David Vest, a Maple Blues Award recipient who now lives in Canada is a genuine, Southern-bred, boogie-woogie pianist, blues shouter, and world-class entertainer. East Meets Vest was his first Canadian recording and received a Maple nomination as Recording of the year. He will tour extensively to promote Roadhouse Revelation, his new record, after being signed to Cordova Bay Records. “Who would’ve thought that you could become a major buzz act at the age of 70?” David Blain, Toronto Blues Society, Born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1943, David grew-up in Birmingham, near Tuxedo Junction. In 1957, he played his first paid gig. By the time he opened at Roy Orbison’s New Year’s Day 1962 show, he was an experienced veteran of Gulf Coast honky-tonks and roadhouses. David was 17 when he went on tour with Jerry Woodard’s Esquires. Some of these Esquires became important members of the Muscle Shoals Swampers. He played in jam sessions with Ace Cannon and Bill Black’s Combo, as well as the Jimmy Dorsey band, at clubs along the Florida Panhandle. This was where fellow Alabaman James Harman would make his mark. By 1958, he had seen Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. In the prime of their careers, he saw Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed. He was 21 when he met Big Joe Turner. Big Joe said that David Vest’s playing made it feel like he was back home in Kansas City. Alton Delmore’s last song was the first track he recorded. According to her bio, David wrote the first songs Tammy Wynette recorded. He was also the brother to Faron Young, who threatened to kill him, toured with Red Foley, supported Red Foley in a show that saw all stars get robbed, and worked in a theatre alongside Fannie Flagg. This made him the first American artist ever to record in Romania. David was honored with the “direct laying of hands” by Texas piano giants Big Walter The Thunderbird and Katie Webster. When he wasn’t playing with Jimmy T99 Nelson, Milt Larkin and Jimmy Ford in Houston, he was on tour with Miss Lavelle and Jimmy T99 Nelson. He was the co-leader of the Paul deLay Band from 2002 to 2006. They reached the Top Ten on Billboard’s national blues charts with The Last of the Best. David has made many festival appearances with other artists or under his own banner, including Bumbershoot (Portland), King Biscuit and Waterfront (Portland), Winthrop and Edmonton. David’s creativity, talent and energy have not been diminished by the passage of time. Working solo or with his band, he continues to bring audiences to their feet and to demonstrate why he has been called “one of the greatest living boogie-woogie piano players.” from http://www.davidvest.ca
