.
“I have been on what is called the highway of tears which is highway #16 up in northern BC,” he says. ”There are billboards all along that road with pictures of some of the missing women. It’s really quite moving. Meanwhile, Harper is doing nothing about it. They’re calling them ‘isolated incidents.’ Right, 1,200 isolated incidents.”
Recently, the CBC filmed a one-hour special with Porter in Vancouver, which he is quite proud of. It can be seen online at CBC Absolutely Vancouver in the segment entitled, Heart of the Eagle.
