Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:40 am Posts: 25451 Location: 111 Archer Ave.
I searched and didn't turn up a thread, but I see that this guy made it to Mojo's 2008 list. My buddy Aaron in St. Kitts turned me on to this guy a few days ago. Aaron's in the peace corp and e-mails me every once in a while and posts on a message board I have with all of my scattered buddies around the country.
Anyways, I really like this guys sound. Straight up acoustic (and some electric) slide guitar with a warm, bluesy voice. Basically the kind of music you would find on O Brother, Where Art Thou. SSR, I really expect you to dig this guy.
Look at Seasick Steve’s blues, that old man in a vest, listen to his story coming out of his long white beard. When this American dude landed in Paris in the 70s with $10 in his pocket, it was nights under bridges, police vans, women, alcohol, and always his guitar and his blues who saved his life. Look at this former hobo who behaves the same whether he’s in a room at the Hôtel Concorde in Paris, in the streets or on a stage in front of some 65 000 people. I can picture him in front of his label’s executives (Warner), or this guy who, years ago, sold him the worst guitar in the whole world, and I can also picture him as simply captivating as when I saw him laugh for a good fifteen minutes with the wild crowd of the ATP Festival because he broke a string and he doesn’t really know how to change it.
We could tell "Seasick Steve’s amazing story, a poor man who became rich and famous thanks to his music", but he doesn’t need that. The first album Warner realeased he recorded in his kitchen, with an old four-track. There’s no amazing story, there’s better : this White bluesman’s ballad out in the world and life. He performed both in the Parisian subway and at Glastonbury. Who knows what he’ll meet on the next corner ? Anyway, he keeps the rhythm, the very rhythm we could walk on with him for hours. So we dit it on a May afternoon, immersed in that guy’s freedom.
You can also listen to the unbelievable simplicity of the guitar which is able, just like the guy who plays it, to fill the sound space only by its willingness to reound. Whether in an elevator, a taxi, a bedroom, a hotel lobby, a street ; everything adjusts with the blues’ rhythm.
We’re glad we shared a part of that guy and his guitar’s trip through the world. We’re glad we can share it with you too.
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 5:24 am Posts: 37009 Location: In Missouri, they would (will) not let me be Gender: Female
I obviously did not know this!
From Amazon.com:
Seasick Steve has played in Lightnin' Hopkins' and John Lee Hooker's bands, as well as also playing in Modest Mouse's touring line-up. His first album, Cheap, was released in 2004. Steve subsequently survived a heart attack but recovered to breakthrough with a memorable performance at Jools Holland's Hootennanny New Year's Eve celebration...
_________________ Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose Nothin' ain't worth nothin', but it's free
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2005 12:37 pm Posts: 7376 Location: Vlaardingen, Netherlands Gender: Female
I skipped his concert a couple of weeks ago in Den Haag at the Crossing Border festival, but I saw him briefly at Roskilde last year. Friends stayed and had a good time.
groetjes, Mirella
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Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:31 pm Posts: 2423 Location: White Hart Lane Gender: Male
Saw him at the Reading Festival in the summer. He's great. Try and get a hold of a copy of 'Cheap' if you can. Good album. I defy anyone not to like Seasick Steve.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:40 am Posts: 25451 Location: 111 Archer Ave.
On that Take Away Show I posted, in the second video there is a scene where he is playing to a group of teen skaters in Paris. I think it's somewhat surreal to seem them all stop what they are doing and listen to this man sing. I don't know anything about teens in Paris, let alone skating teens in Paris, but I don't peg them as blues fans. The scene really speaks volumes about the power of good music, and it makes me smile. Thoughts?
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:02 pm Posts: 3391 Location: At work, at my desk.
washing machine wrote:
On that Take Away Show I posted, in the second video there is a scene where he is playing to a group of teen skaters in Paris. I think it's somewhat surreal to seem them all stop what they are doing and listen to this man sing. I don't know anything about teens in Paris, let alone skating teens in Paris, but I don't peg them as blues fans. The scene really speaks volumes about the power of good music, and it makes me smile. Thoughts?
I do not know either other than I have always been told that Blues are huge in Europe.
I love the blues.... I'd be interested in hearing him.
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