Here’s John Hammond Jr. standing at the back of The Speakeasy in Toronto, listening to deep-voiced Danny Marks, that complete entertainer, warm the audience up with his smooth, relaxed version of T-Bone Walker’s seminal blues—“Baby Please Don’t Go.” Hammond then took his time waiting for the set-up to come together for him in Lance Brass’ new club on Church Street. Good thing they got it right for him, because Hammond’s blues explode onstage like a nuclear chain reaction.

Hammond’s huge sausage fingers flash up and down the neck of his guitar like fishes in a feeding frenzy. His right hand is armed with thumb and finger-picks that savage the steel without mercy, thumping a bass-line, hammering out melodies, whipping a whole cargo of blues effects down the line like a runaway mule-train. Hammond taps the heel of his yellow snakeskin shoe, sweat pouring off him, and he howls, shouts, growls, and, let’s face it, cries the blues till he’s past hoarse and still whispering “Come back baby, please don’t go.”