The Live One [CD]

The profoundly emotional and shattering sound of the slide guitar, with its infinite microtones, can never be replicated by any other instrument. It has been one of the singularly defining characteristics of the blues ever since W.C. Handy heard an itinerant musician in a Tutwiler, Mississippi train station in 1903. "As he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars," Handy recalled, "the effect was unforgettable." Charlie Patton, Blind Willie Johnson, Son House and Robert Johnson all added monumentally memorable slide guitar licks to the language of acoustic country blues in the pre-war years. But it took Elmore James and Muddy Waters and their groundbreaking electrification of the slide in the early 1950s to slash the way for future aspiring bottleneckers.

Little could anyone know at the time that 30 years later, in a land geographically and culturally a million miles from Mississippi, a young man born in England in 1948 would turn the examples of those American blues masters literally upside down to find his own unique instrumental voice. Dave Hole, from Perth, Australia, slipped the slider onto his index finger following a left hand injury and by draping it over the top edge of the neck, created an extraordinary technique. His vibrato, the slide guitarist's calling card, took on enhanced expressiveness, as did his ability to navigate the fingerboard with amazing agility. Seven studio albums (six released in the U.S.A. on Alligator) have amply demonstrated Hole's extraordinary musicianship, but The Live One has captured the sheer sonic power generated by his live performances more than ever before. Humble and soft-spoken offstage, under the spotlights he swoops down on his axe like a man possessed. The sweat flies as fast as his hands, as he unleashes wave after wave of arcing slide lines that leave his audiences breathless.

The Live One now provides permanent 'access on demand' to anyone who wishes to attend one of Dave Hole's extraordinary live performances. Most of the tracks are authentically crafted originals like "Short Fuse Blues" and "Take Me To Chicago," or exuberant covers such as "Bullfrog Blues," expanded from his studio version to accommodate his equally expansive imagination. "Bullfrog" has a stunning, unaccompanied intro that should raise a few blues purists' eyebrows in Chicago and Texas. Perhaps most revealing, however, is his take on "Purple Haze," written by that other unortho-dox "blues" guitarist, James Marshall Hendrix. Hearing it for the first time will likely have the same effect as witnessing the Dave Hole experience: Unforgettable.

--Dave Rubin
Senior Editor, Guitar One