Musician, broadcaster, concert producer and record collector John Rutherford manages a career encompassing several facets of the Canadian music industry. As a musician Rutherford creates solo and collaborative projects, is a member of several bands, produces records and has written and produced music for film and television. A guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Rutherford also plays ukulele and features a vintage banjo-ukulele as part of his roots / blues sound. Rutherford performs on a regular basis with several music projects based out of Calgary, Alberta.
John is a member of the Calgary roots music collective the Highwater Jug Band with fellow musicians Tim Williams, Suitcase James, Mark Sadlier Brown and Cedric Blary. The band has performed at clubs, concert venues and music festivals throughout western Canada including a summer 2007 tour of British Columbia with a stop at the Vancouver Island Music Festival. Released January 2007 the HJB self-titled debut recording reached number 5 on the Alberta-wide CKUA Radio Network top 30 chart and has received both provincial and national airplay on CBC Radio Canada. The disc continues to show up on both radio and sales charts receiving airplay in Canada, Europe and on several US Americana stations. In January 2008 the Highwater Jug Band CD showed up at number 18 in the CKUA Top 100 of 2007.
Half of the acoustic duo No Guff, Rutherford has worked extensively with legendary guitarist Dan Tapanila. No Guff's CD "They're Red Hot" released in 2002 received national airplay in Canada on CBC Radio programs including The Vinyl Cafe, Saturday Night Blues and DiscDrive. "They're Red Hot" reached 4 on the CKUA top 30. The duo has toured clubs, concert halls and festivals across Canada including the Saint John Jazz and Blues Festival, Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Vancouver Island Music Festival and Calgary Folk Music Festival. No Guff live performances have been featured on national CBC radio broadcasts.
Rutherford frequently performs with the Ronnie Hayward Trio. He has recorded two CDs with Hayward, "Too Many Chiefs" and "The Lonely One in Town". John has worked in Hayward's band off and on since 1999 touring both in Canada and Europe. Rutherford and Hayward are currently working on a new duo project.
Rutherford's other musical encounters include working and recording with Calgary blues singer Bill Dowey, Fort McLeod songwriter John Wort Hannam and Edmonton blues-man Mark Sterling as part of Sterling's "Come On In My Kitchen" gatherings. As part of festival workshops Rutherford has performed on stage with Colin Linden, The Holmes Brothers, Danny Michel, The Bills, Chad VanGaalen, Roy Forbes, John Reischman and the Jaybirds, The Wailin' Jennys, Lester Quitzau, Mae Moore, Tom Russell and Suzie Vinnick among others.
John Rutherford's broadcasting career began at the University of Calgary radio station CJSW where he hosted a blues program between 1983 and 1990 coinciding with the heyday of Calgary's legendary blues haunt the King Edward Hotel. During that time Rutherford interviewed a who's who of legendary blues names including John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Koko Taylor, John Hammond, Little Milton, Johnny Winter, Bo Diddley, James Cotton, Otis Rush, and dozens of others, at the same time producing numerous live on-air performances with the likes of Buddy Guy, Long John Baldry, Pinetop Perkins, Sugar Blue, Luther “Guitar Junior†Johnson and many more. From 1998 to 2004 John hosted a Saturday morning program on Alberta's CKUA Radio Network where he interviewed and snooped through the record collections of such guests as Jann Arden, Al Waxman, Pamela Wallen, Brett Hart, Randy Bachman, Ronnie Burkett, Douglas Coupland, Spider Robinson and others. John can currently be heard as a regular columnist on CBC Radio One's Daybreak Alberta with Terri Campbell.
John is an avid record collector with several areas of special interest.
