Harry Manx admits to being just a tad daunted when he's on stage with pianist Michael Kaeshammer.
Manx, the Saltspring Island blues master, will be appearing with Kaeshammer on Saturday at Nanaimo's Port Theatre.
"I've really had to step up my playing when I'm on the stage with Michael. Man that guy is fast," he says of Kaeshammer. "You have to rise to the occasion, when you're playing with him."
Born on the Isle of Man, Manx grew up in sa国际传媒 and learned to play guitar.
"I left home when I was 15 and was playing in a rock band but I was also into the blues," he told the Daily News.
By 17, he was the sound man at Toronto's legendary El Mocambo and that's where, watching blues luminaries like Willie Dixon and B.B. King, he started playing the blues.
"I was mixing the sound for these guys and I was hooked," Manx said. "I guess I was pretty good playing the guitar and it wasn't long before I headed to Europe."
Manx made his living busking on European streets playing the blues. Eventually, he made his way to Asia and discovered classical Indian music. Artists like Ravi Shankar captivated him. He began studying Indian music with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. It was Bhatt's gift of a custom-made Mohan Veena -- a 20-stringed sitar/guitar combination -- that prompted Manx to forge a new sound.
"Blues guitar is very much like classical Indian music," he says. "A lot of the unique sounds come from bending notes."
And just as blues stars like B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan have distinctive sounds, so too do artists like Bhatt and Shankar, Manx says. He says he has found his "comfort zone"encompassing both the blues and Indian music in his musical repertoire.
And being shaken out of his comfort zone is what happens when Manx plays with Kaeshammer.
The pair recently began their three-month tour in Whistler but they have played with each other previously.
"You get to see and play with a lot of people when you do the music festival circuit," Manx says.
"Performing live is definitely the best part of the music industry for me," says the man who has six CDs on the market. A seventh, entitled In Good We Trust, is scheduled to be released next year.
For tickets to the Harry Manx/Michael Kaeshamer show call the Port Theatre box office at 250-754-8550 or visit 125 Front St.