Blackie and the Rodeo Kings originally formed in 1996 when Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson came together to record what was suppose to be a one- off tribute album to the great Canadian songwriter Willie P. Bennett.
At the time, all three members were deeply committed to burgeoning solo careers that they had no intentions of putting on hold, and had no plans to turn Blackie into an ongoing concern.
Now twenty years later, 8 albums , one Juno award and several Juno nominations under their belts, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings have organically evolved into one of the finest roots-oriented bands in North America. Blackie and the Rodeo Kings remains one of Canada’s greatest musical treasures.

A Note from producer Colin Linden

Brothers, fathers, heroes, friends, collaborators, peers…

Kings and Kings brought us together with all of them…in the same spirit that we formed this band–by accident and with divine providence–we were blessed with visitations from some of the greatest artists in music today (and, I believe, always)….

Some of these were fellows we knew well and had made lots of music with like Bruce Cockburn, buddy miller and Keb Mo, and some were new heroes and discoveries like Fantastic Negrito and City & Colour…some were icons who I had shared some guitarring with like Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell and Eric Church and Raul Malo and some were icons new and preloved who joined us out of kindness I suppose like Nick Lowe and Jason Isbell and some were my dear pals I work on the “Nashville” TV show with –Chris Carmack, Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson and Sam Palladio

All are kings amongst men and much love to them all

We were honored as always by Gary Craig, Johnny Dymond, John Whynot and the legendary Kenneth Pearson on these songs–with extra help from Bryan Owings and Kevin Mckendree and as always, the spirits of the great Richard Bell, dear Willie P. Bennett and the mighty Brian “brain” Harrison.