Brent Parkin
Guitarist, singer, songwriter Brent Parkin has been playing the blues for over three decades and is quite possibly the best electric blues guitarist in Canada. Equally at home playing his originals, the West Side Chicago sound, the cool of T Bone Walker or rocking out with a Chuck Berry cover, Brent Parkin knows how to hook an audience, and then take them along for a blues ride they won't soon forget.
Brent has worked long and hard on the Western Canadian blues circuit to earn the respect and admiration of blues fans of all stripes. Brent has opened for such Blues greats as B.B. King, James Cotton, Son Seals and Johnny Winter, and has backed up Otis Rush, Gatemouth Brown and Bo Diddley.
A Hamilton native, Brent moved to Winnipeg in the early 1970s. Here he hooked up with other budding Blues musicians, Gord Kidder (harp) and Barry Dunford (upright bass) to form Houndog, a seminal Winnipeg Blues unit. Later, drums (Ian Haslen) and piano (Harri Vallittu) were added. In 1978, Houndog released its only recording, "Every Dog Has His Day". Following the breakup of Houndog in the late 1970s, Parkin founded Brent Parkin and the Stingers. The Stingers have played extensively across western Canada and have continue to today to be a driving force on Canada's Blues landscape.
After suffering a serious heart attack in September 2007, Brent took some time off from the nightclub scene and appeared in the highly-sucssessful play Messa at the Prairie Theatre Exchange. Feeling healthy and playing again, Brent will keep your soul sizzling for days.
... "Brent Parkin reminds us of what the blues can be in the hands of a master" (Roots & Blues Magazine).
... Parkin's slide guitar work is truly ethereal. He can step out of the bar-room and play in an entirely different musical universe without missing a beat- Bartley Kives - Winnipeg Sun
Listen to some of Brent's song samples hosted by the Manitoba Blues Society