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Saturday, 10 p.m., Pyramid Cabaret

Tony Springer lost his girl, but he got custody of some great songs.

"At least I've got something fruitful out of the relationship," laughs the singer-guitarist better known as Wild T. "The girl's gone but the songs remain the same. I'm still singing these songs with passion."

But he isn't singing the blues. Most of the 14 tracks on Wild T's new album, True Bliss, are upbeat funk and rock songs about his four-year relationship with his former girlfriend.

T dealt with heavier and more worldly topics on some of his earlier albums, but he's mellowed with age, he says.

"I decided to just have some fun. I'm better, not bitter," he says.

Springer has been performing as Wild T since moving to Canada from Trinidad in the late '80s. He recorded two albums in the '90s and appeared on David Bowie's album Black Tie, White Noise, after the Thin White Duke saw a Wild T video and called him.

"Meeting him the first time was enough for me -- (him) calling me a couple of weeks later and wanting me to play on his CD was icing on the cake," Springer says.

Although he has faded somewhat from the limelight, he's hardly been idle. Springer has been busy perfecting his live show, playing six nights a week in Toronto for the past seven years. He has also acted in TV commercials and in the telepic Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story -- playing Jimi Hendrix, to whom he is often compared.

"It used to bug me," he admits. "But I know now people miss Jimi so much and they think I'm the closest to Jim. We play in the same spirit. We take a song and can improvise new parts on the spot."

Wild T and his band The Spirit are hitting the road in support of True Bliss and will stop in Winnipeg Saturday at the Pyramid Cabaret. They will also play an in-store show at Long and McQuade at 4 p.m.

If you miss them this time around, you can catch them on Aug. 1 at Manitoba Summerfest at Grand Beach. Four tickets to the classic rock fest are up for grabs at his Pyramid show.