History made real!
When you talk about the founding of the Sleepy Hollow Blues Club, there’s one larger than life bloke who comes to mind – Stringybark McDowell.
Stringybark (aka Kenny Terrington), Kylie Minogue’s favourite bluesman, was thought by one on-line reviewer to be a myth until he saw him in the flesh. Stringybark has been quietly influential to many, influenced by the old blues masters & and many more modern-day heroes.
He has a raw-edged sound of his own, sometimes compared to Captain Beefheart, he can be a bit of Tom Waitsy, raw and swampy or fingerpick it up in a pretty way. He has made slide guitar & foot percussion his own and has been doing it for over 20 years. His style of raw rootsy blues drawn from the great masters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries mixed with his eccentric Aussie humour and homemade instruments combines for a blues-loving and rib-tickling good time.
The original creator of country blues band Muddy Puddles who toured rural Australia for years whooping it up for the punters with their jug junk band attitude to the blues. Stringy spent 2003 touring the UK successfully including The Great British R&B Festival, with a return for a shorter tour in 2006. Mid 2004 saw Muddy Puddles return to the road performing various gigs and festivals throughout the country.
Stringy kept the crowd entertained at Bluestone 2006 with a series of short solo brackets between gigs with the old signature red truck stage. Stringy performed as a one-man band playing acoustic and electric guitars, including his famous Diddley bow, Raw gritty vocals, “Doof Doof” the 14” kick drum and “Lefty” a home-made snarey highhatty rattle, a bit of rack harp and kazoo.
Early this century (it still feels weird saying that!) Molly Coddlecream came into his life, they began performing as Stringy and Molly and moved to Sandleton SA, and their gigs here dramatically reduced in number.
However, that was the gain of places further afield.
We’ll let him put it together, “One Man Washing Machine of Blues and Stuff for decades, now as I get too old to stomp I’m stripping back to guitars and vocals and the songwriting genius of my partner Molly Coddlecream!! Influences, too many to mention but never commercial crap.”
Like we say in Australia – ‘There’s no flies on this man’, but you can see where they have been.
He’s swinging through this part of the woods, with three gigs: March 6th at Saints & Sailors, March 7th at Breakwater Hotel and March 8th at Pistol Pete’s.
Later in the year, he’s off to Switzerland to the Blues Rules Crissier Festival (Crissier is the place). I don’t know about you, but that commute is a bit far, so these local gigs are the easiest to get to.
Seriously, if you haven’t heard Stringy, then you have to make it to one of these gigs, your ears will love you.
Just a quick note, the last of the Black Hatt’s Battle of the Bands is on March 13th, with the final on 20th. Things should be climaxing soon!
Written by John Lamp
