Jimmy Bowskill was twenty years old when he played the 2011 festival. By then he had already been a professional musician for almost a decade, which is the kind of sentence that only makes sense when you remember he started at eleven.
He played Murphy's Community Centre on Saturday, August 20, at 9:15pm. The festival bio called him a "triple threat" and noted that his influences ranged from Son House to Jeff Healey to ZZ Top. That mix of delta soul and blues rock fire is exactly what he delivered.
The busking story
Bowskill grew up in Bailieboro, a small village outside Peterborough, Ontario. He taught himself to play by listening to Robert Johnson records and working out the parts by ear. By the time he was eleven he was good enough to busk on the sidewalk outside Jeff Healey's club in Toronto. He wasn't allowed inside because he was underage, so he stood on the street and played. Healey heard about him, came out, and invited him in to jam .
That night changed everything. Healey's bassist, Alec Fraser, gave him studio time. He signed with Ruf Records. The next year he recorded his debut album, Old Soul, which featured a cast of Canadian blues heavyweights including Jack de Keyzer, Danny Marks, and Healey himself . He was twelve years old.
The awards and the road
His second album, Soap Bars and Dog Ears, was nominated for a JUNO when he was fourteen . He won a Maple Blues Award for Best New Artist in 2005 . He played the World Expo in Japan that same year, representing Canada . By the time he got to PEI in 2011 he had toured Germany, France, Ukraine, and Mexico, and opened for ZZ Top, Deep Purple, Dickey Betts, and Garth Hudson .
He shares a birthday with B.B. King. September 16. The festival bio mentioned it, and it feels like the kind of detail that explains something about the way he plays. The soulfulness, the respect for the tradition, the sense that he is carrying something forward rather than just showing off.
That night
A Saturday night slot at Murphy's, late in the week, with a crowd that had already seen a lot of music. Bowskill was twenty, playing with a band that knew how to back him, and he had been doing this long enough that the novelty of his age had worn off. He was just a good blues guitarist by then. A very good one.
The festival bio quoted a review from Classic Rock Revisited: "Jimmy Bowskill is one of brightest shining stars for people who love REAL rock and blues music." That is about right.
Since then
Bowskill kept going. He joined The Sheepdogs in 2015, playing lead, rhythm, and pedal steel. He became a full member of Blue Rodeo, contributing to 1000 Arms and later Many a Mile . He released music with his wife, Brittany Brooks, under the name Brooks & Bowskill, including the 2023 album Too Many Roads . He is still playing, still touring, still one of the most respected guitarists this country has produced.
The 2011 festival caught him at a good moment. Old enough to know what he was doing, young enough to still be hungry. That combination does not last forever.
For the current festival, head to the schedule page or the main lineup page. This archive is kept for looking back.