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Watching any musical career progress as inspiration and passion of purpose transform unseasoned talent into something very special is always pleasing. But, it is most gratifying, when that individual growth and artistic maturity happens in a home-grown artist like Mark Potvin.
It all started with the big impression made on a small four-year-old boy watching guitarist Chet Atkins on Sesame Street and an electric guitar scrabbled together from odd parts that was painful for young fingers to play. “I pretty much locked myself in my bedroom playing the guitar from the age of 7 until my early 20s…I really wanted to be a heavy metal guitar god,” says Potvin remembering his consuming fascination with the instrument.
Potvin discovered the blues when Willie Dixon sued Led Zeppelin. Initially curious about who would have the gall to do such a thing, he uncovered an amazing new world of music in the Chicago blues of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers and Pinetop Perkins, the jump blues of Big Joe Turner and the rhythm and blues of the great Ray Charles. “Once I grabbed on to this, I just had to keep finding out more,” he says. At twenty five, Potvin sold his entire collection of rock CDs.
A self-confessed late bloomer Potvin was twenty nine when he made his stage debut. “My first goal was to play a whole night and not have people get up and leave,” he says of his early gigs. Potvin hasn’t stopped since and admits to suffering something akin to withdrawal symptoms when separated from live performance for very long.
Hard working and diligent, Potvin has come a long way. His spirited guitar playing and wholehearted vocals have brightened local coffee houses and clubs as well as the stage of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium where he has opened for top-tier acts like Colin James, Paul Shaffer and Blue Rodeo. He played the Thunder Bay Blues Festival with the Westfort Horns in 2005. In 2007, Potvin was the guitarist for The Magnus Theatre Musical Production of The Little Shop of Horrors and a Producer/Promoter Advisory Panellist for The Ontario Arts Council. He helped Juror the Roots/Adult Contemporary granting process for FACTOR in 2008 and is currently working on a CD of original songs.
The 2010 Thunder Bay Blues Festival appearance promises to be particularly memorable for Potvin whose three sons, Maxwell (18, coronet, trumpet), Benjamin (17, trombone) and Samuel (14, alto and tenor saxophone) will join their proud father on stage. His two long-standing friends and band mates, master percussionist, Paul Hessey and bass man supreme Tom Sinkins will be stoking the boiler in the engine room.
“Everybody has a different way to cross the stream,” says Potvin of his musical journey. And, while he can take pride in what he has accomplished, ultimately he’s filled with a sense of humility and appreciation for the talents that he has been given and the opportunity to allow them to flourish. “I feel very honoured to be able to do this,” he says. www.markpotvin.com
Ken Wright
