They call Chris Canas “Detroit’s Prince Of The Blues” and who are you to say otherwise? That statement reflects the hard-nosed attitude that Chris brings to his work. And the listener is better off for it, even if Chris sings with an acid tongue.  

 

Once upon a time, the brash guitar slinger was too shy to talk, believe it or not. So much so that he settled for cornet in the fifth grade, when he really wanted to play sax. But for a true musician, the instrument at hand is the one he or she will make work. Before long, Chris was a prized jazz horn player, eventually blowing his way on to stages with the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts jazz ensemble. But then, while the teenager was trying to learn to play like Dizzy, his head got spun another way – toward the sound of B.B. King.

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And so young Chris moved to the ‘juke joint’ instruments, like upright piano, drums, and the harmonica. Then came the inevitable: electric guitar. Learning to play blues licks led to learning how to record what he played, and if you are going to record in your bedroom, you might as well start to write something of your own, right? Early songs like "Unforgiven'' and "The Blues" won contests and acclaim, and wowed blues fans lucky enough to hear them in raw form. Among those who did was the great Thornetta Davis who more-or-less adopted Chris at 18. Then she booted him from her nest to the fast lane of Detroit area blues. Now with his own band, Chris Canas became the young gun to follow twenty years back.

 

Fast forward to today, and you find that Chris has notched more than a half-dozen albums, earned national-level places in the International Blues Challenge, and burned up the stages of more blues clubs than can be counted. On the way, he earned the respect of Joe Bonamassa, Toronzo Cannon, Kenny Neal, Corky Siegal, Don Was, Howard Glazer, Victor Wainwright, and Larry McCray. Chris Canas became not only a mainstay in the Michigan music scene, but an in-demand act for blues festivals across the country.

 

His first release for Third Street Cigar Records is named for the city where it all started, Detroit. The album blares with the kind of ax-grinding that we all would like to do from time to time. And it blazes with the kind of axe playing that only a master like Chris can provide.