Digging those cross border blues

Jim Robb's art is synonymous with Yukon. His drawings of leaning buildings and characters he calls the "Colourful Five Per Cent" have been a part of the territory for decades, and earned him an Order of Canada a few years ago.

But Robb's roots are in Montreal. That's where he grew up, and that's where he learned to love rhythm and blues as he tuned in radio stations across the border in cities like New York and Baltimore.

"I was 15 or 16 and I listened to my dad's radio from Montreal, about every night just listening to that," he said. "Some of the kids on our track team, half of those kids were black kids, and some of their dads would be porters on the train and they would bring up these records from New York. But most of these songs I heard on the radio."

Robb's first song was a complete classic, The Thrill Is Gone, by the legendary B.B. King.

"The way he would sort of talk and bit and then get back to the guitar, and then talk a bit more," he said. "He just had a wonderful voice."

Robb's second choice was He Stopped Loving Her Today by country crooner George Jones.

"It's country blues," he said. "The lyrics are pretty much the same: 'I don't like my (woman), so I'm going to get a bottle of whiskey and jump in the car and go.'"

I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James was Robb's third selection.

"When I was just a teenager, maybe 15 or 16, I bought an early 78 of hers, Good Rockin' Daddy," he said. "She was just a kid at the time too and it was amazing."

Robb's fourth pick brought back a lot of memories because it was the theme song to the show that turned him on to a lot of this music.

"I used to listen to WBAL from Baltimore and a program came on at 12 midnight and it opened up with Roy Brown's Boogie At Midnight, just a terrific saxophone blaring away and it was the opening of that show, Cubit's Corner."

Robb's fifth and final choice was the classic Green Onions by Stax recording artist Booker T. and the M.G.'s.

"Absolutely fantastic," he said. "That's a healer song, you get healed by that song ... if you're down in the dumps and you hear some of this music, it'll sort of back you up. It'll cheer you up."

This story is part of a web series called Music that Matters with CBC Yukon's Airplay host Dave White. Dave sits down with Yukoners to talk about five pieces of music that inspire them.