Concert Review: Jimmy Bowskill Band, Market Hall, Peterborough, Ontario

For the past few days, I have been trying to come up with the best way to describe the concert I had the pleasure of attending this past Friday May 13, 2011 in Peterborough, Ontario at the newly restored Market Hall Theatre.  I recently started working in Peterborough, which is a smaller city of roughly 75,000 people northeast of Toronto.  It was quite the simplest of reasons that piqued my interest in this concert.  The posters were well designed and well placed, so that prompted me to check out the Jimmy Bowskill Band web site.  When I visited the site to do a little research on the band, my interest picked up considerably.

The first thing that jumps out as you read Jimmy's bio, is the fact that he's only 19 years old.  Couple that with the fact that he's been on stage performing with Randy Bachman, Dickey Betts, Paul Rodgers and Jeff Healey, and this makes it an opportunity that is not to be missed.  I mean, look at the guitarists he's performed with.  These are some of the greatest guitarists of our time.  Just who is this kid?

Well, I can tell you unequivocally, this kid is a phenom ... a virtuoso ... whatever adjective you can think of that describes a young person who has a God given talent and is a natural at what they do.  This young man is all of those.  The show performed before a shockingly small crowd in Peterborough was unlike anything I've ever seen.  The sheer talent that this young man has is unbelievable.   He can sing, he can write his own material, and he can absolutely rip a guitar in three.  Those of you who may be reading this and had the opportunity to attend the show in Peterborough last Friday but decided against it, shame on you!  Just kidding ... my point is, now is the time to be checking this young wunderkind out, because he will not be playing venues like Market Hall for long. 

Hailing from Peterborough, the three-member Jimmy Bowskill Band played two hours of the scorching hot blues, rock and alt-country that left the crowd in attendance out of breath, yet wanting some more.  And more they got, as Bowskill and Company closed out the evening with a well represented version of an early B. B. King hit.  Bowskill confessed, King was one of his earliest and most critical influences.  I believe it's a matter of time before Bowskill adds King to the list of guitar greats he has shared the stage with.

In short folks, I want to say that this kid is out-of-this-world good.  He has recently completed a tour of Ontario, but has toured Europe and North America previously. This band is an act to keep your eye on.  The Jimmy Bowskill Band is an act that will be around for a long, long time.