Bluesman “Seasick” Steve Wold is an interesting character by any measure. Leaving his California home as a teenager, Wold traveled across country by train, living the hobo life while looking for work. Throughout the 1950s and early ‘60s, he drifted across the Southeast and Southwest U.S. working as a farm hand, a cowboy, and a carnie before he picked up the guitar and began playing his own unique style of country-blues. He ended up in Europe, where he made a living as a street busker playing for tips before he drifted into studio engineering and production where, most notably, he worked on the band Modest Mouse’s first couple of independent albums.
As Seasick Steve, Wold wouldn’t release his first album until 2004’s Cheap, which he recorded with the Norwegian duo the Level Devils. The critically-acclaimed Dog House Music, his solo debut, came out in 2006, and it was a New Year’s Eve appearance on fellow musician Jools Holland’s BBC television show that made Seasick Steve an overnight sensation in the U.K. Several albums and major festival appearances would follow throughout the late ‘00s, as would various awards and accolades. Seasick Steve made his debut for Jack White’s Third Man Records with 2011’s You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks, his fourth album in a row to go Gold or Platinum for U.K. sales.
Seasick Steve’s Hubcap Music
Steve’s Hubcap Music, recorded with his longtime drummer Dan Magnusson, is named for one of the singer’s homemade guitars, his unusual instruments an appropriate match to his unique style of blues. The sound of an old tractor firing up introduces the jaunty “Down On the Farm,” a song not that far, stylistically, from Watermelon Slim’s similarly raw-boned roots-rock. With former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones holding down a fat bottom end and Magnusson delivering a big percussive beat, Seasick Steve cranks out some scorching licks on his hubcap guitar while he sings the praises of life, well, “down on the farm” with a John Deere tractor, the smell of hay, shovels and other farming implements, including a chainsaw. In the hands of any other artist this might seem trite, but Steve and the band deliver a playful, down-home boogie-blues with plenty of chainsaw riffs that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Canned Heat album.
Seasick Steve’s “Self Sufficient Man” slows the tempo down a bit, rolling as it does into a languid rhythmic grind with plenty of Mississippi mud rubbed into the grooves. Steve delivers some stellar guitarplay in between the mesmerizing riffs, his two-man band following closely in the creation of a heady swamp-water stew, the entire performance sounding like electrified, amplified Delta blues gone to a dark place. By contrast, “Keep On Keepin’ On” has more of a North Mississippi Hill Country vibe, Steve and the crew delivering a rockin’, R.L. Burnside burning down the juke-joint styled performance, Jones’ showing his skills as a multi-instrumentalist with some fine banjo pickin’.
Freedom Road
Seasick Steve
Mr. Jack White III joins in for the down ‘n’ dirty “The Way I Do,” the guitarist adding some serpentine fretwork behind Steve’s haunting vocals on a menacing Mississippi blues jam worthy of the late, great Junior Kimbrough. Although sporting minimalist lyrics, Steve punches the words home with dead-certain finality, Magnusson’s cannon-fire drumbeats loudly punctuating each word. White’s guitar lines are unpredictable, imaginative, and entirely in keeping with the odd direction of the song. “Purple Shadows” is a gentler listening experience, a soft-edged slow-tempo Americana ballad that features underrated Nashville singer Elizabeth Cook. Steve’s gruff, twangy Merle Haggard-styled vocals contrast nicely with Cook’s sweeter feminine tones, the song a tale of love gone wrong, or maybe just unrequited, the two voices intertwined to emphasize the lyrical heartbreak.
The cacophony that opens “Freedom Road” is just a taste of the song’s raw, reckless performance with Steve strangling his hubcap git for every last damn note, the Jones/Magnusson rhythmic shuffle luring the listener into complacency as Steve’s lyrics evoke memories of Robert Johnson’s hellhounds, his sonorous vocals drawling out each word before the song launches into a raucous freight-train boogie worthy of Savoy Brown. North Mississippi Allstars frontman Luther Dickinson layers on bucketloads of slinky guitar on the trance-blues romp “Home,” but it’s the full band treatment offered “Coast Is Clear” that really mixes things up. After ten tracks of delightfully greasy roots ‘n’ blues, the album-ending “Coast Is Clear” is a swerve, an inspired mix of Stax-styled Memphis soul with gospel overtones and a Southern rock heart. It’s an elegant performance, spiced with Jones’ stately Hammond organ riffs and Steve’s considered vocals, the song representing a new musical direction for the expat bluesman if Seasick Steve should ever want to travel further down this stylistic road.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
If you’ve yet to discover the immense charms of Seasick Steve, Hubcap Music is a great place to start. The album’s carefully-crafted mix of country-blues, roots-rock, and Southern soul is delivered with the fervor a true believer, the instrumentation is truly inspired, and the guest performances are understated yet significant. Hubcap Music is delightfully entertaining, with many musical layers and textures, Seasick Steve definitely an underrated talent worthy of your consideration. The Rev says “check it out!” (Third Man Records, released October 15, 2013)
British singer, songwriter, and guitarist Ian Siegal is a treasure, a talented wordsmith with a keen eye for traditional blues styles as well as a skilled interpreter of classic blues music. The British Blues Awards Hall of Fame inductee and multiple award-winner isn’t afraid to work outside of his comfort zone, either, as evidenced by raw-boned albums like 2011’s The Skinny and 2013’s Candy Store Kid, both of which were recorded in Mississippi and produced by Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and featured guests like Luther Dickinson, Lightnin’ Malcolm, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and others.
Siegal is unaccompanied on Man & Guitar, which documents an October 2013 solo performance by the bluesman at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, recorded (and, presumably, broadcast) by the BBC as part of the London Bluesfest. Man & Guitar is a lively, loving appreciation of blues music in all its glory, a mostly-original set of ten songs with a few tracks of between-song storytelling. Siegal evinces a natural charisma, and his joy in the performances is quite evident. Whether he’s growling like Howlin’ Wolf on the Delta-dirty “Mortal Coil Shuffle,” channeling Charlie Patton on the legend’s “Pony Blues,” or belting out an original like the powerful “Falling On Down Again,” Siegal imbues each performance with emotion, passion, sweat, and tears. One of the 21st century’s most talented bluesmen, Ian Siegal is entertaining, illuminating, and thought-provoking all at once. Grade: A (Nugene Records, released June 10, 2014)
This January 2013 About.com “Blues Bites” column concentrated on
guitar-oriented releases that rock the blues with highly-amped riffs and
low-slung grooves. Although albums from Dave Fields, Rival Sons and others
often fall on the rock side of the blues-rock equation, we think that a lot of
you may dig this music nonetheless…
David Hidalgo, Mato Nanji & Luther Dickinson –
3 Skulls and the Truth (Blues Bureau International, 2012) Take three bona fide legends of roots and blues music – David Hidalgo of
Los Lobos, Mato Nanji from Native American blues-rock band Indigenous, and
Luther Dickinson from the North Mississippi Allstars – and put ‘em in a studio
and see what happens. That, more or less, is the story behind
3 Skulls and the Truth, a gripping, ripping, and sadly overlooked album
that came about after the three musicians met as part of the Experience Hendrix
tour and decided to take the friendship one step further.
Given
Dickinson’s busy-bee schedule (aside from the Allstars, he also records with the
South Memphis String Band and tours with the Black Crowes), I’m not so sure that
the trio ever played more than a handful of shows in support of
3 Skulls and the Truth, and mores the pity, as this is the sort of
bruising, 1970s-inspired blues-rock monster that was designed to roll down the
highway and pick up fans with one bone-crushing live performance after another
held at some dank, smoky cavern near your hometown. The band’s sound could best
be described as an amalgam of ZZ Top, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix, i.e. a
rumble-in-the-grooves mix of Southern rock, Memphis Soul, and Texas blues that
grows on you like kudzu with each subsequent listen.
The opening
track, “Have My Way With You,” sets the stage for much to follow on
3 Skulls and the Truth. Co-written by Dickinson, Nanji, and friend
Lightnin’ Malcolm, the performance offers up a blistering six-minutes-plus of
raucous fretwork, bashed percussion, and hoarse vocals that put the rock back
into blues-rock. “I’m A Fool” strikes a low-slung groove with Nanji’s soulful,
twangy vocals opening, lots of swirling guitar, and a concrete rhythmic
foundation courtesy of bassist Steve Evans and drummer Jeff Martin, the song
itself a hybrid of late 1960s Hendrix psychedelic-rock and 1980s-era Stevie Ray
Vaughan power blues.
The muscular “The Worldly and the Divine” takes
Cream one step further with a scorched-earth musical approach and a heavy, fat
bottom line that is embellished by stratosphere-soaring fretwork while “Cold As
Hell” displays a little more nuance without shedding any of the electricity, a
slow-building intro leading into a swampy, simply mesmerizing bluesy-dirge with
somber vocals and haunting instrumentation that reminds of Robin Trower’s
“Bridge of Sighs.” Hidalgo, Nanji, and Dickinson all three share guitar (and
vocal) duties across 3 Skulls and the Truth, swapping solos and rhythms
with only slight differences in sound and technique apparent. The resulting
twelve songs are definitely built for the old-school blues-rock fan that prefers
a hirsute, eardrum-bashing sound with enough blazing guitars to create fits of
joy. Grade: B+
Dave Fields – Detonation (Field of Roses Records, 2012) From the first icy blast of “Addicted To Your Fire,” one gets the
impression that guitarist Dave Fields is more than just another Stevie Ray
Vaughan acolyte. The hard-rocking song displays scraps of Hendrix, Albert
Collins, and maybe even a little Eric Clapton (especially in the “Sunshine of
Your Love” styled descending riffs you’ll find two-minutes in). But when
Vladimir Barsky’s spry keyboards are laid atop Fields’ explosive fretwork to
achieve a different sort of vibe, you’ll be convinced that Fields is the real
deal, a guy with a vision that rises above squalid barroom blues and upwards
into the stratosphere.
Detonation is Fields’ third album,
produced by studio legend David Z (who has worked with Gov’t Mule and Jonny
Lang, among others), the high-priced board-wrangler coaxing another dimension
out of the guitarist’s already rich, textured, guitar-driven sound. Fields’ live
performances are rapidly becoming the stuff of legend, creating an industry buzz
and all that, and Z has managed to capture a largish amount of the charisma and
crackling energy that Fields and his road band bring to the stage. “In the
Night” is a deliciously over-the-top, blustery blues-rock romp with sharp
metallic edges and a heart of soul, Fields’ reedy vocals barely rising above
Kenny Soule’s explosive drumbeats and bassist Andy Huenerberg’s iron-clad bottom
line as he embroiders the song’s soul undercurrent with some pretty impressive
six-string pyrotechnics.
Equally impressive is the Chicago-tinged
“Doin’ Hard Time,” which features guest star Joe Louis Walker, a major league
player that brings respect to Fields’ work with a powerful vocal and guitar
performance. Fields rises to the occasion, giving as good as he gets with
razor-sharp fretwork and a fine vocal turn that says he’s ready for the
spotlight. Detonation features a different sort of guest in the form of
jazz legend Delmar Brown, who brings his lively keyboards to the reggae-tinted
“Bad Hair Day.” Brown has lent his talents to such giants as Miles Davis and
Jaco Pastorius, so he’s definitely no “B-lister” slumming, and his contribution
here is major, Brown’s rhythmic keyboard riffing and scatting, be-bop vox
building a foundation on top of which Fields explores various melodic patterns
to great effect. It’s a cool song, and an even cooler performance by the old
lion and the young cat.
Fields has begun to attract attention for his
songwriting acumen – British blues legend John Mayall recorded a Fields’ song on
his Tough album – and Detonation displays his intelligent, rapidly
maturing skills as a wordsmith in spades. Whereas songs like “Same Old Me” bring
a new twist to the ages-old battlefield of romance (a well-worn blues theme), a
bluesy shuffle like “Better Be Good” uses humor and subtle wordplay to address
topical concerns. Fields seems to be his best on material like “Pocket Full of
Dust,” however, using a blues base on top of which to heap a mess ‘o soul and
rock ‘n’ roll with just a slight funky strut. Detonation is an extremely
entertaining disc, the self-assured work of a talented guitarist and songwriter
that seems one step away from stardom. Grade: A-
Rival Sons – Head Down (Earache Records, 2012) In one of those strange occurrences that happen every now and then in the
music universe, Los Angeles band Rival Sons – a hard rock quartet with one foot
in the here and now and one firmly placed in the 1970s arena-rock era – signed
with notorious U.K. extreme metal label Earache Records, a mismatched marriage
if there ever was one. Evidently somebody from the label heard the band’s music
on the Internet and decided to take a flyer on ‘em, and mores the power to them
all, I say, because what the world definitely needs is more blues-influenced
rock ‘n’ roll and less cookie cutter, Autotuned, radio-friendly corporate rock.
With a couple of solid records under their belt, Rival Sons’ 21st century edge
and throwback sound has won over a generation of crusty British music writers
and earned them a Euro-based audience, but nary a glimpse of success
stateside.
Still, the band’s most recent effort, the pulse-quickening
Head Down, is filled to the brim with raging riffs, monster rhythms,
explosive percussion, screaming feedback, and more than a little modern-daze
musical innovation built on the backs of giants like Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, Deep
Purple, and Free, among other “classic” rockers that genuflected at the altar of
the blues. Singer Jay Buchanan’s vocals are a hybrid of rock ‘n’ soul that evoke
memories of Robert Plant, with a little of Judas Priest’s Rob Halford thrown in
for edge, and the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson for that Southern-steeped soulful
twang. Musically, the band dances across genres like old masters – “Until the
Sun Comes” is breathlessly 1970s in style, mixing a lighthearted folk-pop
undertone beneath a relentlessly rocking soundtrack, Buchanan’s breathless
vocals mimicking Bob Welch-era Fleetwood Mac, while “Run From Revelation” throws
a sly funk groove against a monster rock backdrop that reminds heavily of Bad
Company.
The band is “blues-rock” less by intent than by accident,
but Rival Sons still has its moments of Zeppelinesque grandeur, as in the
sprawling two-part “Manifest Destiny,” which displays all of the band’s
bone-crunching abilities. With Scott Holiday’s stunning bluesy fretwork swirling
and stomping and muscling its way past the bouncer at the door, drummer Mike
Miley bangs the cans with a manic ferocity just a little less than the late,
great Bonzo. The two songs’ extended jam allows the band to live out its 1970s
fantasies with reckless aplomb, cramming the roughly eleven-minute stretch with
plenty of throwback flourishes as well as a few new ideas.
Holiday’s
larger-than-life riffing here reminds more of Savoy Brown’s Kim Simmonds (think
“Hellbound Train”) than of Zep’s Jimmy Page, but I’m sure that he’s probably OK
with that, while the expanse of noise laid out behind the vocals and guitars
hits your ears like a bucket of paint thrown against a concrete wall…you’ll
never entirely sandblast the stain out, but you don’t really care. Part two of
this epic offers up some tortured harp work slung low against the bludgeoning
guitarplay, while Buchanan channels his inner Plant with a fine performance that
manages to rise above the instrumental fray despite the overall delightful
chaos. Taken as a whole, Rival Sons’ Head Down wouldn’t have sounded at
all out-of-place in 1973, but here in 2013 it comes across less as revivalism
than as a gale-strength breath of fresh air. Grade: B
Must be something in the water down there, some sort of magic that seeps out of
the river into wells and springs across northern Mississippi. It starts down
around Clarksdale and reaches as far north as Memphis, but something is surely
going on ‘cause this small region has produced some of the damn finest musicians
that you’ll ever hear play. You’ll find a trio of them in the
North Mississippi Allstars, one of the hardest rocking electric blues
bands you’ll find on the planet. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson – the real
“Blues Brothers” – and bassist Chris Chew have kicked around in various northern
Mississippi bands for years now. They’ve hit the proverbial bull’s eye tho’ with
the release of Shake Hands With Shorty, their phenomenal debut album.
North Mississippi Allstars’ Shake Hands With Shorty
With a help with some friends like Garry and Cedric Burnside (the other
“Blues Brothers” and sons of Hill Country blues great R.L.), Alvin Youngblood
Hart, East Memphis Slim, and Otha Turner, the Allstars kick out ten fine blues
tunes on Shake Hands With Shorty. They don’t stray too far from what they know
best, drawing their material from talents like “Mississippi” Fred McDowell,
R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Memphis legend Walter “Furry” Lewis. They
embroider this classic material with a few instrumental flourishes, creating
an original and individual sound that should appeal equally to blues purists
and rockers alike.
Guitarist Luther Dickinson, in particular,
draws a favorable comparison to the elder Burnside, playing his axe with the
same sort of bent-string technique as the blues statesman. You’ll also hear
strains of Stax soul, Duane Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughan in the material, the
resulting clash of rock and blues influences branding the band as unique. The
brothers Dickinson come by their roots honestly – their old man Jim is a
legendary musician and producer and the brothers have grown up among some of
the most creative and original artists in American music. The results of their
unusual childhood shines brightly throughout Shake Hands With Shorty, a highly
recommended first effort from the Northern Mississippi Allstars. (Tone Cool
Records, 2001)
Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™
zine
There can be no denying that Sam Phillips’ Sun Records imprint had an enduring and important influence on not only the creation and evolution of rock ‘n’ roll but on the promotion of blues and R&B music as well. Founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1952, Sun Records is best-known as the initial home of the legend, Elvis Presley. But Sun can also brag of releasing records by then-unknown musical giants like Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins; producer Phillips’ love of R&B also prompted him to record essential early sides by Howlin’ Wolf, Little Milton, Roscoe Gordon, and Memphis’s own Rufus Thomas, among many others.
On June 16th, 2017 the Americana Music Society will release Red Hot: A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records in honor of the Bluff City’s homegrown indie label which changed the direction of popular music. Proceeds from the CD will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® which treats children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The tribute album was co-produced by roots-rocker Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, and Tamara Saviano, a Nashville-based writer and producer and the author of Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark.
Red Hot: A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records was recorded at the two legendary recording studios owned by Phillips – the original Memphis Recording Service, later known as Sun Studio and opened in 1950, and the Sam Phillips Recording Service, opened in 1959 – and the album features performances by a slate of talented roots ‘n’ blues artists. Luther Dickinson and his brother Cody are the sons of late Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson, who recorded for Sun Records in 1966 with his garage-rock band the Jesters. The Red Hot house band includes Memphis singer/bassist Amy LaVere, singer/guitarist John Paul Keith, keyboardist Rick Steff of Lucero as well as the Dickinson brothers on guitar and drums.
Along with vocal performances by Luther Dickinson, John Paul Keith and Amy LaVere, Red Hot includes contributions by Valerie June, Shawn Camp, Jimbo Mathus, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and the great Bobby Rush. Check out the Red Hot website for more info on the project and then order this worthwhile CD from Amazon.com.
L-R: Luther Dickinson,
Valerie June, Jimbo Mathus, Rick Steff (seated)
