Many of Seasick Steve’s stories are rambling, brambled tales of wanderlust and existentialism, others are brief and to the point: “If you’re gonna sing a song about drinkin’ wine, you oughtta drink a little wine first.” And if you’re going to write an article about Seasick Steve, you oughtta down a bottle of red, make some noise on a piece of rusted farm machinery, roll around in the dust a little and see what comes out.
The grit, the truth, the essence of life exuded by the man is hard to ignore. Even now, having sold over a million records, Steve still comes across as honest and down to earth. Apparently being signed to Warner Bros., becoming world famous and having John Paul Jones (formerly of Led Zep) in his band can’t teach this old dog new tricks.
Given the illustrious task of opening for Steve at the Corner Hotel on Tuesday night, Ash Naylor (Even frontman, guitarist with Paul Kelly and sometime member of the Rockwiz Orchestra) threw down some dirty blues rock, infused this with some acoustic balladry and even paid tribute to John Paul Jones by adapting his song “Better Road” to include verses of Led Zeppelin’s “All My Love”. With a voice that could be likened to Eric Clapton – he also bears an uncanny physical resemblance – Naylor delivered a simple yet lyrical set, flicking the audience to 33’ and slotting them into the opening groove.
Lumbering onstage with a battered old piece of two-by-four, in ripped jeans and a grubby trucker-cap, it was easy to imagine Seasick Steve was the janitor, coming out to sweep the stage in preparation for the band. As he sat down in his ever-present wooden chair, Steve launched into an introduction of the first of his many “guitars”.
“This here is called a diddley-bo, basically it’s a piece of wood with a string nailed to it, it’s got a creamed corn can down here for the pickup and these here are some Christmas decorations that I stuck to it…” Without further ado, and drowning out the inebriated requests for obscure Led Zeppelin songs directed at JPJ, the band launched into the aptly named “Diddley Bo”.
Passing bottles of wine across stage between songs, numerous guitar changes, stories and introductions, the connection between Steve, JPJ and drummer Dan Magnusson was obvious. In fact Dan Magnusson seems almost like a reincarnation of John Bonham himself, pounding the drums full-force, as if smashing down some ancient levee to release a flood of pure soul. Here are three wizened old musos from vastly different backgrounds who have come together to deliver some of the most powerful music around, and to do it with passion.
Clearly the old boys were having the time of their lives. As could be expected, John Paul Jones garnered a fair bit of attention throughout the night, not only pinning down Steve’s raucous grooves with solid bass riffs, but playing some of the most incredible blues-mandolin ever heard. He also whipped out an eight-string lap-steel just to add a little extra feel, as if it was needed.
Seasick Steve is a man, a band, an idea, an ideal, a truth, a poet, a master storyteller. One day this guy is going to walk on stage with a guitar with no strings, and he’ll still sound awesome. It just goes to show that even in this age of auto-tune and months spent in post production, it’s still the most pure music that has the most power.
– Jake Vitasovich
