Although he looked like a rockabilly revivalist (or a Hamburg-era Beatle) on the cover, Colin James' first album was a blues-rock collection with big ambitions, strongly indebted to the sound of his mentor Stevie Ray Vaughan. The record was a huge hit in Canada, quickly becoming the fastest-selling album in the country's history. By the early ‘90s, he was one of the pioneering artists of the big swing revival, taking his Little Big Band to various stages long before the genre became fashionable. He eventually put out four albums with the Little Big Band (including a Christmas album), but more often than not returned to delivering rocking versions of classics from every shade of blues.