Blues News #663
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Blues News #663

Where’s that place they reckon that if you stand there everyone you know will walk past you? It was Grand Central station, or maybe Flinders Street clocks, it doesn’t really matter.

In Geelong blues terms, hanging around Sleepy Hollow Blues Club works quite well.
One of the regulars down there is Ron Hilla, he’s a bass man and often joins in the jam, and is always ready for a chat about his music.

About June last year I began to notice a band called Blue Sunday showing up in the gig list.
It confused me initially, because I thought it was a Sunday blues session, rather than the name of a band, but that confusion didn’t last long. It was also no real surprise to see this band begin to get regular and consistent work around the traps in Geelong – spending quite a bit of time between the Black Hatt and Pistol Pete’s Food and Blues.

The secret of the success was easily found when you look at the make-up of the band, there’s some special and well known people in there.
Marco Goldsmith should be no stranger to any blues music listener. Marco is best known for his work in Warrnambool with Blue Heat. Blue Heat took out two awards in 1995, and four in 1996, and possibly even more than that which I haven’t heard about. Two of those awards were personal awards for Marco Goldsmith as Male Artist of the Year. His guitar work, and strong vocals are his trademark, no doubt about it. Blue Sunday is also where you should be to hear Marco’s latest song writing.

Craig Creswell is a Strat man from Bluejam and Acoustic Avenue and takes lead vocal and guitar.
Ron Hilla is best known for Turning Blue and Matt Corcoran Band, and takes bass. Sandy Oro in also played in the Matt Corcoran Band and also Chantoozies.

Mat Corcoran was an amazing acoustic / electric lap steel slide guitar player and was inducted into the Australian Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2003. Matt was known for using a sampler in his later career, so Sandy and Ron obviously played with him before that!

Blue Sunday have become well known for great material with the sort of insistent beat that will get people up and dancing. That can be more than a bit of a squeeze at Pistol Pete’s, but then that can have its advantages as well. Their vocal material is also very strong, Craig’s voice is strong and clear, and being able to throw to Marco is a bonus.

Next time you see them, yell for Today I Pray, one of Marco’s originals, you won’t regret it. Recently they’ve had a bit of a break while working on some new material. Their focus is on the style of the original blues and also Aussie, American and English influences, so this should be good and well worth waiting for.

Look for Blue Sunday down at Pistol Pete’s, sometimes on a Sunday too!

Photo by Patrick Callow