When one thinks of Blues music in Canada, the first band that springs to mind is Downchild. It’s been nearly 40 years since Donnie “Mr. Downchild” Walsh and his since passed brother, Hock Walsh formed the group that would be the inspiration behind the world famous Blues Brothers. Still on top of their game today, Downchild was nominated for “Blues Album of The Year” at the 2005 Juno Awards (Canadian equivalent of a Grammy Award) and lauded as “Entertainers of the Year” in 2007 at the Maple Blues Awards (Canadian equivalent of a W.C. Handy Award).

By the early ‘70’s, Downchild was gigging constantly when comic/actor and fellow Torontonian Dan Aykroyd caught a show at one of their local haunts. He, along with his cast mates from the legendary Second City, soon became regular staples at Downchild shows to party after their own performances. Aykroyd in particular became a huge fan who cherished his copy of Downchild’s second album Straight Up ,on which he together with John Belushi based the first ever and multi-million selling Blues Brothers album Suitcase Full of Blues.

Since then, Donnie and Co. have won 26 awards from media and blues authorities including Q107 FM, the Toronto Blues Society, Jazz Report, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) who gave them the Great Canadian Blues Award in 1992 and the Canadian Association of Recording Arts and Sciences who bestowed on them a Juno for Best Roots and Traditional album in 1991.