ETHAN
ASKEY

Ethan Askey is an emerging singer-songwriter in the roots, blues and soul music landscape. Having served a long apprenticeship as studio session player and sideman to all sorts of projects, he has played literally from coast to coast to coast in Canada and is best known (as Shorty) in his adoptive Calgary music community in the RocknRoll Mountains.
 
“Shorty” also has played stages in Chicago and in Memphis, but he’s more familiar with the MacKenzie River delta in the Arctic coastal lowlands than with the Mississippi delta. He was practically born with a paddle in one hand, and a harmonica in the other. And no matter whether he’s camped along a northern river or in the depths of the Grand Canyon or having a hang in the salsa Caribbean or bohemian Czech Republic, he’s rarely without his chosen instruments.  He makes music in unlikely places with friends old and new.  

An explorer of places wonderful and wild, this nature boy recently has pulled together some of his friends to raise the roof with him in giving voice to songs in the key of his life.
 
Walk When You Wanna Run is the title of his new release, a collection of songs that one might categorize as modern blues. The title track recounts a visit he made to the south side Chicago home of Junior Wells (“godfather of blues”, bandmate of Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters), years after making his acquaintance at Calgary’s infamous King Eddy. Singing of stray bullets, fish delivery and bear country, he shares a pivotal experience in his personal journey as a musician and offers a fresh take on the funky urban electric blues that Junior Wells was known for.
 
In addition to this solo effort - Ethan Askey & the Elevators are now booking for 2024 - Shorty is active with other recording artists and live performing projects, notably as frontman to the blues club dance band MOJO, and as sideman both to southern Alberta roots songsmith Dave McCann (& the Firehearts) and to northern bluesman Jimmy Guiboche (Jimmy & the Sleepers). In the past decade he’s been a busy session player and collaborator with roots blues artist Darren Johnson, honkytonk country performer Matt Masters, country funkster Ridley Bent and others. He's been honoured by the Calgary Blues Music Association and by opportunities to share stages with luminaries such as Amos Garrett and British bluesman John Mayall.

When not making music, he may be spotted deep in the bush running rapids or riding the rocks, forest bathing perhaps, or high on a mountain top. “I find peace in the woods, and challenge in the elements, with my full focus on the natural world around me in the moment. I like to balance that with city life, with its people-ness and shared experience, the stories and songs. You see, I’ve been moved by music, and making music, since I was born. With all people everywhere, and across language barriers, I’ve found that rhythms and tonal colours are ties that bind - and liberate - if that’s not contradictory... you know what I mean?”

Maybe you just have to give a good listen and judge for yourself as to what he really means.