JD Edwards marching to the beat of a different band

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The JD Edwards Band

If the JD Edwards Band ever needed a horn section, the frontman could lead it.

The singer-songwriter is best known as a vocalist/guitarist, but Edwards has a little-known skill as a trombonist. He studied the instrument for years, including as part of a university music program in Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

"I played in all the bands I could: quintets, quartets, rock bands, classical groups. I was in the Queen's University marching band -- we'd wear kilts and get drunk and play the football games... We'd take shots out of our trombone mouthpieces," Edwards says with a laugh.

Besides learning to walk in time and play while inebriated, Edwards discovered he didn't like the strict rigidity of studying music; there was too much theory and not enough playing and improvising. After a year he dropped out of the program to concentrate on making his own music, but continued playing in the marching band, for the social aspect and frequent trips.

"We had our own bus and hung out with the cheerleaders. The cool cheerleaders, not the jock cheerleaders. There were two groups of them. We travelled everywhere around Ontario and to the East Coast," he says.

Edwards is still travelling everywhere, but these days he's touring with his own rock group, as a solo artist and as a member of folk trio Dry Bones.

The upcoming year will find Edwards on the road plenty with all three projects, but before he hits the highway he and the JD Edwards Band will kick off the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club's 11th anniversary celebrations tonight with Sweet Alibi. Admission is $10.

Besides the anniversary, the band is celebrating the release of its second album, Roads and Roads, which came out last month.

The album is the third release for Edwards (he also put out a live solo acoustic album) since moving to Winnipeg in 2005 to reconnect with his brother, who lived in the city. Edwards was just planning to visit for a month, but enjoyed the city and the music scene enough to ditch Toronto and move to the Prairies, which has impacted his songwriting more than he expected.

"The styles and kinds of music I'm making is derived from the people I've met here in Winnipeg," he says. "I've learned a lot more about prairie people and their music: their country, their folk, their metal. When I lived in Toronto it was a lot more urban, like hip hop, funk, acid jazz and digital music. DJ music. Here it was different. It sounds cheesy to say prairie rock, but it's the music I feel."

Edwards draws from a deep musical well, switching from wheatfield roots to groove-oriented rock to mellower singer-songwriter material that has earned him comparisons to artists such as Dave Matthews and Matthew Good.

The recently married 34-year-old credits the stylistic variations to his bandmates -- Matt Robins, Jesse Ives, Jake Bell, Mike Ormonde and Alex Campbell -- who help drive the final direction of the song.

"Once the song is out there in the band or with Dry Bones, it always changes. There's always a new vibe created on each part from the way they hear it and the notes they play," he says.

The title of his new album will take on a literal meaning this year. Edwards has months of touring lined up, with a trip to Australia in March with Dry Bones -- featuring Winnipeg music vets Leonard Podolak and Nathan Rogers -- along with some summer festival gigs and a European jaunt, and a JD Edwards Band tour tentatively scheduled for the spring.

As excited as he is for the tour, the show tonight at the Times will be the band's first at the venue since the release of Roads and Roads.

"I just know there's been so many musicians, artists and people who've played there. (Owner) John (Scoles) has put some magical spell on that place to have a good time when you're there... It's not a bar with a stage, it's a stage with a bar," Edwards says.

The venue's 11th anniversary weekend party includes a cross-section of Winnipeg's roots and blues community. Friday features rustic roots rockers the Crooked Brothers; Saturday blues stalwarts the Perpetrators and singer-songwriter Dan Frechette share the stage; and Sunday is the weekly blues jam hosted by Big Dave McLean, who just released his latest album, Outside the Box. Admission is $10 nightly.

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 12, 2012 E9