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This article was taken from the Fernie Fix Magazine. Written by Sam Steel.
It was October 2019, driving from Ottawa to Fernie, when Jeff turned to me and said “Wait ‘till you jam with Bravo.”
On arrival, Jeff unpacked the car and then headed out to jam with the boys. That was the first reconnection of players who would eventually become Blues Steel.
While the boys all knew each other from years previous, I first met Johnny (Bravo) Muir, Ben Danic, and Scott Deydey not too long after Jeff and I arrived in town. The musical connection was natural and immediate, and so we played.
In the short time I lived in Fernie before Covid, we could play almost every night. We were on Fernie’s weekly jam night tour, and when there was no live jam or performance, we would set up at someone’s apartment. The players sometimes shifted, we weren’t Blues Steel at this point: we had The Round Up and The Basement Swellers and whatever other names were given to the group when one player swapped out for another. But the groundwork was laid.
When the pandemic hit and the stages went silent it was, oddly enough, the point where Blues Steel actually became a specific unit, albeit in the digital world. We produced The Gun Song, a tune from my early years of writing that the boys brought to life. It was a country song though, and while it was a fun project, it wasn’t the style that would fuel the band’s creativity in the long run.
As life returned to normal in March of 2022, we began gathering for Sunday dinner and jams. Johnny had mentioned to Jeff that he wanted to start a blues project, and so a new repertoire unfolded. With diverse musical backgrounds, the blues was a starting point that would later include some funk, soul, and even a little southern flair at times.
We played our first show two months later at the home of the Brocks, our friends and Fernie family. We booked the Brickhouse not long after, and it has become our home stage. It is a venue that we look forward to playing, always on a Sunday afternoon from 2-5pm, keeping to the seed of where Blues Steel began.
Blues Steel was born in Fernie. We are fortunate to have become part of its fabric. Thanks to people like Mark Gallup, renowned photographer and friend who turns our image into art, to the volunteers at events like the Fernie Social and Griz Days where we have taken the stage, to the locals and travellers who come out and give their energy and support to our shows, we are truly proud to be a Fernie band.
As we head into a new phase of recording our original material, we are excited to continue playing in and around Fernie, sharing our sound as we grow. Blues Steel is in motion, this train doesn’t stop, and we are so happy to have such a strong and artistic community on board