Ross Christopher Fairbairn is a Richmond, B.C.–born musician and writer. His first connection to guitar, blues, and songwriting began in the early 2000s, when he discovered R.L. Burnside and the steady, trance-like pulse of Mississippi hill country blues, a sound built more on rhythm than chord changes. Alongside Burnside, Kenny Brown, Robert Belfour, and Mississippi Fred McDowell became early mentors in the truest sense, teaching him how to play the blues without ever knowing it. That influence has shaped Fairbairn’s approach ever since.

Fairbairn began writing songs in those early years and started performing around 2005, carving out a place in Vancouver’s coffee shop scene, songwriter circles, and college radio. By 2012, he was touring as a bassist across Canada and New Zealand, backing artists, learning the road, and building a working life in music.

In 2025, Fairbairn released Finally, At Last, his debut solo EP, and took it on a 21-show tour across Canada—coast to coast and back again. The run included festival appearances at the Rock Creek Fall Fair in Rock Creek, B.C., Picatunes in Moncton, New Brunswick, and the 39 Days of July festival in Duncan, B.C., along with a stretch of cideries, breweries, concert series, and listening rooms.

Fairbairn is now working on Lulu’s Blues, a new acoustic blues release planned for 2026. It leans into the Mississippi hill country feel that first shaped his playing and has stayed at the centre of his guitar work ever since. The record moves between slow, trance-like grooves such as “Worried Mind,” stomp-driven energy in “Up the Mountain,” and quieter, more reflective moments in “Goodbye Percy.”

Offstage, Fairbairn continues to build his creative practice beyond performance. He co-produced and performed on the soundtrack for C.R. Avery’s The Bar Without a Neon Sign, which won Best Score at the 2022 Golden Horse International Film Festival and toured in New Zealand in 2023. He began his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in the fall of 2025, further developing his songwriting and writing work as he moves into the next chapter of his career.