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Dave
MacKenzie - Solo
Armed only with a metal-bodied Dobro and 6- and 12-string guitars, Dave
MacKenzie’s newest CD, Solo ,features
modern blues done old-style. “Just about any of these songs, even the
ragtime tunes, could’ve been cut with a band, but lately I’ve been
re-listening to a lot of Lightnin’ Hopkins and Lonnie Johnson. There’s
something about that one-guy-and-his-guitar approach that still appeals to a
lot of people; you get the chance to really hear the song and let it do it’s
share of the work.”
Solo started out as an answer to years of audience requests
for acoustic versions of some of Dave’s older songs. “But
I wound up recording almost half an album’s worth of new
material. Whenever I get ready to make a record, that’s when
the new songs start showing up. I don’t know, maybe there’s
something about the studio that attracts them.”
Born in St. Louis, Dave learned from musicians there
and in Memphis before moving on to Chicago in the early 70’s
and from there to L.A. in the early 80’s. “I got
to do a lot of pretty cool stuff during those times. I got to meet Furry
Lewis and Bukka White, I warmed up for
and got to know people like John Lee Hooker and Muddy
Waters and later I was the band-leader for Hank
Ballard and the Midnighters. The funny part is that I
must’ve had 10 or 12 of my songs recorded by other people
before I even thought about making a record myself.”
Since moving to Nashville in ’89, Dave’s
issued 3 critically acclaimed recordings- Rats in my
Bedroom, All New Slender Man Blues,
and Old, New, Borrowed & Blue. One
result is that artists including James Armstrong, Microwave
Dave, Maria Muldaur and Nashville blues
legend Johnny Jones have all picked songs off
these albums to record themselves. This added exposure has also
meant increased touring in the U.S. and Europe.
The new collection of songs includes That
Rainy Day’s Comin', inspired by elder blues-statesman
of St. Louis Henry Townsend, Two Girlfriends,
based on an idea by Willie McTell, and A Better
Way, a country blues gospel song in the tradition
of Blind Willie Johnson. Add to that If Jesus Comes
Back (as a Mexican Man), with it’s combination
of ragtime guitar and religious speculation and the pro-reefer
anthem Two Drags, and the result
is an album that covers a lot of thematic bases.
"I’m not doing this to be any kind of preservationist
or historian. The reason this music is still alive is because
people can hear it for the first time and understand it; the
basic subject matter never changes. It doesn’t matter if
you’re a student or a salesman or a sharecropper, when
you get your heart broken it always hurts. My song Back
In The Day is kind of about that; younger people have
it just as tough now as their grandparents did, just in a different
way, and that’s why the blues keeps attracting people.”
With it’s old time sounds and modern day sensibilities,
Dave MacKenzie’s Solo proves that that the country blues
is still alive and kicking because, in the right hands, one guitar
is more than enough to get the groove going.
Dave MacKenzie - Biography
Dave MacKenzie was born in St. Louis
and went to school in Iowa, Colorado, Germany & Mississippi
before graduating high school back in St. Louis. Inspired both
by Elvis and the folk boom of the 50's, he got his first guitar
at age 10, first heard the blues (a Lightnin' Hopkins record from
the local public library) at age 11, and played his first professional
gig at age 13 at an NCO club in Germany.
"That gig with the NCO was the first time
I'd ever performed a song I'd written in front of people; since
then, whether it was the honky-tonk band I played with in Mississippi
when I was 15 or any of the folk groups or top-40 bands I was
in through the rest of school, I've always made it a point to
try to sneak in one of my own songs. After a visit to Memphis,
when I got to meet Bukka White, Furry Lewis and Sleepy John Estes,
their encouragement helped me get up the nerve to try my luck
in Chicago."
Dave moved to Chicago in 1972 and began
working in local clubs, eventually ending up in larger concert
venues as the warm up act for Muddy Waters, B.B. King,
John Lee Hooker and dozens of other blues and rock 'n
roll headliners. "I had a great time in Chicago; I got
to meet a lot of my musical heroes, I started playing out all over
the country and having other people record my songs. Among the
people who recorded one of my songs was David Soul (from Starsky & Hutch)
who offered me a publishing contract as a staff songwriter, which
is why I moved to L.A. in the winter of '79."
In addition to his songwriting activities
in L.A. (his tunes were cut by Soul, David
Bromberg, gospel greats Edwin & Tremaine Hawkins and
the rock band Jackal. Dave continued to do club
and concert appearances and began to work as a studio musician,
which led to his becoming a music producer for radio and TV commercials
and to writing scores for independent films.
"I got to do a lot of pretty cool stuff
in LA. I was the blues guitar instructor at McCabe's guitar shop,
I gave a lecture series on the history of pre-WWII blues at Santa
Monica City College and I put together a band to back up Hank
Ballard & the Midnighters that included Cornelius
Bumpus from the Doobie Brothers and
my good friend Alex Schultz who later played
with the Mighty Flyers. Eventually though, I
got tired of the rat race in L.A. and I wanted to concentrate
more on the country blues which had inspired me to play in the
first place. Also, I just got homesick for the south."
Dave moved to Nashville in '89, where he
immediately began getting work in clubs and as a session player.
After starting his own label, Hey
Baby! Records, in '93, Dave put out 2 CDs: Rats
in my Bedroom and All New Slender Man
Blues. They were both nominated for Nashville Music
Awards and received excellent reviews in the US and Europe.
This led to his first European tour in '96; he's
since returned every year to play major blues festivals such as
Kiel (Germany), Utrecht (Holland) and Brugge (Belgium) as well
as scores of concert & club dates and radio and TV appearances.
He's been included in several European blues compilation CD's and
his most recent album Old, New, Borrowed and Blue was
issued by the Dutch/Belgian label Black & Tan to universal
critical praise in Europe and the US.
When not on tour, Dave continues to perform at Bourbon
Street Blues and Boogie Bar in Nashville's famous (notorious) Printer's
Alley. Continuing his work as a songwriter, Dave's tunes have been
recorded by James Armstrong, Microwave
Dave, Maria Muldaur, blues legend Johnny
Jones and dozens of local and regional blues bands. His
work as a session player led to his appearance as a special guest
on the platinum-selling Jeff Foxworthy album Crank
it Up.
A two-time recipient of the Music City Blues Society's
Acoustic Blues Act of the Year award, Dave regularly participates
in their Blues in the Schools program and conducts demonstrations/lectures
at the Country Music Hall of Fame on the history of metal-bodied
dobros and early roots recordings.
"I keep pretty busy. I work as a regional blues act here in the
south, I do shows and guitar master classes in Europe, and, every now and
then, I'll drag out one of my electric guitars and back up somebody like Homesick
James or Sam Moore from Sam & Dave.
Being a blues player will never make you rich, but if you do it right you
can have a pretty good time." - back to top |
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