Sounds strange eh?, but this guy is so raw and so of his own music that it's undeniably brilliant. I got his 2nd CD today called Cheap. I have been playing track six over and over, it's Love Thang - and you can really get down to it.
He's a true hobo, knows a thing or 2 about being on the road and is not really sure of the talent he has, but we do - the UK - as his current tour is sold out and damn I missed it. Would have loved to have seen him.
He is an aquired taste I grant you, sounding more like a blurred LP being played backward but it's just so real.
Check him out on www.seasicksteve.com
You can also download some free music from his site and if you don't want to, then check out below which is also on the site:-
What you really have here is Seasick Steve himself; a real American, trainhopping, jailbirding, cowboying, carnival working, migrant farm picking, occassional tramping, near-fatal heart attack surviving old hobo. The real deal. Steve was invited to leave his home before his 14th birthday. (nuff said!) Having spent many hours listening to stories from the hobos, tramps, and bums who would come by his childhood home asking for work or just a handout; he reckoned he was ready for a life on the rails. So making up a “bindle” (sleeping roll and some clothes, etc.) and not forgetting his guitar, he headed off into the sunset. Sound romantic? For the most part it was not! Sleeping ruff. Going hungry. Working for handouts. Eating at the missions. Riding the rails. Playing on street corners, for your small change and MANY a free stay in the county jails of America…and this is the “G” rated version!!! But then there was those moments...stories told and heard in the “jungle camps”; scraps of old songs picked up. Food for song? You bet! Seasick Steve’s music is so out of it and old fashioned that it somehow arrives at modern. His audiences have been mainly younger people who are into the Fat Possum sounds of R.L. Burnside or bands like the White Strips. While doing shows with R.L. Burnside, Steve saw how young audiences went crazy for what he was doing. After playing the kids would come and ask, “what kind of music is this?” Steve replied, “well it’s kinda low down blues and such.” Their response was, “we hate blues… but man we love what you do!” This is what got Seasick Steve out again and doing what he does best – being the pied piper of the low down hobo blues. (And wait till you see and hear the 3-string trance guitar!!!!)
Charlie Gillett, legendary BBC radio DJ and author of what has become the bible on black music in america, Sound of the City, says Seasick Steve has brought him back to the blues and is the “first blues artist in 20 years to really move him.”
Seasick has been a guest on Charlie’s BBC show an amazing 5 times!
He has also been championed by another legend at the BBC, Andy Kershaw and has played live on his show also.
