Mike McKenna (musician)


Mike McKenna is a professional Canadian rock / blues guitarist noted primarily for his electric slide playing.

History

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, McKenna began playing professionally in the early 1960s in Yorkville where he formed the group Mike's Trio. Luke Gibson saw them and asked to sit in as a singer and Luke and The Apostles were later formed. McKenna was one of the first Toronto rock guitar players to play a hollow body while most rock musicians were still playing solid bodies. McKenna got a particularly rich sound by playing through 200 watt Marshall Plexi stacks and using banjo strings on the high end to make note bending easier.
Luke and the Apostles were asked to open for Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead by Bill Graham for a week-long stint at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre in 1967. Graham realized that a strong local band was necessary to attract a Toronto audience since at that time, the San Franscisco sound was relatively unknown outside of the US. Jerry Garcia apparently liked the sound of McKenna's Les Paul so much he bought it. An invitation to visit New York to open with the Dead followed and the Apostles recorded a single for Elektra Records. Unfortunately inconclusive contract negotiations and conflicting priorities, saw the band returning to Canada and eventually disbanding.
Returning to Toronto, McKenna briefly joined The Ugly Ducklings. In July 2011, Pacemaker Records released "Thump & Twang", a demo of the group from early 1968 featuring McKenna on lead guitar.
Interested in forming a new blues band, McKenna took out a newspaper ad seeking musicians which put him in touch with Joe Mendelson. This ultimately led to the formation of the McKenna Mendelson Mainline, and the recording of the album McKenna Mendelson Blues - a demo recorded in Canada but unreleased until after the band had gone to England and had great success with the landmark album Stink. "Stink" garnered considerable success in England and throughout Europe and the band returned to Canada to critical and popular acclaim. However, personality clashes and musical differences led to MMM disbanding in the early 1970s. There were a couple of posthumous reunions as "Mainline", including two very successful tours of Australia, and the notorious "Bump and Grind Review" which yielded a live album "The Mainline Bump and Grind Review Live at the Victory" in 1972. A final album with Joe Mendelson entitled "No Substitutes" was released in 1975 to a poor reception, after which McKenna and Mendelson never played together again.
McKenna has been with a number of notable groups throughout the years since Mainline called it quits, including tenure with Downchild Blues Band, Diamondback, and The Guess Who - in name only -. After a hiatus of some years, he formed Slidewinder with saxophonist Ronnie Jacobs in the early - mid 1990s and released a self-titled CD "Mike McKenna and Slidewinder" in 1997, with Denny Gerrard on bass, Rob McPhearson on keyboards, and Bruce Brooker on drums.
When Toronto's internationally known El Mocambo Tavern closed down in November 2001, the alumni Mainline members were invited to perform and McKenna along with Tony Nolasco, Ted Purdy, Mike Harrison, and Bob Adams entered Toronto's rock history as the last band to grace the El Mo's famous upstairs stage. Ironically, neither McKenna Mendelson Mainline nor Mainline ever performed at the El Mo while they were together.
In later years, McKenna reformed with Luke Gibson as lead guitarist for The Luke Gibson Band - the house band for the ill-fated Blues on Belair Club in Toronto in the late 1990s. He also played briefly with the original Mainline members at the same venue.
McKenna was rehearsing and recording with the original members of Diamondback in late 2007/early 2008. There were plans to re-release the Diamondback album originally recorded in 1974 as a re-recorded and re-mastered CD in the fall of 2008. The project fell through reportedly due to money issues, internal dispute and personality clashes.
On April 25, 2009 McKenna celebrated both his birthday and his 45 years on the Toronto music scene by hosting an all day event at the Black Swan Tavern in Toronto. The event featured a who's-who of Toronto's rock and roll / blues / Yorkville Sound scene including the original members of Mainlne - Tony Nolasco, Mike Harrison, Ted Purdy and Bob Adams ; Luke Gibson ; Dave Bingham ; Kensington Market; various members of DiamondBack; and Scott "Professor Piano" Cushnie, among others.
In the fall of 2009, McKenna began rehearsing once again with Luke Gibson. David Martin / drums, percussion; William Miller / bass; and Michael Keys / keyboards, McKenna and Gibson showcased the now defunct McKenna Gibson Band at the Black Swan Tavern in Toronto on December 12, 2009.
McKenna is still playing and performing occasionally with Gibson but with a different lineup that sometimes includes original member Peter Jermyn on keyboards and playing predominantly old late 1960s/early 1970s Mainline and Apostles' material to predominantly a "nostalgia" crowd. In 2017, the self-titled album Luke & The Apostles was released on True North Records, the band's first full-length release.
As of 2019, McKenna is playing regularly in and around Toronto with three bands: Luke and the Apostles, a new version of Slidewinder focused on Mainline and other blues-rock material, and Mike McKenna's Rockin' Redcoats, playing rockabilly, surf-rock, country and blues.

Discography

Singles

with LUKE & THE APOSTLES
as MCKENNA MENDELSON MAINLINE
Better Watch Out/ She's Alright
as MAINLINE
as MCKENNA MENDELSON MAINLINE
1969 Stink
as MAINLINE
as MIKE McKENNA
with LUKE & THE APOSTLES
with DIAMONDBACK
with DOWNCHILD BLUES BAND
with VARIOUS ARTISTS