14 Facts About Colin Linden

When Howlin' Wolf played at Toronto's Colonial Tavern, the then-11-year-old Colin Linden spent three hours talking with the elder bluesman.

Colin Linden began performing at a local coffee house, the Fiddler's Green Coffee House, singing and strumming a guitar alongside his two older brothers Jay and Harley.

When Colin Linden met David Wilcox, Colin Linden decided to learn how to play slide guitar.

Wilcox gave 140 blues albums to young Colin Linden, to help Colin Linden to learn about blues styles.

At the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Colin Linden met Mississippi bluesman Sam Chatmon, and later that year made a pilgrimage to the US to meet South Detroit's Sippie Wallace.

In 1976 Wilcox had asked Colin Linden to join his band, the Teddy Bears, which meant that Colin Linden had to learn to play the electric guitar.

Colin Linden has acknowledged the influence of the Band; in the early 1980s, Colin Linden met three of its original members, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm.

Colin Linden signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell and did producing for Mendelson Joe, Morgan Davis, Jackson Delta and Hans Thessink.

In 1996, Colin Linden won a Juno in the blues and gospel category for his producing Lennie Gallant's The Open Window.

In 2000, Colin Linden produced Sue Foley's Love Comin' Down and Paul Reddick and the Sidemen's Rattle Bag.

In 2002, an album Colin Linden worked on, Timeless, won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year.

Colin Linden was featured on Diana Krall's album Glad Rag Doll in 2012 and Rhiannon Giddens's Tomorrow Is My Turn in 2014.

Colin Linden has been a main musician, music producer, music director and songwriter for the ABC television show "Nashville" since its inception in 2012.

Colin Linden has performed electric, acoustic and slide guitar on most of the show's recorded musical numbers and appears regularly on screen in many of the live performance scenes.