Early years James was born in
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. James got his break in his music career opening for
Stevie Ray Vaughan in Regina in 1983. When the scheduled opening act did not show, he only had a few hours' notice to put together a set of blues standards with members from the local Regina band "Flying Colours". Vaughan invited James to perform with him during the encore, and then join his tour as a permanent opening act. He and his band The Hoodoo Men James also played guitar on
Richard Marx's song "Thunder and Lightning".
Rock, swing and blues career In 1987, James won the
CASBY Award for "Most Promising Artist". In 1988, following his association with Vaughan, James released his
self-titled debut album, a third disc 2006, and a
Christmas album in 2007. James's worldwide popularity waned somewhat in the late 1990s, but he continued to release albums in rock, blues, and acoustic styles. In 2005, he gave a
command performance for
Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to his home province of
Saskatchewan. James' backing band frequently includes members of the
Vancouver-based band
Odds, and he has co-written songs with Odds singer-guitarist
Craig Northey. In February 2005, James guest-starred in an episode of the television program
Corner Gas, a Canadian sitcom based in rural Saskatchewan. In 2007, James' album
Limelight received a Gold record for sales in Canada. In January 2008, James received three Toronto Blues Society
Maple Blues Awards: "Entertainer of the Year", "Electric Act of the Year" and "Recording of the Year" for
Colin James & The Little Big Band 3. In 2009, James recorded the album
Rooftops and Satellites with, among others,
Junkhouse frontman
Tom Wilson. The album was co-produced, engineered and mixed by
Mike Fraser, at
The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver.
Rooftops and Satellites reached #69 on the
Canadian Albums Chart. James' 2016 album
Blue Highways spent 10 weeks at No.1 on the Roots Music Report's Blues Chart following its debut, and appeared in
Living Blues magazine's Top 50 albums of that year. Its follow-up,
Miles To Go, was released in September 2018, to equal acclaim entering the top 10 blues charts in Canada, USA, UK and Australia.
Personal life James has been married to his wife Heather since 1989. They have two grown children and live in suburban Vancouver. ==Discography==