The idea for this band came from the minds of George Baumann and Dave McManus. Both of these guys have strong sentimental feelings about the musical traditions of New Orleans, Mississippi, and the deep South in general, and while they managed to find a couple of other fine talents to bring this band to life (most notably, Mike Sedgewick and Cleave Anderson), to this very day they are still looking for more such like-minded musicians, to keep the flame burning brightly for all the years ahead.

Much like the constantly changing combinations of players in the early bands of New Orleans, it has been very hard to put together a solid, permanent group, to keep this dream alive. And so, as fate would have it, the Blues Miners have morphed into a collective, not just a band.

Over the past five years, various combinations of musicians from the Blues Miners collective have performed under several different band names, or aliases. Some of these names are still being used for marketing purposes; to lend some consistency to previous arrangements made with club managers, promoters, and other agents who may have heard (or hired) some version of this band that had a specific line-up at one time or another.

The rest of this page will try to illustrate ALL of the musicians that have played with Dave and George, in their quest to bring great blues music to Toronto audiences, and it will attempt to explain - at least nominally - who the players are that perform under the various aliases that are currently being used.

But before I begin this task, I must compliment anyone who has bothered to read this far. Your patience, and your obvious interest in the fluid human dynamics of live musical performance at a local, personal level, especially in such a complex and increasingly unpredictable world, is a rare and beautiful thing!

If you've got a band with 4 guys, and you add another guy, but only for one gig, is it the same band? Do you use the same band name? What if you add a second guy and make it a sextet?

Or . . .

What if you've got a band with 4 guys, and one guy can't make it, so you get a different guy to stand in for the first one? Is that the same band? Do you use the same band name, even though it's not the same guys? And what if two guys can't make it, so you get two different guys to stand in?

I know . . . I know . . . it sounds like one of those crazy puzzles from math class, right? But it's a puzzle that many bands face on a regular basis, and so it goes for the Blues Miners - - as time, availability, and venue funding permits.

Here are the names that the Blues Miners band - as a "musical collective" - is currently using in various situations, sometimes with specific line-ups, and sometimes not. We will try not to confuse you beyond what is necessary.