Where: Park Alleys
When: 2026-07-11 || Show 9:30pm
Event Details:
JP makes his home back in Morden, Manitoba these days, but he cut his teeth in blues clubs and festivals from Detroit to Ottawa with The Windsor Dukes, featuring Kelly "Mr. Chill" Hoppe
(of Big Sugar). A southern Ontario favourite, the Dukes were one of the more authentic-
sounding '50s-style blues bands playing the then-thriving circuit. Over the years, JP has shared
the stage with a number of blues greats, including Lazy Lester, Pinetop Perkins, and Wildchild
Butler, Kim Wilson, Luther Tucker, Ronnie Earl, and Albert Collins, to name-drop a few.
Returning to Manitoba in the mid 1990s, JP quickly fell in with harp-man, Dave Mowat and the
Curbside Shuffle before establishing his own band with veteran piano player, Harri Vallitu of the
consummate 70's Winnipeg blues group, Houndog. The JP Lepage Band in various forms has
been firmly entrenched in the Manitoba blues scene ever since, often billed along side Winnipeg
greats Brent Parkin, and Big Dave McLean, who has called JP "one of the most soulful,
passionate blues jewels to come out of the Canadian mines yet"
Veteran blues and boogie woogie specialist, Johnny “Piano” Russell originally hails from Ottawa.
His band held down the long-running blues jam at Irene’s, a veritable blues school where
notable Canadian blues performers such as Steve Marriner and JW Jones got their start. On
piano, Johnny has backed up many serious blues people like Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, he has
toured with the Prime Minister of the Blues, Dutch Mason, Rocket Rached and the Fat City 8 as
well as the late Harpdog Brown.