Steve Dickinson and the Skinners Bluff

May 9 @ 8:30 pm - 11:00 pm

Local singer-songwriter Steve Dickinson presents original material spanning 4 albums, including songs from the Reed & Dickinson era of working with Bob Seger’s sax player, the late great Alto Reed. Steve was writing and performing his own material even before he recorded his debut CD Blindside – an album that garnered regular airplay across Canada’s country radio airwaves and beyond. That effort was followed by Four Down, and Good Old Days. His songs are about hometowns and old friends. They’re about giving an audience permission to be nostalgic for the past, to remember simpler, happy youthful times. And his songs, like his voice, have turned heads. Could you call his style country? Roots? Blue Collar? Roadhouse? A case could be made for any of these, but only part marks if you pick just one, because Steve’s material spans all these genres, striking a familiar chord with a wide variety of folks along the way. Perhaps the best description going is ‘Rock and Rural’. Straightforward honest lyrics, driven by appealing chord progressions, delivered with heartfelt energy, that’s Steve Dickinson’s and the band’s signature sound.

ROB RITCHIE // keyboards: Music and words are Rob’s life. He was a contributing songwriter and keyboardist for the touring roots/folk band Tanglefoot, and he fulfills the same duties for folk rockers RPR. He holds down the piano and organ duties for his son Josh Ritchie and his band as well as Roadhouse cover band Midnight Blue. In 2004, Rob released his own solo CD Five O’Clock Shadow. When he’s not writing music, he’s chasing down his other dream as a fiction writer, having published four novels over the past twenty years.

JEFF MAYNE // drums: Jeff’s interests stretch from Mozart to Meatloaf. Relocating to Owen Sound in 1987 afforded the opportunity to play with a long list of great musicians in numerous bands. Currently Jeff can be found behind his kit keeping the beat and the driving rhythms for the Creedence CCR tribute act Bootleg, and now as drummer for Steve Dickinson’s latest project, Skinner’s Bluff.

PAUL FARROW // bass: Paul “Woggy” Farrow holds down the bottom end on the bass with Steve Dickinson and Skinner’s Bluff. His association with Steve goes back decades, to the point that – notwithstanding his business successes running a recording studio and advertising agency – Paul cites being hired by Steve at the age of 17 as the most significant event in his career as a musician. “I’ve been fortunate to be included in many of Steve’s bands and recordings … as a co-producer, engineer and session musician. Playing live with Steve and the Skinner’s Bluff band tops off my bucket list.”

FRED RUEGG //guitar: Hailing from a remote mining town in northwest Labrador, Fred’s career brought him to the Grey-Bruce area in 2002 where he re-connected with old friends, and traded in his love of travelling (The USA, China, all across Canada), for the need to have a guitar in his hands.

As part of a fundraising event in 2022, Fred got the opportunity to play a set with Steve Dickinson, and a short time later joined the Skinner’s Bluff crew supplying the soaring leads and fills that make up the band’s signature sound. to play a set with Steve Dickinson, and a short me later joined the Skinner’s Bluff crew the soaring leads