Due to Canada's long shared border with the birthplace of the blues, the United States, there has always been collaboration and contact between Canadian blues artists and their US counterparts. Top Canadian blues artists perform at major US blues bars and festivals and travel to the US to play and record with influential US blues artists. Similarly, US blues bands routinely play in Canadian clubs and blues festivals, and perform and record with Canadian blues artists. For example, Canadian blues guitarist/singer JW-Jones has invited the US bluesman Kim Wilson (lead singer for The Fabulous Thunderbirds) to Canada to play with JW Jones' band and so that Wilson could record with Jones and act as record producer on one of Jones' mid-2000s albums.