There’s a lot of aspects to this band. They’ve been going non-stop, almost 25 years now. There’s been a lot of different personnel changes over those two plus decades as musicians move around from project to project. But the band has stayed going, stayed playing and reappeared as a number of different things as new members added their influence to the mix. For me, it’s been in three major parts: 1. the Beginning Years – the first half dozen years that the band created their ‘sound’ and reputation; 2. the Middle Period – the following 15 years when I was not a part of the band; and 3. the Present Day – covering from when I rejoined the band a few years ago, up to the present. Click on any of the buttons to the left to see as much of the history of the band POWERHOUSE as I have completed so far.
What started as a mid-80's attempt to revive the R&B/Soul horn bands from the late '60's has morphed over the years from the original ‘raw’ R&B sound to developing a more technically-precise and difficult sound during the 1990’s, picking up different ‘Tribute Show’ ideas to add to their original R&B show, and finally settling into a present day band ‘package’ that, on any given weekend, could be any or all of these things.
The band continues to develop and play regularly, throughout Canada and the northern US – even taking one of their shows to Europe a few years back – and is looking at another solid gig schedule for the year 2009. All the current band members are involved with many other things outside POWERHOUSE: original recording projects, other bands, other interests and other completely-dissimilar occupations – yet the band continues on, year after year. Their next focus is simply the next good idea away. And that could come at any time.
All the links above are not functional yet, as I continue to collect information, pics and other items. Also, being the start of the year's busy season, much of my concentration now is practising and preparing myself for what is to come in 2009. But as time permits, I'll have full information posted on all the major parts of the Hamilton band,, POWERHOUSE.
Don – January 4, 2009
This video is also available at YouTube, full screen, at:
Or simply, type in "Hamilton's Powerhouse" in
the YouTube search engine.
