SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The band that rocked Yellowknife bars, clubs, arenas and community events in the 1990s is reuniting tonight for one special performance at The Cellar.

Norman Glowach, left, "Lonesome" Jim Lawrance and Pat Braden are reunited as the The Red Devil Rockin' Blues Band. The Yellowknife-based band is performing tonight at The Cellar. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo

Singer, guitarist and harmonica player "Lonesome" Jim Lawrance has returned to the city to jam with old friends and Yellowknife fixtures drummer Norman Glowach and bassist Pat Braden - forming once again the Red Devil Rockin' Blues Band.

The band reminisced Tuesday night at Glowach's studio before their rehearsal, about their history together and their first love - old school rock n' roll. The power trio came together in the late 1980s in what was described as a "spontaneous musical combustion."

"We sort of met," said Braden. "A gig came up and with very little rehearsal, it just happened on the stage. Then we just carried on."

What was supposed to be a one-time thing turned into a seven-year blues-based band that left its mark on the Yellowknife music scene.

The band's music is described as "sonically charged R&B dance groove repertoire in the Otis Redding, James Brown, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry tradition which, when combined with a propulsive creative edge derived from Frank Zappa and Grateful Dead and free form jazz influences, resulted in a powerfully aggressive-but-friendly, musically informed and innovative 'rock 'n roll' experience," according to Braden's website.

"It's pretty electric blues," he added. "We're kind of the irreverent punks ... So much of it is just rhythm and groove. We can be thumping along on one cord - we don't change the cord - but the groove is infectious."

After seven years rocking stages in the late '80s and early '90s, the band dissolved while each member pursued solo careers. They nonetheless remained friends and played together whenever the opportunity arose - reuniting to rock the stage at Folk on the Rocks in 2014.

While the band's set isn't exactly contemporary, they promise their songs will have the audience dancing up a storm to their old-school tunes.

"Jim got to play through the early birthing years of rock and roll," said Braden. "Norm and I were born a little bit too late so I missed out on that. When we get to play with somebody like Jim, this is as close as we're going to get to that generation of music."

"I see us as the next generation of rock 'n' roll," added Glowach. "But we could be the last of the generation that actually (cares) about this type of music."

The band's more authentic groove comes from the fact that the Red Devil Rockin' Blues Band doesn't rely on any of the high-tech influences that infiltrates so much of the music industry today, explained Lawrance. Sometimes what gets the audience going is a simple harmonica.

"We're playing with no cord into the amp, no effects," he said. "It's just three people playing on instruments. When I started, there weren't even tuners. There were no monitors - no one had monitors."

"I've always tried to get back to that," he continued. "With these guys, it's been a treat because we're able to sink into those rhythms. It just happens."

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