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| Toney Springer of Wild T & The Spirit |
Apr 28 2012 – Toney Springer has had diverse career. At one point a member of Rough Trade and later the leader of a Hendrix tribute act called Fire, it was after he changed his stage name to Wild T and the band to The Spirit and released his debut album Love Crazy in 1991 that he rose to prominence. Produced by his friend Arnold Lanni, Love Crazy’s title track, Midnight Blues, Yvonne, Mean Mean Mama, Can’t Getcha (Outta My Mind) were catchy blues songs that led to international acclaim and tours of the US and Europe. It also led to Springer appearing on David Bowie’s 1993 album “Back Tie, White Noise” after Bowie saw the video for Midnight Blues while in Montreal on a tour stop. Springer also performed on various talk shows like The Tonight Show, Letterman and Arsenio Hall in support of Bowie.
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| Wild T & The Spirit |
These days Wild T & the Spirit remain one of the hardest working bands in the business touring all over Canada with a very busy schedule. The Spirit is a power trio of Guenther Kapelle on bass and Dale Harrison on drums. Kapelle is a long time member of the band, Harrison is a more recent addition. They played Southside Johnny’s (3653 Lakeshore Blvd.) in Etobicoke on Saturday night to a standing room only crowd.
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| Guenther Kapelle of Wild T & The Spirit |
They played two sets spanning a range of material from Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others mixed into songs from Love Crazy and his other albums and had folks dancing most of the night. Lucky for us, they played Midnight Blues for the first time in along time. They brought on a guest bassist and jazz singer Robin Banks, as Toney put it, his “sister from another mister” to guest on a song. Inspired by Hendrix and his theatrics, Wild T is a dynamic performer who occasionally played solos with his teeth.
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| Toney Springer of Wild T & The Spirit |
The night began with Albert King’s I’ll Play The Blues For You and play blues they did for nearly three hours of incredible music. They’ll be back in the area next month playing McGradies on Victoria Park on May 25th and heading out on a tour of western Canada in June and July. I’d lost track of Wild T & the Spirit for most of the last 20 years, but will be paying more attention now.
Review by Steve Mallinson
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| Toney Springer of Wild T & The Spirit |
Thanks for the write up!