Next week's set of ZZ Top concerts approaches. ZZ Top is one of the world's top concert draws — and they are arguably the biggest name to ever play Cranbrook. Among those looking forward to the Cranbrook shows are ZZ Top's opening act, Wide Mouth Mason, who are a fairly big draw in their own right.

“We're excited to be playing the Cranbrook shows,” says Shaun Verreault, guitarist and singer for Wide Mouth Mason. “Cranbrook was the first on the tour to sell out and require a second show.”

Wide Mouth Mason (after the jar of the same name) is originally out of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and is now based in Vancouver. They are a trio who has built their own unique sound on a Blues-rock base. In fact, their evolution as a band is not dissimilar to the headliners ZZ Top, who over a 40-year career have been renowned for constantly reinventing themselves in a unique way, while remaining firmly based in a Blues tradition.

Wide Mouth, as their fans call them, has been active since 1995, and has won a reputation as a hard-working touring band. They have appeared with the Rolling Stones, ACDC, and on a previous tour with ZZ Top in the late 90s.

Two of the founding members — Verreault and Safwan Javez (percussion, vocals) are still the core of the band. They will be joined by Gordie Johnson, of Big Sugar and Grady, on bass for the first leg of the tour, including the Cranbrook shows.

Johnson, a prominent Canadian musician himself, has played Cranbrook before more than once in recent years. Wide Mouth has been through the Kootenays before as well, way back in their early days.

Verreault acknowledges that ZZ Top has been an influence, not just musically but in terms of continual self-reinvention.

“Just watching what is essentially a blues rock trio navigate their career the way they have and figuring out a way to introduce elements outside of that into their sound, like they did in the 80s, but also go back to their early albums like ‘Tres Hombres,' and those early classic blues rock albums …”

“… They're the archetypal example of what you can do with just those instruments and the Blues influence.”

Of course, Verreault adds, the factors that make up a band's sound are certainly the result of a collective influence. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

“As much as we were raised on Blues music, we brought stuff to the band that we were passionate about,” Verreault said. “Safwan brought a lot of Reggae music that I'd never heard before, and Earl (Pereira, original bass player) at the time was really into R&B. At the same time we were children of the 80s, loving The Police and Prince, and aesthetics and chord changes that weren't necessarily Blues-based.

“With three pieces, if you aim for eclecticism and diversity, it's still going to have to be played by only three people. Not matter what you attempt, it will still end up sounding like you.

“We have definitely followed our muse all over the place,” Verreault said. “And there may have been some times where we have confused or challenged some parts of our audience who are used to hearing us play just 12-bar Blues, but perhaps there are other people who only became interested when they heard some of the poppier material, or straight ahead rock material.”

Wide Mouth Mason averages two shows a month, and have a back catalogue of six albums, including a recent live album of older material (Live! Montreux Switzerland). But there are plans afoot for a release in the near future. Verreault says Wide Mouth has been working on a number of songs with Gordie Johnson “that have definitely been Blues-based. That's the direction the new stuff is heading, and we'll be playing a bunch of the new stuff in the live set on the ZZ Top shows.”

Verreault says ZZ Top was also an important part of the Wide Mouth's evolution as a live band.

“I feel really lucky that the trajectory of us as a band went the way it did. I feel for bands that get signed and have a single that makes them jumps from playing clubs to arenas — I myself would have felt really unprepared.”

Wide Mouth Mason started off on their own, playing smaller clubs and festivals. Verreault says a series of tours with Gordie Johnson and Big Sugar got them used to bigger clubs.

“We did some shows with George Thorogood in the States, and we got used to playing theatres. The ZZ Top shows came along, and it was our first experience playing in a big room and learning how to project to the back of the room, figuring out what to do with a stage that big, figuring out how to hear each other.

“The touring we did with the Stones, and ACDC, we wouldn't have had any idea how to approach any of that without watching ZZ Top do it — how do you do it with three people, when do you speak, when do you not, all those lessons that young musicians have to learn.”

There a numerous channels by which one will end up joining a tour like the one coming to Cranbrook next week. A lot of it is a result of chance occurrences, Verreault says.

“This (the current tour) came about from getting a phone call here in Vancouver, saying ‘listen, we need you to come open a show for Heart in Victoria tomorrow, and then Vancouver the next day' ... the promoters of those shows were the promoters of this tour, so we started talking about it. We'd just done a tour of Ontario, prior to coming out here to do some shows for the Olympics, and the response had been great.

“They took it to (ZZ Top) and the important people involved, and it came back positive.”

Thus Wide Mouth is hitting the road with ZZ Top, nine shows across Canada, with the Cranbrook shows set for Tuesday and Wednesday, June 8 and 9.