Bluesman And Chicago Bus Driver Toronzo Cannon Featured In CTA Ad Campaign

Electrifying blues guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and Chicago Transit Authority bus operator Toronzo Cannon is currently featured in a CTA ad campaign, with posters appearing in and on buses, at elevated train and subway stations and inside train cars. The campaign features a dozen different CTA employees, referencing their interests and hobbies while focusing on their professional roles with the CTA.

According to Brian Steele, Vice President, Communications and Marketing for the CTA, "The campaign was created to highlight CTA employees — specifically, their professionalism, training and commitment to customers."

For almost 25 years, Cannon has been driving a Chicago Transit Authority bus by day and performing his signature brand of electric Chicago blues by night. Using every vacation day and day off, Cannon arranges his schedule to gig out of town as much as possible, including many European performances. It isn't easy, but, like all of the Chicago greats who have come before him, blues is his calling. "I am proud to be part of a movement,” he says, anxious to hit the road and bring his music to new fans in new places. “I’m proud to be standing on the shoulders of every great Chicago blues musician who came before me."

His 2015 Alligator Records debut, THE CHICAGO WAY, helped Cannon become one of Chicago's most recognized and most popular bluesmen. MOJO magazine declared THE CHICAGO WAY the #1 Best Blues Album Of 2015. Cannon’s battled his way to the top of the ultra-competitive Windy City blues scene, has already played multiple tours of Europe and continues to deliver roof-raising performances around the U.S.A. Cannon won both the 2017 Living Blues Readers’ and Critics’ Awards for Blues Album Of the Year for THE CHICAGO WAY.

Chicago Magazine said, "The range of subjects he tackles is fascinating. People make a big deal of his being a bus driver, but his curiosity about the world goes way beyond that."

In 2016,Chicago television station WGN won an Emmy Award for this Toronzo Cannon feature story:
http://wgntv.com/2016/03/14/toronzo-cannon-blues-man-by-night-bus-driver-by-day/

Cannon is currently working on his next Alligator album, set for release later in 2019.