It's funny how a legend can grow. According to the mouth of the man himself and contrary to some other sources out there, Seasick Steve never "toured with Janis Joplin and Joni Mithell" or "hung out with the late Kurt Cobain." But he did "put food on his Parisian table by busking in The City’s Metro." Something unusually real came to the city last night. Music that by its nature is organic, true to its birth, pure in the way it was developed and most certainly true to the manner in which it came to be personified by a man who carries the moniker Seasick Steve.
For the uninitiated, delta blues, home made instruments played through distorted amplification, songs about homelessness, traveling the states, gettin' drunk, gettin' arrested and having you meals over the ole' canned heat only scratch the surface of this performer. Complete with a drummer by his side laying down boggie-woogie, 2-step, hard rock and jungle beats (no, really) this show was something different and a seemingly once in a life time real-life glimpse into Seasick Steve's complicated, unexpected and surreal life for the people of the bay area lucky enough to come out and partake.
The show started out with a faced paced romp and steadily progressed with heavy blues riffs and foot stompin' beats until he put the brakes on to sing a love song to one lucky lady in the audience, named Katherine. Making his way through his arsenal of home made folk instruments, the highlight of the show to me was the song Never Go West played on a dobro made from 2 hubcaps and sick, amplified with what appeared to be a harmony pickup, raunched up with distortion and played with a slide. The song started with spoken work of the lyrics and slowly progressed to a raucous jaunt of slide soloing coupled with manic yet tasteful drums. One of the last songs he played was a sing along to which he quipped that in the US it's a lot easier to get people to sing along when they know English, so those of us not singing had no excuse.
Throughout the show in its entirety, Steve led us on a journey through his life. For those us unaware, I'll fill in even more so. Born in Oakland in the 1941, Steve Gene Wold left his house at the age of 14. According to legend after his step dad threw him through a window Steve had an epiphany (and it wasn't Jesus). Rather than killing his step-pappy with a pearl handled .45 that his mom kept in her underwear drawer and winding up in prison for the rest of his life, his best revenge would be the opposite to a life of confinement: run and be free, choosing a life traveling the US, working as a cowboy, a carnie and, well, if its can be called an occupation, a street musician in various towns across the vast 3,000 mile scrap of land we call home, discovering people and places few of us ever dream of.
Now this guy released his first record, Cheap in 2004 making him 63 years old. With a life time of true-to-life, hand-to-mouth experiences and stories of living off of the modern land and eventually winding up in Norway in 2001, his lyrics and spoken word about hard times, good times and life in general weave into fantastic tales that have become something to be treasured, revered, taken in like a good book and treated like an archival of Americana. This is life, and Seasick Steve lived it every day, doing as he pleased and as he puts it, somehow winding up being able to share his story and the larger story with the world. Why him? Who knows and who cares, it is what it is and its something special. There are no tricks to be had, his entire guitar collection is worth all of $100 but his voice and ability to craft delta blues based melodies and songs are solid gold.
2006 saw the release of his second record (and one of my fav's) Dog House Music as well as his first televised appearance on a show in the UK called Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny which is broadcast every New Years Eve. I would suspect one could relate it to Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years except the former is hosted by a quippy-chippy British guy and the latter is regrettably hosted by an old crotchity republican who hates poor people. Regardless, this appearance cemented Seasick Steve in the minds of European music fans and two years and many miles later in 2008 he released I Started Out With Nothin and I Still Got Most of it Left on Warner Brothers Records. 2009 and 2010 saw two more major label releases for Steve, Man From Another Time and ...Songs For Elizabeth both released on Atlantic Records. And then something wonderful happened. Between the festivals, touring and the road, his newest record aptly titled You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks, is set for release later this year on Jack White's record label Third Man Records. According to some of the story telling last night by the man himself, as soon as he arrived in Nashville Jack White had him come over to his house and slowly coaxed him in to letting loose. Before he knew it, Jack White was on drums and they were recording what is to be something to definitely look forward to.
To check out Seasick Steve and discover the grit, go here
