Veteran Vancouver blues-rock and swing band singer-guitarist Colin James had every intention of making his latest album, Rooftops and Satellites, a more introspective, quieter affair.

But then the six-time Juno winner would up working with Hamilton alt-roots-rocker Tom Wilson of Junkhouse and Blackie and The Rodeo Kings fame on eight of the new songs.

"We just went to town because we were just having such fun and it was working," said James, 45, in a Toronto hotel recently leading up to his cross-Canada tour, which includes a Jan. 26 date at Massey Hall.

"Like on (the song) More Than You Needed, we almost didn't get together that day. And we were on a such hot streak. We'd already gotten three on a trip, that never happens. So he says, 'Well, I might not be able to make it.' And I say, 'You gotta make it. You never know what we're going to miss. In two or three hours we had More Than You Needed, which may be my favourite song on the record."

Also co-writing with James was Tawgs Salter (Edwin, Lights, Josh Groban).

But it's the James-Wilson friendship that goes way back.

"We first met because I loved (the '90s Junkhouse hit) Out Of My Head," said James. "When that song came out I was in the middle of the Little Big Band but I've always been kind of eclectic and I'm always (going), 'I like that!' In that song, Out Of My Head, he talks about Tiny Grimes, who is one of The Cats And The Fiddle, which is a 1930s jug band. What a strange reference! So I think that fascinated me. And then it turns out he was quite a fan of the Little Big Band so soon after that we wrote (the James song) Freedom together and that was '95-96. And we just hang well together. We laugh a lot."

Strangely though, the duo has never recorded an entire album together although it might sometime in the future.

"Blackie are actually doing three of my songs on their upcoming record. And everything I've written with Tom has a certain sound so it did occur to us at one point that one day it might be fun to do that together."

Rooftops and Satellites also includes covers of Bob Dylan's If You've Gotta Go Go Now and Toots and the Maytals' Johnny Coolman.

Otherwise, James is happy the cross-Canada tour sees him and his seven-piece band playing in top-notch venues after slogging it out in the club scene for years.

"It took years of doing it wrong to finally start doing it right," he said. "When you're growing up in the circuit, it's kind of more like a 'If you build it, they will come attitude,' and eventually we finally started taking a chance and going into the Orpheums in Vancouver and the Massey Halls and the NAC in Ottawa, to the point where I don't play bars and clubs anymore, which is nice because I did that. It's more of an event (in the halls) and you can do more things instead of trying to please the guy who's having shots at the bar."

Over the years, James has opened for the likes of Keith Richards and ZZ Top, and played on stage with Stevie Ray Vaughn, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy, and even performed for the Queen in Regina.

He said working alongside such legends was always encouraging for the child music prodigy who dropped out of high school in Grade 10, and first moved to Winnipeg before moving to Vancouver in 1984.

James was discovered as a teenager by future mentor Vaughn.

"I think really what it did for me, you know, to grow up in Saskatchewan and wonder if you'd ever have a chance and then be able to get on stage with play Carlos Santana, those are the moments that just give you trust in what you chose as a career," said the father of a teenage son and daughter.

James more recently ran into ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons at Vancouver manager Sam Feldman's birthday party in Beverly Hills last May.

"He gave me the funniest card. It said, 'Billy Gibbons, friend of Eric Clapton.' Isn't that the most bizarre thing? What would possess you? I just think it's so hilarious, just the idea of Billy Gibbons going to a print shop or phoning it in."

Photographs and (bad)memories

Natives are said to believe having your picture taken can steal you soul.

Canadian rocker Colin James believes one bad picture can haunt you.

"I used to have one that terrorized me," he said recently. "It seemed like no matter what I did, in this picture, I looked like a toothless hillbilly. And it was on file somewhere, somebody took it, and then I'd go, 'Okay, I think I'm in the clear.' And then right before a show, I'd pick up a newspaper and go, 'Noooooooooo!'

"I looked like Festus from frickin' Gunsmoke and it just like traumatized me."