Bill Durst

James's guest this week is London Music Hall of Famer Bill Durst.

After driving in from his St. Marys-area home, Durst sang and played River, the opening track of his new CD The Great Willy Mammoth. Durst, 57, is in prime blues-rock-roots-Durst form.

He launches The Great Willy Mammoth on Saturday with a 19-and-up show at the Music Hall Lounge, 185 Queens Ave.

The album was five years in the making, with perils and joys detailed on Durst's website. His old Thundermug bandmate Joe DeAngelis, as co-writer, helped Durst create the album's tunes, including the hilarious spoof autobiographical title track. The moods vary. Cafe on the Gaspe is just as much fun as River is serious.

The unplugged style Durst uses on the lfpress.com video is a little unusual for this London guitar hero. Still, all Mammoth songs were created by Durst and DeAngelis using an acoustic guitar.

Durst's guitar heroics can be traced to the June, 1966 night at the old London Arena when he heard Toronto's R&B soul masters the Rogues (or the Five Rogues and later the Mandala) with the Byrds as headliners. Rogues's guitarist Domenic Troiano blasted off a note using a fuzztone, something Durst had never experienced.

"It just screamed . . . (it went) right up my spine," Durst recalls. "Dammit, that's what I'm doing" Durst decided that night.

By the 1970s, Durst, DeAngelis, drummer Ed Pranskus and bassist Jim Corbett were in Thundermug, blasting out the hits. Years later, they briefly reunited for their induction into the London Music Hall of Fame.

"This is a 'do anything for the love of art' story. The musicians performances on the CD are beautiful, continuous, spontaneous and inspired. Thank you musicians and producer Darren Morrison," Durst says of the five-year journey to Mammoth's completion. - James Reaney - London Free Press

Bill Durst may very well be the closest thing to a bona fide musical living legend that our sleepy would-be metropolis has ever seen. From international chart success with his truly amazing band Thundermug to the many solo albums he has issued since, he has never given over to posturing of any kind and has stood his ground firmly regarding his music, personal identity and independence. The Great Willy Mammoth is an impressive effort indeed, with Durst laying down fine and effortlessly sure performances with his gritty Rio Grande Mud vocals and bear-down-heard six-string work that will leave no doubt that the fire has not only definite not gone out herebut in fact may be heating up more than a degree or two. Recommended. - Rob Nicholson - Scene Magazine

For years, or more accurately decades, Bill Durst has been considered by many to be Southwestern Ontario's most accomplished guitar player. Durst gained national attention in the early days of Canadian rock as the lead guitar player and songwriter for Thundermug, who are best remembered for the single, Africa, which he co-wrote. The Wharncliffe Sessions is a rock-blues guitar album that features classic tunes most guitar players know, but few would dare record. If you are going to release a recording of so many familiar tunes, you'd better be an exceptional player, and Durst is exactly that. His versions of Little Wing and Voodoo Child are worthy of comparison to the originals. Durst's slide-guitar playing on Statesboro Blues is right on the money and his version of ZZ Top's, Tube Snake Boogie is a keeper: Drummer Ted Peacock and bassist Paul Loeffelholtz deserve mention for providing exciting support as well as keeping the grooves fresh. The Wharncliffe Sessions is a very strong debut by three of London's most accomplished musicians. - Christopher Michaels - Scene Magazine