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DVDfever.co.uk – Seasick Steve: Man From Another Time CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Atlantic Records
- Released: October 2009
- Rating: 8/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Hobo hero back where he belongs.
When Steve Gene Wold aka Seasick Steve entered Broadcasting House for a short stint on Later with Jools Holland Hootenanny on December 31 2006, little did he realise how it would change his life forever.Steve knew little if anything about the show and its potential for launching careers.
Now on his third album in as many years, Man From Another Time reverts back to the presentation of his then-new album Dog House Music.After an impressive set at Glasto 2008, he was snapped up by Warner Bros. Resulting album, I Started Out With Nothin And I Still Got Most Of It Left (250,000 copies sold) saw the hobo veer towards the mainstream market, and it worked. Steve oversaw the entire project including style, production, song choices etc.
Gone was much of the dirt and grit of DHM (Bronzerat Records), heading more towards the world-blues of Eric Bibb.Now, 60-something Norwegian resident Steve is a celebrated bluesman with a huge following, so unsurprisingly, Man From Another Time is a big hit, making number 4 on the UK album charts.
Going back to his rootsy DHM, (Steve has plenty to write about hes lived in 60 houses in his prolific itinerant lifestyle) this is probably the album everybody wants to hear from our Californian hero do down and dirty, rugged blues with no frills but loadsa thrills on his various guitars that include a four-stringed cigar box, three-string Trance Wonder, an his now famous one stringed Diddley Bow, along with his 1950s Fender Tweed Deluxe amp and an assortment of battered old mics. Oh, and we must forget his faithful MDM, a small wooden box he stamps on.Steve himself (with help from Roy Williams) recorded, engineered and produced the entire album at Blackbird Studios in Nashville.
Once again, Steve has managed to infuse his songs with the kind of grit and tenderness that we originally fell in love with. His songs invariably refer to things close to him, or events and people from his worldly, but simple, past.
Theres plenty of freewheeling showboating on opener Diddley Bo a hymn to his trusty one string with sticksman Dan Magnusson having a wail of a time performing like a man possessed and perfect foil for Seasick.
Things are equally raucous on his tribute to his John Deere tractor Big Green And Yeller, the colours of said tractor. Despite his new found wealth our Steve declares, Dont need no Ferrari / No Porsche too / Big green and yella / For me that gonna do. Then things are much simpler on the acoustic blues of Happy (To Have A Job) though the spirit of the south is all there, full of slide frenzy.
Banjo Song brings out his reflective moments as he deeply considers his own mortality while he simply plucks a banjo, of course. And on the title track, he reflects further, now that hes reached the age of seeing things clearer from his past, again revisited via Just Because I Can as he laments (or celebrates) his time riding the rails in his youth, accompanied by some fine bottle-neck slide work.
The choogle of Wenatchee, musically anyway, breaks the mood, though there has to be some autobiographical references made.We can only assume My Home (Blue Eyes) refers to his wife of 27 years Elizabeth. The hobo celebrates his affection by saying, cause my home is where your blue eyes are / And my town is where your brown hair falls.
After a raucous Seasick Boogie and studio chatter, theres a gorgeous hidden track a cover of Hank Williamss Im So Lonely featuring solos by songbird Amy La Vere.
The verdict Worth every penny.
Weblink:seasicksteve
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Diddley Bo
2. Big Green And Yeller
3. Happy (To Have A Job)
4. The Banjo Song
5. Man From Another Time
6. Thats All
7. Just Because I Can
8. Never Go West
9. Dark
10. Wenatchee
11. My Home (Blue Eyes)
12. Seasick BoogieView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.