Having already been announced as part of the rapidly expanding lineup for Byron Bay Bluesfest, City and Colour announced a string of headline shows set to hit up venues around Australia this March and April.
Following their eagerly anticipated appearance in Byron Bay, Dallas Green and his band will play an intimate show at The Tivoli in Brisbane, before hitting up Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, and Thirroul.
The band will be promoting their latest album, If I Should Go Before You, recorded at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios, which they unveiled last year to a Number 5 debut on the ARIA Album Chart.
We recently caught up with Dallas Green to find out how the singer, songwriter, and guitarist crafted a sound that’s bestowed him with legions of fans around the world and what guitar gear he simply can’t live without.
The Best Jazzmaster In The World
I used to tour in a small car and I’m very proud that I did do that, but I’m glad I don’t have to do it anymore [laughs] My essentials? I would bring an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar, because I play both. I have sort of a mixed bag of a catalog.
I’ve got this 1963 Fender Jazzmaster that I’ve had for about three years, maybe four. In my head it’s the best Jazzmaster that exists in the world. That’s just me, I’m like a proud father. I like really beat-up, old guitars.
I’m not much of a collector in the regard that I need it to be all stock and pristine. It’s beat to hell, the neck has got that really beautiful, worn-in, 80-year-old guitar kind of vibe.
The Hybird
I’m also very, very lucky to have a partnership with Martin guitars and they built me a custom acoustic guitar two years ago right before I started my last touring cycle and it’s sort of a hybrid of a couple of different shapes and styles in a way.
It’s kind of a Dreadnought body, but it has a 12-fret neck with a slotted headstock. I don’t even really know if it has an actual name, because it’s a custom amalgamation.
The Best Sounding Amp Ever
I guess I have to bring an amp too, right? Well, there’s a local from my hometown near St Catherine’s, Ontario named Glen Morris, who started off as a Fender amp mechanic and then started building his own amps.
Back in the mid-2000s, I got him to build me a custom head and it’s basically like a 100-watt Master Volume JMP, but with a couple different mods to it. And I actually recently turned it down to 50 watts.
I took two tubes out and ran it a little quiet and again, to me it’s the best sounding amp I’ve ever heard. So I would bring that and then I’d have to bring a Boss Tuner, because I know it’s not fancy but it’s integral to every touring guitarist’s life.
Feeling Right
There’s different things that attract me to a guitar. Like, I’ve done this a lot, I’ll see a guitar on the wall and it’ll be, say, something I’ve been looking at or thought that I really wanted and I’ll buy it and I’ll get it and it just doesn’t feel right.
Or maybe I can’t pull it off in what I like to call the mirror test. Like, as much as I’d like to play a Flying V, I don’t think I could. I think I’d look stupid with one, you know?
And that’s happened a couple times where I’ve gotten something and it just didn’t really feel right and I got rid of it, but for me, it’s just got to feel right. I’ve got little hands, which is another thing.
I’ve got really small hands and that comes into play a lot. There’s certain guitars that I’ve either seen or really wanted to be able to play and just haven’t felt comfortable in my hands.
But for me, I like old, beat-up guitars because in my head I feel like I’m just one person in a long list of people who’ll be able to try to wrestle some stories out of it.
The Saddest Story Ever Told
I actually have a sad story about my first rig. When I was really young and I started playing guitar — I’m probably 12 or 13 years old — I had an uncle who also played guitar and he gave me what I didn’t realise at the time was an old Gibson amplifier.
I don’t even remember what it was. It must’ve been like a Skylark or something like that. We’re probably talking like a ’40s or ’50s Gibson amp and he just had it in his basement and he’s like, ‘You’re starting to play guitar, you can use this.’
And I’m just like, ‘Oh great, it’s an amp and it turns on.’ And my father had got me a Fender, it was actually a Fender Prodigy, I don’t know if you remember those, they only made them for a couple years.
It was sort of like a smaller version of a Strat, almost like a Squier but it was a Fender American-made and I think they were trying to make the Strat a little more rock. It had a Humbucker in the bridge and then two single coils, but a little more of a smaller body.
So I had this Fender Prodigy and I was running it through this beautiful Gibson amp and just had no idea what I was doing, with like a Boss DS-1, trying to learn Alice In Chains songs. And as I got a little bit older, I just really wanted a Marshall.
Now, the Marshall I got was just a Valve State or Solid State. Because I didn’t know much about anything, I traded this beautiful Gibson for this Solid State amp and then I ended up obviously getting rid of the Marshall and got a JCM 800.
And as I got older, I started learning more about it all. But somebody somewhere in Southern Ontario has that old Gibson amp and now all I do is buy little old amps like 10-watt amps like that.
I’ve got a collection of old National and silver amps and Supertones and there’s a spot in my collection just waiting for the day I find that old Gibson amp.
City & Colour Australian Tour Dates
Saturday, 26th March 2016
The Tivoli, Brisbane
Tickets: Ticketmaster | 136 100
Monday, 28th March 2016
Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide (All Ages)
Tickets: Ticketmaster | 136 100
Wednesday, 30th March 2016
Red Hill Auditorium, Perth
Tickets: Oztix | 1300 762 545
Saturday, 2nd April 2016
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne (All Ages)
Tickets: Ticketmaster | 136 100
Monday, 4th April 2016
Enmore Theatre, Sydney (All Ages)
Tickets: Ticketek | 132 849
Friday, 8th April 2016
Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul (All Ages)
Tickets: Ticketmaster | 136 100
Also appearing at Byron Bay Bluesfest 2016
