The Backsliders give a hollerfrom left field

Wed 17th Oct, 2007 in Features

Not too far from the delta of the Cooks River resides the last remaining original member of the Backsliders, Dom Turner. Dom is well known for his Mississippi Delta slide playing and he has a style that is few and far between in our land. For nearly 20 years the Backsliders have been giving us their metamorphic take on the blues, blending the sounds of the south of America with the sounds these Australians find in their souls.

Dom Turner took some time out from the showcase gigs for Left Field Holler, the bands latest release, to talk about his band, the new (and not so new) band members who make up the Backsliders and just to talk about music in the world today.

Foraging around for an adjective for the Backsliders, ‘bluesy’ does not do them justice. The blues is contained in what they do, but with the hard driving drums of that well known drummer from Midnight Oil, Rob Hirst, the sound is something truly unique to our shores. And the thing that amazes me is that it is different, it isn’t just – œwhite boy blues’ regurgitated. They have their own sound. I wondered aloud to Dom whether or not, when Rob joined the band 7 years ago, whether they thought it would work.

“There was very little change at all. Rob has been with us for 7 years, and in itself that is quite interesting, as it seems like just yesterday he joined the band. There was very little change in his technique. So, what we did initially, when our original drummer (Peter Burgess) left we set up what was like a rehearsal in a studio.We set up the gear and it was like 1-2-3 Go, and we literally played one song. We stopped, all looked at each other and thought does this work or not and we all thought this really fucking works,” said Dom.

On their latest release, the sound that has evolved is truly rocking and soulful. The first song – œDuke’ comes rumbling like a wave (pun intended) with the drums and the slide being forced out of the speakers at you. The song is a tribute to the father of modern surfing, Duke Paoa Kahanamoku. But this release is not all about the surf, but it does have a lot of Australian sunshine and politics, mixed with the music.
Within these grooves we have the bands interpretation of ‘Hard Times Killing Floor’ which was written by the infamous Skip James and a smooth version of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s’ “Write Me A Few Lines’, which truly display where this band is coming from.

“Probably the two biggest influences are Mississippi Fred McDowell, not only in his slide, but in his whole rhythmic approach to playing. Ry Cooder is probably the biggest influence on me, although I utilise more of the McDowell approach to playing. This whole band, if you could nail it down to one little concept, it would be that the band stems from an album Fred McDowell did with harmonica player Johnny Woods (Eight Years Ramblin’ -1967) The harmonica and guitar played in unison quite a lot and built a tension through that. We use something rhythmic with some upper end melodies and try to do the same.”

This music is hot and vibrant and not just re-hashed white boy blues. Besides their connection to what is truly my favourite type of blues, Rob and Dom are definitely hooked in politically with their songwriiting. ‘Vietnam People’, ‘Look What The West Has Done’ and ‘Cowboy In The Whitehouse’ are some damn good political statements wrapped within the music. I really like the kick at that insipid style of broadcaster the shock jock entitled,’Fuck You Shock Jock’. It may not get much airplay, but I do like the vibe and the thought!

The line-up of the Backsliders only has two firm members in it right now. Jim Conway, the harp player, has left to focus on other projects. The Backsliders are alternating harmonica players at their gigs using Brod Smith and Aria award winning harp player Ian Collard. So is there a noticeable shift in their sound now with Jim gone?

“I don’t mean to discount it in anyway and they are all such brilliant harmonica players that it doesn’t really matter what you throw at them. They all have their own styles. Ian , I refer to him as the harmonica genius, he just has an amazing technique. Ian is also a guitar player and we have almost identical musical tastes and he is heavily into the North Mississippi sound.”
“Brod is a different sort of player and is more of an improvisational player. So, when we play live, it is slightly different when we play with either of them, but equally as much fun. And on the album, at times, I actually forget who played what, so I do have to think twice at times,” said Dom.

The Backsliders will be performing at The Wangaratta Jazz Festival in November and a couple of other gigs in Queensland in late November before flying off to Viet Nam and Cambodia to perform 2 concerts there in early December. Dom has a connection to Viet Nam through his travels and a musical relation playing with a fellow there called Kim Sinh.

“I have a music connection with a guitarist there named Kim Sinh .He plays a traditional form of Vietnamese music called Cai Luong and it is not blues in anyway and he has no idea what blues is. But, when we play together, we can draw off the same type of common elements. It is similar to blues in that it is not really chordal, it is more about drones and single notes and bending notes and he uses slides. Vietnamese music, like the blues, relies heavily on the micro-tones between the notes to create emotion. It appeals to me because of the unrestricted features of the blues where you are not playing straight notes,” said Dom.

Dom Turner, Rob Hirst and whomever is on harmonica make up one of the most original blues outfits on this side of the equator and deliver the goods either live or in the studio. The continual development of Dom and Rob as musicians through the years has ensured that the tracks they lay down will be ones you want to follow.