Blackie & the Rodeo Kings

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re-form every few years to record more albums, which aren't exactly tributes to me anymore — that would be excessive — but ride on the fun and success of the first album.

Unlikely, but it could happen. In fact, it's the story behind Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, the brainchild of Canadian singer-songwriters Stephen Fearing, Colin Linden, and Tom Wilson (of the band Junkhouse). Sometime in the mid-1990s, all three discovered they'd had the same idea: an album devoted to the superb artistry of the legendary Willie P. Bennett, one of Canada's untapped treasures. Bennett, of course, was partial to the idea. A band was formed, named for one of Bennett's own songs, and an all-Bennett album recorded, High or Hurtin', which promptly scored a Juno Award nomination and garnered Bennett — who regularly tours 200 dates a year as the mandolin player for Fred Eaglesmith — some proper renown.