David Vest Living the Blues
Singer-songwriter, storyteller, poet, and award-winning piano player.
He's known as a blues artist, but he lives at that place where streams of blues, gospel, country, jazz, and R&B all converge to form one mighty cascade. And he likes to make sure people know where the music came from. The son of an Alabama sharecropper, Vest played his first gig in 1957. Since then, he's been onstage with Bo Diddley, Hubert Sumlin, Downchild, Tammy Wynette, Red Foley, Faron Young (who threatened to kill him), the Soul Stirrers, and members of bands once led by Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Jimmy Dorsey.
Combining the chops of a jazz player, the depth of a blues legend, and the energy of a true born rocker, Vest has won six Maple Blues Awards for his piano playing and a prize from the Academy of American Poets. He now makes his home on Vancouver Island.