Monday 12 August 2013

One Of Canada's Finest is April Wine

Myles Goodwyn~Roy Nichol~Brian Greenway~Richard Lanthier

 

Classic Rockers April Wine 


April Wine is one of Canada's finest classic rock bands.  They formed in 1969 and came out with their debut album "April Wine" in 1971.  They have been through many player changes since 1971, but Myles Goodwyn being an original founding member, kept the band moving in a very successful direction. In March of 2009, April Wine was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame during Canadian Music Week in Toronto. They also received The Lifetime Achievement Award for being part of Canadian Music History for 40 years.  On April 18th of 2010, at the Juno Awards, April Wine was inducted in to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Past players are Jim Henman, David Henman, Ritchie Henman, Gary Moffet, Steve Lang, Steve Segal, Jim Clench, Jerry Mercer, Breen LeBoeuf, and Blair Mackay.

Current members are:
Myles Goodwyn ~ producer, main songwriter, main vocals, and guitar
Brian Greenway ~ guitars, vocals, and harmonica
Roy "Nip" Nichol ~ drums and back vocals
Richard Lanthier ~ bass and back vocals
 


A few years ago a friend of mine asked me if I've ever heard "Just Between You and Me".  Well, I was a big April Wine fan in 1981 when their  "Nature Of The Beast" album came out, but because of little radio play here in the U.S., sadly, they were forgotten.  Yes, not only have I heard of that song, but I will look them up on the newly discovered Youtube!!  The first video I found was the "I Like To Rock" official video.  Damn, how could I forget Myles unique, smooth, but powerful voice, the dueling guitars between Myles, Brian Greenway, and Gary Moffet, and the incredible soulful backbeat with Steve Lang on Bass and Jerry Mercer on drums.   What an incredible recording I was witnessing, the band formed a circle in the room and you can just feel the chemistry and the energy they are feeding each other.  I was hooked!  

Besides music, Myles and the band are passionate about finding a cure for diabetes.  Myles has Type 2 and his youngest son has Type 1.  April Wine has a special song called "Over The Moon" that they perform live occasionally, but at every show, Myles talks to the audience about Juvenile Diabetes and offers the audience a chance to donate.  In May 2013 April Wine forwarded over $5000.00 of donation money collected at their shows to JDRF, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.   Here is a touching quote from Myles, "Living with someone that`s diabetic, especially a child, can be very emotional at times. I only sing Over The Moon live to help increase awareness of the importance of everyone helping to raise the money needed in the research for a cure". 




This year April Wine enters it 43rd year in rock and is proving to be a fantastic year for April Wine.  Their new line up has all the right chemistry, experience and talent.  They have a very busy tour schedule, adding a few dates to the U.S.  Myles is wrapping up his long awaited "Myles Goodwyn and Friends Of The Blues" album and has intentions of releasing it later this year. He is also working on a new April Wine album to be released later this year as well.  Newly released movies, "Grown Ups 2" and "The Heat", both feature the track "Roller" off of their 1978 album "First Glance".  



April Wine is on Facebook and are very interactive with their fans. Myles has a Blog on the April Wine website, where he Blogs about his favorite things, hot cars, hot guitars, and hot women.  If you haven't checked them out in a while, I have included links so you can go say "Hello" to the band and rediscover their music.  Do you "Wanna Rock"?  Go check them out!

Facebook:

Website:

JDRF:


Jill Maciel
West Coast Correspondent for CRRdotEU










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