Dave Kostiw

Dave grew up, and still lives, in the North end of Winnipeg. He picked up the guitar at age 11 being influenced by many great players such as Robin Trower, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter, Albert King, Otis Rush to Lenny Breau.

Dave also had some local influences such as Magik, The Pumps, Strawdog, Streetheart, Killowatt, Woodwork, Antaraes and in the blues department there was of course Big Dave, Brent Parkin and The Stingers which is from whom he caught his first glimpse of Kerry and Doug.

8 years ago he had a great idea. Form a blues band and play some great music. First he had to get into playing shape again, which meant many nights in his garage studying the blues greats and when he thought he was ready, he then had to find the right musicians. He called in a long time friend Tim Miyai to front the band but it took a lot of personnel changes for him to decide on the final line-up. He met Stu and found out what a great harp player he was. They really compliment each other‘s playing style. Kerry’s name came up when the bass player left, and he remembered him from The Stingers, “What a GREAT Bass player!” he said to himself and then Kerry was in. Only by chance did the need come up for a drummer too and lo and behold, Kerry said he could get Doug Yuel on drums. Doug joined and now Dave has the band he always wanted, playing great blues with a whole lotta heart & soul.

Nowadays guitar players are starting to come up to him to find out how he gets his fantastic sound.

“I’m looking forward for a lot of great things to happen with BIG DEAL. It’s a lot of fun to play with great musicians who are really having fun on stage and it’s not an act. Hope to see you come out and have some fun with a great band.” - Dave

He’s right. They really do have a great time up on stage and so does the audience because their fun is infectious…

You can e-mail Dave at bigdeal@shaw.ca