Blues News #655
Subscribe
X

Subscribe to Forte Magazine

Blues News #655

Oh boy! Start of January, and I am still not sure when the exhaustion of Bluestone and New Year’s Eve will wear off. Hope you all survived it as well.

Thursday with a northerly. The paint was blistering on the house, asphalt had resumed its liquid state. Next door’s dog was chasing a cat, but it was so hot they were both walking. OK, none of that was original, but you get the point. It was time to look for something which might be an antidote.

I lived a fair part of my life in Hobart, and the one thing that is relied on by locals is the quaintly described “afternoon sea breeze” which has most of the attributes of a force five gale. Dropping the temperature is one of these attributes, so a quick scan of gigs for today turned up Dave Dorman and Greg Dodd who did an acoustic session at the Queenscliff Brewhouse at the end of 2016.

Sea breezes – check!
Good music – check!
Beers on tap – bonus points!
Job done!

Dave Dorman is well known as the front man for Dog Gone South, and has been doing quite a bit of work around the traps, especially on the Bellarine.
This is not surprising as he’s based on Ocean Grove.
Dave has a trademark acoustic style, ranging from traditional blues through to interpretations of some less blues tunes and giving them his own polish.
Along the way he’s also been mixing it at various festivals, and musicians outside of Dog Gone South.

One of my favourites was with Fast Eddie Boyle from Warrnambool.
This time he had Greg Dodd down from Melbourne to make up a duo for an afternoon of acoustic blues. Greg should be known by all readers of this column. As well as being the lead in Greg Dodd and the Hoodoo Men, he’s the driving force for Blues for Lost Souls.
The Hoodoo Men play an electric blues, with strong Chicago influences, their CD 3am Blues Live is definitely one to seek out.

Anyhow, Greg and Dave put together an excellent afternoon of acoustic blues to an appreciative audience with a hard core of Sleepy Hollow people testing the various beverages supplied by the establishment. And the sea breeze? It was gentle, it was cool, the relief was great!

Now looking ahead, Pistol Pete’s has a great line-up this weekend as well with Andy Phillips, Paulie Bignall and Dan Dinnen.
Wolseley Winery has already begun their 2017 season. There’s some excellent blues in the pipeline; Spoonful, Chris Wilson & Sarah Carroll, Eugene Hamilton and The Large Number Twelves.

Next month sees the Mornington Peninsula Blues Sessions, and if you have a yen to wander farther afield, then there’s the 21st Australian Blues Festival in Goulburn.
I also want to mention the Blues Boot Camp performance tonight at The Potato Shed. Come and hear the next generation of performers put their learning into practice.
Remember that there’s no Sleepy Hollow gig this month – still getting over the exertions around the Bluestone Festival (not to mention the hangovers).

Written by John Lamp