Dave Hole
The Live One
Here's the one Dave Hole fans have been clamoring for! Captures the wild energy of one of this Australian slide master's ferocious live shows. Hard-charging rockers and simmering slow blues, all drenched in waves of fret-melting guitar riffs.
All songs by Dave Hole (Dave Hole Music admin. by Eyeball Music, BMI) except Every Girl I See (Dixon & Murphy, Hoochie Coochie Music/Chicken Wang Music, admin. by Bug Music, BMI), Purple Haze (Hendrix, Experience Hendrix, LLC, ASCAP) and Bullfrog Blues (Harris, publisher unknown).
Dave Hole: guitar & vocals
Roy Daniel: bass
J Mattes: drums (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11)
Ric Eastman: drums (2, 8, 9, 10, 12)
Bob Patient: keyboards (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12)
Produced by Dave Hole and Bruce Iglauer.
Recorded at Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago, Illinois, July 26, 2002;
Chord On Blues, St. Charles, Illinois, July 27, 2002; The Charles Hotel,
North Perth, Western Australia, December 18, 2001.
Mixed by John Villani, The Undercroft Sound Studios, Perth, Western Australia.
Recorded by Timothy Powell, Metro Mobile Audio, assisted by Mike Czaszwicz
(Legends and Chord On Blues), Clint Gibson, Mobile Digital Recording, assisted
by Gavin Tempany (Charles Hotel).
Mastered by A.J. Bautista, Dan Stout and Bruce Iglauer at Colossal Mastering, Chicago, IL.
Package design: Kevin Niemiec
Front cover photo: Andrew Bell
Back cover and Roy Daniel photo: Chuck Winans
Inside Dave Hole photo: Michael Nürnberg
Background and J Mattes photo: Neal Giddings
Ric Eastman photo: Phil Lockhart
Bob Patient photo: Paola Lutero
Thanks to: Bruce Iglauer - For his faith, friendship and the huge amount of hard work; the staff at Alligator Records; Ed van Zijl and Yvo Tap at Mascot-Provogue; Steve Chapman and the staff at Chord On Blues; Buddy Guy, Dave Katzman and the staff at Legends; the Committee and members of the Perth Blues Club; Greg Schenk; Jimmy Williams; Dom Monteleone; James Hewgill; Mark Whitehouse; John Galbraith; Klaus Schmidt; Neil Mumme; Flemming Christensen; Les Hinton; and Jay Reil.
J Mattes uses Paiste cymbals and Vic Firth sticks exclusively and wishes to thank Rich Mangicaro and Steve Riskin of Paiste America, Jorge Kohlmorgan of Paiste Germany and Vic Firth & staff of Vic Firth Inc. Ric Eastman uses Sabian Cymbals exclusively and wishes to thank Mal Hadfield of Dynamic Music.
Dedication: To the memory of Raimund Tillman-our good friend, German agent, and road companion. We miss you.
Website: www.davehole.com
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
