A3 MIDLAND FREE PRESS          LOCAL NEWS       Friday, October 19, 2007

Blues Band Rocks The Orr Lake Golf Club

By James Burns

Free Press Special

W	ayne Buttery and the Groove Project, a band of local musicians who have been playing since the 1960s and '70s, came to Orr Lake Golf Club last Saturday night and played a long and enthusias-tic set.

Wayne Buttery

The veteran musicians, who have been playing

together as the Groove Project since 1998, played a mixture of blues with jazz and rock and roll influences. They mostly played their own compositions, written by several of the band members, with a few covers thrown in for fun. They played three sets and had an enthusiastic crowd dancing for most of the evening.

Wayne Buttery, the bandleader, plays guitar and sings lead vocals, but he was not the only singer of the evening. Charlie Hinkel, the bass player, Dennis King, the drummer, and Harp Boy Jake, the harmonica player, all took turns at singing in each set. Russ Strathdee on saxophone. Mark Rutherford on keyboards and Paal'Robillard on trumpet completed the line up of this seven piece band.

Buttery has lived in Orr Lake since 1993 and, along with all of the other band members, is a Toronto escapee. The other musicians live in Penetanguishene, Midland, Moonstone and Barrie.

The band's eclectic mix of blues with jazz and rock and roll influences has not always endeared them to blues purists.

“We've been criticized in the past for not being a traditional blues band,” Buttery told the Free Press. “But if Muddy Waters had the technology available to him that we have today, he would would likely be using the same influences."

Buttery's playing career has spanned five decades now and he has played with some real legends. "When I was in Bananas (The Toronto

Bassist and  brass section.

based nostalgia show band), we opened for Wilson Pickett,"he said. "We ended up playing with him — he was a really sweet man."

"We also had one gig playing with Tina Turner in Hamilton," he recalled." She came into our dressing room with wine and food and treated us like gold. We had a big party afterwards. "Wayne and the Groove Project play all over Simcoe County "We play a lot of blues festivals," said Buttery "We have a lot of summer work. I also do some solo stuff. We play on the Georgian Queen in the summer and all over, in Wasaga Beach, Barrie, Orillia and Collingwood."

Buttery sat on the board of the Orillia Spring Blues Festival for several years.

To find out more about the band and where they will be playing next, visit their website at www.waynebuttery.com.