By Steve Newton
Jerry Doucette said it best back in the ’70s when his hit boogie tune, “Mama Let Him Play”, urged parents to let their youthful offspring play some rock ’n’ roll.
Fortunately for 18-year-old guitarist-vocalist Dallin Paul, his folks took this approach three years ago when he formed Seventh Stone with younger brother Eric on drums and Oak Bay High School chum Richard Adams on bass.
His parents were still a little worried that their youngster’s rocking would affect his performance at school, though.
“They were a bit concerned,” admits Paul, on the line from his Victoria home, “and I guess it did affect it. But they’re into music, so they didn’t worry too much about it.”
Because Pop played drums in a rockabilly band, the young Pauls were lucky enough to grow up with a drum kit sprawled in the family basement. At first, Dallin took to whacking the skins himself, but he soon grabbed one of the guitars that were lying around and handed the sticks to his kid brother. The two started jamming along to albums, but unlike the upstart rocker in Doucette’s ditty, Dallin Paul wasn’t “too young for the blues”.
“We started off listenin’ to Stevie Ray Vaughan on the radio,” says Paul, “and then started looking at who wrote the songs. We’d see Howlin’ Wolf and stuff on there, so we bought those albums too.”
In the three years that it’s been performing, Seventh Stone has won numerous accolades, including first prize in Victoria radio station CKKQ’s Rocktoria contest and YTV’s 1994 Youth Achievement Award for best Canadian band. The trio spent two weeks touring with Toronto recording act Big Sugar and recently returned from Hogtown after filming the musical skating variety show Brian Orser: Blame It on the Blues, which also features performances by such Vancouver acts as Colin James, Long John Baldry, and Powder Blues.
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