The Lenny Breau Show Aug. 12th 1966: CBC Winnipeg

In the summer of 1966, Lenny Breau hosted his own half-hour TV show on CBC Winnipeg. Regulars included Winnipeg singers Yvette Shaw and Karen Marklinger and Judi Singh from Edmonton.
( Lenny and Judi became romantically involved after meeting on the show. Their daughter Emily was born a few years later.)

The show was a mix of pop music, straight ahead jazz and Lenny's solo guitar playing. All the musicians involved were solid members of Winnipeg's jazz community and according to one of the singers, Karen Marklinger, there were disputes with the show's producers over some of the pop material used in the show--the opening song "Downtown" being a case in point.

This was probably the first time that Lenny played Baldwin guitars on a gig as his Gibson ES 125 was stolen just before the show began. Baldwin had been interested in Lenny for some time and offered to endorse him. Lenny played their instruments consistently but not exclusively (and their amplifiers to some extent) for the next five or six years.

The six episodes of the Lenny Breau Show received high ratings but it was not renewed by CBC TV for reasons unknown.
This is the only episode of the show that CBC kept after the late 1970s purge of its archives.

In 1966, Lenny gave a tape of this show to guitarist Paul Yandell who was playing in town with country singer Kitty Wells. Yandell brought the tape to Nashville and gave it to Chet Atkins who was vice president of RCA at that time. Atkins was impressed with what he saw and eventually persuaded Lenny to come to Nashville to record on the RCA label. Lenny recorded two stellar but poorly received albums for the label before leaving RCA in 1970/71.

Song Index:

Downtown (YS, KM, JS) 00:00
Gotta Move (KM) 02:47
There's A Boat That's Leavin' To New York (JS) 04:55
Night Train - (trio instrumental) * 08:00
I Can't Sit Down (Y S) 10:55
Let's Go Where The Grass Is Greener (JS) 13:17
West Coast Blues" (YS) 15:10
Yesterday" (solo gtr.) 17:15
Time For Love (?) (KM) 21:16
Anyplace I Hang My Hat (YS, KM, JS) 22:55

Vocalists: KM--Karen Marklinger
YS –Yvetter Shaw
JS --Judi Singh

drums and bass unknown




Video obtained and used with permission from Manitoba Provincial Archives
Song Copyrights observed