Bill Durst - Hard and Heavy (2013)

Bill Durst, always an audience favourite is a Canadian Blues Rock Roots artist who has long been compared to the best guitar player/singer/songwriter/entertainers in the world.
He has written and recorded over 115 songs on 11 albums including 8 charted radio hits.
Bill has opened for or shared the stage with Areosmith, Yardbirds, Rush, John Mayall, BTO, Savoy Brown, Bobby Rush, Little Feat, George Thorogood, Bad Company, Edgar Winter Group, Rick Derringer, Jeff Healey, Steve Strongman, Ted Nugent, Jack De Keyser, Johnny Winter, Monkey Junk, The Blues Brothers, David Wilcox, Bob Seger, Downchild, Sly and the Family Stone, Slade, L.A. Guns, David Clayton Thomas, Guitar Shorty and many more. Mr. Durst has toured across North America and in Europe and tours extensively in Canada.

As a kid growing up in Wingham and then London, Ontario (which is halfway between Toronto and Detroit), Bill was heavily influenced by Motown R&B and Toronto’s Psychedelic Soul music as well as the British Blues Invasion and Jimi Hendrix. Bill’s entrance onto the national/international stage was with his classic rock band Thundermug formed from London R&B bands in 1969. By the summer of 1972 they had a number one hit and a fan following in Eastern Canada. The band went on to record a total of 5 albums, (3 albums in the early/mid 1970s and two CDs in the mid 1990s). Bill put out his first two solo releases in the mid eighties but it wasn't until the early 2000s that he got some real career momentum.

In 2003 Durst declared his intention to start up a “little, fuzzy, psychedelic blues band”.
Since then Bill and his co-writer Joe DeAngelis have produced 4 full length CDs:
The Wharncliffe Sessions (2005), The Great Willy Mammoth (2009), Bill Durst Live (2012), Hard And Heavy (2013).
Bill Durst was inducted into The Jack Richardson Hall Of Fame 2006.

“Bill Durst is…a consummate blues rocker, with killer guitar chops, a distinctive voice and the heart of a showman...a master songwriter…Bill’s style of Southern/Texas blues rock lends itself well to Durst’s guitar skills, which are prodigious.”
- Rex Bartholomew, Los Angeles for Blues Blast Magazine, November 2013