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St. Andrews, New Brunswick's Jamie Steel is many things to many people. For one, he's an artist manager. He works closely with several N.B. acts including St. Andrews multi-instrumentalist Ryan LeBlanc and Fredericton's Hot Toddy. He's also a tour manager for travelling artists visiting the Maritimes and has worked with South African guitar sensation Tony Cox and New Zealand born finger-style master Andrew White. Over the past 10 years, he has become the "go-to guy" for many N.B. artists in the folk/roots/blues genres.

Steel's introduction to the music business came largely through a chance meeting with Joel LeBlanc and Thom Swift in the early days of Hot Toddy.

"One of the first times Thom and Joel played as a duo was here in St. Andrews," said Steel. "I happened to get a call from them the very first night because the bar didn't have all the equipment they needed. Joel and I'd met through a mutual friend so he gave me a call and explained he needed some help which led to us going on this tour through town looking for microphones, a mic stand, and couple other little things."

This scavenger hunt turned out be a great way to promote the evening's show, and may have sparked an undetected interest hidden within Steel.

"Through it all," said Steel, "we began to gather people to come out and see them that night. We ended up getting it all together; we had about 40 or 50 people show up who were all blown away."

Over the next few years Steel would slowly become more involved with music promotion in the St. Andrews area and started Paddlefest, a weekend of music and fun on the water. This event attracted musicians from all over the area and brought them together for a weekend of music and friendship with his house serving as his home-base.

His house in St. Andrews is legendary among musicians. The Salty Towers B&B was once a major accommodation location for travelling musicians visiting the area. At one point, while his interest in the music business was still developing, Hot Toddy approached Steel about possibly recording an album in his home. This move would eventually solidify not only his involvement with Hot Toddy, but also many other artists in the coming months.

"Then when they decided they wanted to record their album here at my house we began to talk about longer term things; not only what was going to happen after the album, but how it would be nice to do an album release tour. They asked if I'd be interested in doing that for them so I put together a 12-date tour through the Maritimes which was really quite successful."

Eventually he started his own company called Periwinkle Productions and Management that has proven to be a valuable venture for many New Brunswick artists. Under the banner of PP&M, Steel now operates a regular concerts series in the St. Andrews area, books tours for artists on a national level, and continues in helping artists get their footing in the world of music.

His dedication to arts support has not gone unnoticed. He was approached by Music New Brunswick to assist in key industry developments within the province and was also on the organizing committee for the recent ECMA week in New Brunswick.

Clearly, Steel is driven by his will to assist the growth and development of not only New Brunswick's artist community but for musical arts everywhere.

"I like to be able to give something back to what I enjoy," he said.

Steel is currently touring the Maritimes with Tony Cox and Joel Fafard.

Talking Art is a column featuring artists from around the province discussing their interests, motivations, and what it is that art means to them. New Brunswick is full of talented artists creating in countless mediums. I hope Talking Art will expose you to the many talented artists around the province. If you would like to suggest an artist to feature, please e-mail gzjzt@stu.ca