Garret T. Willie’s gives rock ‘n’ roll a formidable 21st-century kick in the ass with his heartbreaking and hilarious stories, hardscrabble blues, and hard-stomping rock ‘n’ roll. Hailing from Kingcome Inlet, off the coast of BC, the uncommonly wise, witty and weathered 23-year-old’s heavy back story gives him more right than most to sing the blues, but there’s a helluva lot of raunchy fun going on alongside the exorcisms of tragedy and trauma.

Willie knows what makes the blues tick. Schooled in all the right source material, from Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, and Muddy Waters, to Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee, to the Stones, AC/DC, and George Thorogood, with a little outlaw country flavour on the side, Garret T. Willie doesn’t just rip it up on the guitar, he does it with the gut-busting honesty of someone who understands that if you ain’t lived it, you shouldn’t sing it.

“I think we’re providing the world with something it doesn’t have right now,” says Willie. “I don’t wanna just be the biggest in British Columbia, I wanna be the biggest in the world. It’s been a long time since somebody’s done it right or been doing it from a genuine place and not just because they admire it. This isn’t, like, an imitation, y’know? If I don’t feel it, I don’t do it.”

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwtbAb0H0u0

“Canada’s next big thing in down-and-dirty rockin’ blues guitardom” — Toronto Star