Hank Lionhart on Conversations with Dune & Friends

Conversations with Dune & Friends
Guest: Hank Lionhart
Recorded on July 28, 2020

Big Hank Lionhart

His earliest memories of the Blues... well, when he was a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's his Dad owned a Drive Inn movie Theatre and he would play a variety of stuff during the pre movie time and during Intermission. Lots of Elvis, a lot of Ray Charles and Swing stuff and Big band records. Hank always loved the Swing Stuff especially Louie Jordan and Ray Charles was the Bomb - great stuff.

However Hank's first time hearing a Band actually play anything close to the Blues was in 1969 when he was living in Vancouver and a friend and Hank went to the Forum to hear Creedence Clearwater Revival - the hit Susie Q was just breaking on the radio, but they made a lasting impression on him and he guesses planted the seeds in him for the Blues. He bought their record and played it into submission.
He also heard John Mayall and the Buesbreakers in 65 and their record was a huge influence he still do a song called "You' Don't Love Me Baby" a classic. Years later, Hank even got to open a couple shows for John Mayall at the Commodore Ballroom.

When did Hank get into the Blues?

He started out in his first band in Edmonton in 1964. It was a pretty loose unit we they called the Wayne Williams band the name of their full on egotistical guitar player leader. They rehearsed for 3 months then did one gig and never got paid - the promoter stiffed them. Big lesson learned! In 1965, after high school, he moved to Seattle Washington to go to Art College. He got into a real great band, called the Clouds. They did a lot of top 40 hits and a bunch of Stones and Who songs. It was a great time. They had a house gig at a club called the Door every Friday and Saturday night for 6 months. From Seattle he moved to Edmonton and sang with a number of Bands, doing mostly top 40 stuff. In 1973, he went out on the road doing the Cabaret Circuit with Coloured Rain. This took him all over Western Canada, even opening for BB King at Oil Can Harry's in Vancouver, and then to Victoria where they played the Paint Cellar for a month in July fabulous weather and a great gig packed every night. Well, their bass player gave his notice two weeks in to the gig, so Hank looked all over Victoria on the Music Store Notice Boards to find a replacement bass player who ended up being Norm Piercy who went on tour with them for a number of months.

Hank left this band in 1974 and joined his first real Blues Band called Hot Cottage in Edmonton. They had just released an album backing up Walter Shakey Horton and were getting lots of notice. He did 4 years with them and really developed his Blues Chops not just playing the songs they were doing, but by soaking up all their knowledge of the blues and totally changing his record collection to include Muddy Waters who he would also end up opening for in 1983 at the Commodore… and records by Bobby Blue Bland, James Cotton, Lightnin Hopkins, Magic Sam, Howlin Wolf, Junior Wells, T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Albert Collins, BB King, Sonny Boy and many more ended up as the mainstays in Hank's record collection. So he totally immersed himself in the blues and from that point on that is pretty much all he has been doing - Blues and R&B.

He moved back to Victoria in 1978 and hooked up with Norm Piercy again and told him he wanted to put together a Blues Band. He had a buddy Brent Hutchinson who played sax so he joined. Then, he saw an ad for two guys looking for players to form a blues band - one played guitar Mark Comerford and the other played drums Mark Johnson - and so, Uncle Wiggly's Hot Shoes Blues band was born. They recorded 2 albums at Tom Lavin’s Blue Wave Studios in Vancouver. They were signed to RCA Records and toured across the country. They open shows for Muddy Water three times, Joe Cock three times, Paul Butterfield, Georgia Thorogood, Koko Taylor, Jame Cotton, and on and on. It was a great time. They had a couple songs make it to main stream radio, and they got a lot of airplay.

Hank moved to Vancouver and formed the R&B Toasters with Steve Cross, and they had a great run and opened shows for the likes of John Mayal, Koko Taylor and The Neville Brothersfrom to name a few. They were together 1984 thru 1987. In 1988 they hooked up with Jack Lavin and formed the R&B Kingpins. They had a great run on the A Circuit in Vancouver and recorded two CD’s. The Kingpins reformed two years ago in Victoria and they are going strong.

And here they are, coming full circle with the R&B Kingpins with the majority of the band now living in Victoria BC.