It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, as big band aficionado Colin James could no doubt confirm.

But lest you think James is just a big-band-wagon jumper who made the switch from blues to swing after seeing a certain Gap ad for the thousandth time, he'll happily provide the chronology that proves he was ahead of the pack.

"The second Little Big Band record was done about a year and a half before that ad came out," says James, referring to the Gap's much-ballyhooed Everybody in Khakis commercial. "It was pretty strange to know that I had the album in the bag and then to know this (ad) was coming down the pike. It was even tougher in the U.S., where it took longer to work out the distribution. Even though I'd finished the album before the ad came out, I still ended up being behind the curve."

Besides, James has never fully crossed over to the swingin' side of the street. His collaborations with the Little Big Band (a third album was released last fall) are more of a diversion for the genre-straddling Vancouverite, who first cut his teeth on the folk circuits in Regina and Winnipeg before being bitten by the blues bug at the age of 16.

"I probably had the blues as much as any teenager did -- I wasn't too happy about going to school, I know that," says James, who dropped out for good in Grade 10. "There was just something in the music that spoke to me more."

After ditching class for the last time, James eventually moved to Vancouver in 1980, where he landed an opening slot on tour dates with blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. He soon made a name for himself as one of this country's premier bluesmen, becoming the first artist signed to the Virgin America label, touring with rock icons like Keith Richards and Steve Winwood and racking up six Junos over a career that spans 10 albums.

On the most recent Little Big Band outing, James delved even deeper into R&B, surrounding himself with such storied session players as Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones), Reese Wynans (Stevie Ray Vaughan), Bob Ruggiero (Van Morrison) and trumpeter Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns.

"What I like best about these records is I don't have to get bogged down with writing, because writing has never been the easiest thing for me. For these records, I just go through my record collection, put together the best musicians I can and have fun."

Like his recent, rootsy solo album Limelight, the third Little Big Band set also includes a Van Morrison cover (along with tracks made famous by Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson), though James swears he wasn't intimidated by the presence of Ruggiero, who he saw for the first time at a Morrison show.

"But I did get to completely plug him with questions about Van Morrison -- 'How does he do that? What would he do here? What kind of sandwiches does he like to eat?' "