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Brent Parkin (SUBMITTED)

In 2007, Winnipeg blues legend Brent Parkin experienced a health scare that would have a huge impact on his psyche. 
   
The singer/guitarist had been suffering from angina but a hospital angiogram revealed no damage. He went to Edmonton and played a show. Ten days later he was in his garage, pulling down the door, when he began to feel unwell. He told Laura Badger, his long-time girlfriend, that he wasn’t feeling good and then he hit the ground, in full cardiac arrest.
   
Had Badger not known CPR, Parkin wouldn’t have made it. Paramedics came, worked on him for 45 minutes and shocked him 10 times. When he awoke he was at the Health Sciences Centre.
   
Parkin, now 59, considers himself very lucky.
   
"I’m part of a select group, pretty grateful to be alive. I’m still able to enjoy life. When I play there’s more ‘Might as well not put things off; you might as well give it.’"
   
That’s the attitude that pervades Vintage Rhythm, the fourth album of Parkin’s nearly 40-year career as a bluesman.
   
The local music community threw a benefit concert for him to raise funds to offset his loss of income and his lack of medical benefits. A similar event was held in Edmonton. Such is the esteem in which Parkin is held in Western Canada.
 
"At the Pyramid benefit, that room was over capacity, they probably could have done a second night," says Ken McMahon, Parkin’s long-time drummer.
 
Parkin was born in Hamilton and settled in Winnipeg in 1970. He first picked up the guitar as a teen, inspired, like so many, by the sound of blues-based rock ’n’ roll.
   
"When The Beatles became big, it sort of made it bigger," Parkin recalls. "That’s when I started getting guitars. Whatever music is there when you’re a teenager stays with you. I started playing the guitar — I wasn’t good or confident enough. I played it for a few years then let it go."
   
A few years later he started playing again and hasn’t stopped since.
   
"It’s a way of expressing yourself, a release, I like that aspect. I can’t paint, I can’t draw, but I can create music. I pretty much stick to blues and roots music, anything to do with blues, jazz, roots, folk, country swing, is what I like.
   
"Performing is the rush. My whole social life is based around it. The good and the bad, it all comes through the music."
   
In his four decades as a performer, Parkin has co-founded several popular bands, including The Black Jack Blues Band in 1973 and Houndog (with Big Dave McLean) in 1976. Through the ’80s and ’90s he was usually billed as Brent Parkin & The Stingers.
   
Lest people think Brent is solely a Winnipeg phenomenon, it should be pointed out that he was co-winner of a Juno Award in 1993 and has been nominated for numerous Maple Blues Awards. He’s toured with B.B. King, and opened for Johnny Winter, John Prine, James Cotton, Bo Diddley, Otis Rush, Billy Boy Arnold and Chris Hillman, an original member of The Byrds.
   
"I’m proud of the fact that I’m doing what I love doing," he says. "I’ve made life-long friendships because of it. I’m proud that most people who come to see us go away entertained. I think it’s our privilege. I want them to know that we’re very grateful to be playing. We don’t take it for granted. They chose to see us. We should be honoured, not them."

BRENT PARKIN CD RELEASE
Nov.22, 8 p.m., Park Theatre