Bridge City Jam

Brent W. Truitt is a Western Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player whose career developed through the music scenes of British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Raised in British Columbia, he received his first guitar in Terrace at the age of ten and joined Victoria’s emerging punk and new-wave scene around 1980.

His first band was Twisted Minds, founded in Victoria by Craig Else. He next played with the Trouble Boys in Victoria and Vancouver, then made a series of solo recordings in Vancouver between 1983 and 1985 that became known as the City Rain demos. He returned to Victoria later in the decade and played with Whoshooter alongside Ed and Walter Gschiel. During this period he recorded ‘Lately Lady’, which received local radio play.

In 1995 Truitt joined the NonHappners, a Saskatchewan group founded by Northern Pikes drummer Don Schmid. He co-wrote ‘Bobby Joe’, which received Saskatchewan radio play and was made into a video shown on MuchMusic. Schmid went on to produce Truitt’s first solo album, City Rain, drawn from the earlier Vancouver demos and recorded in Saskatoon in 1996. Songs from the album received airplay in Saskatchewan and Ontario, and ‘The Radio Kings’ appeared on the 1996 promotional compilation Made in Saskatchewan.

Truitt recorded his second album, Bridge City Jam, before a live audience at Lydia’s Pub at 650 Broadway Avenue in Saskatoon on May 16, 1997. The performance featured John Lisi on guitar, Kevin Macza on bass, Rich Bazille on drums and Ross Nykiforuk on Hammond organ and piano. Joel Grundahl produced and recorded the show and completed the mix at Cyan Digital Media in Saskatoon that September.

The songs move through several Western Canadian settings. The title track follows two young people from St. Agathe, Manitoba, as they arrive in a prairie city and seek help at the Salvation Army. ‘Superfly’ travels through East Vancouver, ‘Angeli’ turns to Goldstream and Vancouver Island, and ‘New Blue Heaven’ and ‘In the Ivanhoe’ draw on Vancouver’s Davie and Hastings streets.

Saskatoon’s Rockin’ Rod Records released Bridge City Jam in 1998. Chris Bellman mastered the album at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, and its songs received radio play in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In 2026, recordings from City Rain and Bridge City Jam began appearing in remixed and remastered editions, including a thirtieth-anniversary edition of City Rain.

-Robert Williston