Page 21 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2023

THE BiTS INTERVIEW: Terry Medd

(Bluesland Horn Band)

Terry Medd is the guitar player with the outstanding Bluesland Horn Band

who do their thing on the West coast of Canada.

Terry is the ‘titular head’ of the band and he and they have just released their
new album “Six”: The sixth album they have made!

Ian McKenzie spoke to Mr Medd on the telephone at the latter’s home in
Victoria, British Columbia.

TM: He's right on time. Good morning.
BiTS: Hello, Terry. Nice to speak to you.

TM: Yes, Ian, good to hear from you.

BiTS: Terry, let's make a start. Thank you
first of all, for agreeing to speak to me. I
want to talk to you, of course, about the
Bluesland Horn Band and the album “Six”,
but also about the history of the band as
well. Can you tell me how did it all get
started?

TM: Oh, my goodness. For many reasons, I
had an interest in horn bands. I hear blues
and jazz as kind of one thing, fruit from the
same tree, and so I started putting together
horn bands back in the 70s, probably and
through various different groupings, I
found myself in a city in Calgary, and so I
started a horn group there. We did one
album in the early 2000s and then the band
took a pause for a while. I was playing
various combo blues things and some jazz
things, and I was at a jam session, and I

heard a singer that really got me excited about getting the band back together again. You know,
people tend to listen to groups like this from the vocalist back out, so a good vocalist is important
and so I heard Marty Cochrane at this jam, and I thought geez, I got to get this band back together.
So we did, and that was maybe 2012.

BiTS: Terry, how did you get into music in the first place? What attracted you to playing an
instrument?

TM: Oh well, I grew up as a third-generation musician, family band. My father was a banjo, guitar,
bass guy and he opened up my ears at a very early age. We grew up very poor, so when we got
our first record player, it was really quite an exciting thing and he would say, listen to what that
bass player is doing or listen to what that trumpet’s doing. That sort of thing and as a kid, it opens
up your ears and then as a kid, I started on drums and then went to guitar. When you start in on