Biography

Acclaimed eight-time Juno Award-winning singer/guitarist Colin Linden releases, Rich in Love on September 25, 2015. The new CD marks a return to the same label that released Colin’s first studio album, The Immortals, in 1986, and also represents his first new studio recording since From the Water in 2009. Colin Linden’s last album was a live recording released in 2011.

Sporting a beautiful cover designed by Jim Sherraden of Nashville’s famed Hatch Show Print, Rich in Love was produced, recorded and performed by Colin Linden (guitars, vocals, ukuleles and mandolins) and his band, affectionately known as The Rotting Matadors: John Dymond on bass and Gary Craig on drums. Special guests include multiple Blues Music Award-winner and six-time Grammy nominee Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica, legendary keyboardist Reese Wynans (Stevie Ray Vaughan), Amy Helm (Levon Helm, Ollabelle) on harmony vocals and organist Tim Lauer (Rodney Crowell, Keb’ Mo’, Allison Moorer, Lady Antebellum).

Linden, a long-time Nashville resident, and the two members of his band have been playing together for over 25 years, and it shows on Rich in Love, which sparkles with their seamless musicianship and collective talents. Colin Linden’s singing is fresh, emotional and engaging. The songs transport the listener through lustful encounters, remorse-laden retrospectives and forlorn longing, while the music takes influences from blues, country rock and roots. And then there is the playing, where every guitar pluck, bass note, subtle drum sweep or organ solo from this consummate musician and his band adds to the stories. It is a truly captivating package, a polished roots diamond, a treasure to reflect on and restore the soul.

The 12 all-original songs on Rich in Love were written by Linden, solo or in tandem with other writers such as his wife, Janice Powers (a published novelist), band member John Dymond and Grammy winners Gary Nicholson and Tom Hambridge. About the songwriting process for the new CD, Linden says, “I felt like so much has changed since my last studio album in 2009. It was as if I was writing from a different place for these songs. At some point I even began to suffer from insomnia, and several of the songs were composed literally in the middle of the night, such as “Date with the Stars.’ While the music on my new album covers a lot of influences, I still think of myself as a blues player, whatever I’m doing.” According to Linden, “Delia Come for Me,” one of the songs from the new CD, had a particularly interesting genesis: “It was partially inspired by the 2011 execution in Georgia of Troy Davis for murder, whose subsequent investigation raised serious questions about his guilt; a case which reminded me of the old traditional country blues ballad, ‘Delia.’”

Rich in Love comes at a time when Colin Linden is a very much in-demand musician, having played on Gregg Allman’s Grammy-nominated Low Country Blues, as well as on Grammy-winner Rhiannon Giddens’ most-recent album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, and Diana Krall’s 2012 CD, Glad Rag Doll. In 2013, Linden was tabbed by Bob Dylan to play guitar in the music icon’s band for his summer tour. Recently, he was the featured guitar player on the PBS-TV special saluting gospel music, “In Performance at the White House,” backing such luminaries as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, Shirley Caesar and the aforementioned Rhiannon Giddens. In recent years, he’s also played on the soundtracks for a number of feature films, including Inside Llewyn Davis, The Hunger Games, R.I.P.D. and the acclaimed documentary, A Place at the Table. And on August 29, 2015, he was the music director for the special tribute to legendary Sun Records founder Sam Phillips at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The catalyst for all of these performances has been the celebrated producer extraordinaire T Bone Burnett, who has created some of the most lauded music performed on record, television and film over the last 15 years. It was Burnett who originally selected Colin Linden to work on the first season of the hit ABC-TV series, “Nashville.” Over the past three years, he’s been working in that same role with his close friend and the show’s executive music producer, Buddy Miller, as “Nashville” enters its fourth season of production. Officially credited as “Performance Consultant and Coach” on the show, Linden plays on almost 75% of the music heard on the program and supervises all of the music shoots that take place on the screen. He’s also been the bandleader for both national tours that the “Nashville” cast has taken on the road across the country.

One of Colin’s additional projects, the roots music trio known as Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, released the highly acclaimed album, Kings & Queens, in 2011 on the file Under Music label, which teamed the band up with such guests as Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Patti Scialfa and Holly Cole, among many others. The resultant North American tour, which saw the boys joined on the road by a few of the “Queens,” was hugely successful, showcasing the group in front of large audiences in major music venues.

More on Colin Linden's Past:

Born in Toronto, Canada, and raised in White Plains, New York, Colin Linden returned to Canada in 1970. He was already a guitar prodigy at 11 years old, and when most kids that age are playing sports, Colin was meeting and being mentored by one of his musical heroes, the great bluesman Howlin’ Wolf, which helped set the youngster on a course to pursue the sounds of his dreams. That encounter helped fuel a career that has featured his work on literally hundreds of albums. At last count, the total number of recordings on which he has played approaches 400, while over 100 albums bear the “Produced by Colin Linden” credit.

As a testament to his roots music acumen and early devotion to the idiom, Colin - at the tender age of 15 and accompanied by fellow Canadian musician Doc MacLean – embarked on a summer blues odyssey of the USA, working down from the border and hitting Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, Memphis and other points south in the Mississippi Delta. Along the way, they met up with and performed on numerous occasions with a “who’s-who” of blues legends, including Sippie Wallace, Buddy Moss, Little Brother Montgomery, Sunnyland Slim, Tampa Red, Henry Townsend, Robert Wilkins, Sleepy John Estes, Son House and Sam Chatmon.

Colin Linden is a genuine renaissance man of roots music. He’s a singer and songwriter of great skill, an in-demand and prolific record producer (Bruce Cockburn, Tom Wilson, Colin James), a sideman to the stars as guitarist for the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and, for the past decade-plus, a member of the highly successful trio, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.

Colin’s songs have been covered by The Band, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Keb’ Mo’, and Colin James, and his well-stocked trophy case includes eight Juno Awards (the Canadian Grammy), multiple Maple Blues Awards, and a Toronto Arts Award. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for the star-studded A Tribute to Howlin’ Wolf CD, and was nominated in 2002 for Lucinda Williams’ track on the Timeless (Hank Williams tribute) album, which won for Country Album of The Year. That same year his involvement in the O Brother, Where Art Thou project was rewarded, as “O Brother” won for Best Album and the Down From The Mountain soundtrack won for Folk Album of The Year (Linden and Chris Thomas King had a song credited together on that one). Linden has a well-deserved reputation as a slide guitar virtuoso of true originality and his riveting slide work can be heard both on albums from numerous artists as well as on his own sizeable solo catalogue.

His last studio album, From the Water, was viewed as an homage of sorts to his long-time musical collaborator and closest friend, legendary keyboardist Richard Bell, who passed away in 2007. Bell’s accomplishments included being a member of Janis Joplin’s Full Tilt Boogie Band. Linden and Bell played on over 100 albums together (more than 40 of them Linden productions), including records by The Band, Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and Colin James.