What are the band ‘Blue Django’ influences? asked Scrub Radio (a radio station I joined recently). The short answer is they are the same influences which influenced me. The long answer follows:
Being as singer-songwriter from before I could really master an instrument, my creative juices began flowing from my earliest childhood when I’d lie in bed singing any song that had enchanted my heart. I was born in the late fifties so I got the benefit of being exposed to the tale end of the crooners and the rock ‘n roll explosion. It’s my theory that seeing as my mother had the radio playing 24-7, I probably got to be rocked in my cradle to Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets as well as Satchmo, Dean Martin and old blue eyes. I can remember singing ‘Strangers in the Night’ at five or six and the music has never left me, except for a brief period when I danced on the devil’s balcony. But that’s not a story I’d enjoy telling.
My very earliest recollection of genuine influence was the Neil Young album Harvest, oddly enough I got to enjoy ‘Jet’ by the Beatles before I got a generous mitten-full of their glorious album ‘Abbey Road’. I guess Dejavu by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and scores of the wonderful musicians that exploded onto the scene in the mid-seventies moulded my sense of what is good music and so I latched onto a few including Carlos Santana, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Stephen Stills as well as Rodiguez and Shawn Phillips. Those were brutal times of drug experimentation and suicidal fringe drinking and my passion for the more instrumental type meditative music grew, though my guitar competency trailed poorly being that I was a rebel player and would not subject myself to the usual guitar lesson routine.
In 1976, having dodged LSD, Purple Hearts and all the high octane drugs of the times I found myself drawn into the world of philosophy, metaphysics and theosophy with a dash of oriental mysticism via various books and music I was enjoying. It got weird and somehow I got it into my head that the only way to real life was through death. (not a totally bad idea) I planned my death (not suicide) and on the dawn of my departure, I encountered a spirit that had been talking to me from my earliest recollections. It was Jesus. He freed me from the lies of life and brought me into a world that is best described by the bad boy of Christian Rock (Larry Norman) as ‘Another Land’ While my friends were turning on to Jimi Hendrix, I was being turned on to Christian Rock, Hard Rock, Metal and eventually I found I’d reached the end of the creative program. Thanks to a kindly Canadian bloke in a record store in Cape Town, South Africa I met another bloke who was a guitarist and so began my journey into the belly of prog-rock and the music of Kansas, Kerry Livgren, AD, Protokaw and I’ve yet to emerge from this having recently acquired a copy of Forth by Protokaw. I guess in short my primary influence is prog-rock as well as most of the glorious instrumental music of Phil Keaggy. It’s my dream to play as well as both Kerry and Phil, but for now I think I am closer to Bob Dylan and Neil Young whose music filled all the holes that prog-rock couldn’t. I drifted from my gospel roots in the mid-eighties due to the sterile state of Christianity and a deep thirst for spiritual experiences and through a set of rather dark circumstances found myself washed up on the shores of the musical roots of most modern music, the Blues. The journey deviated had really begun and I have spent most of my adult life bathing in the blues from BB to ZZ and every letter in between. My passion for Southern Rock and Country Rock as well as Pop Rock, with bands like America, CSN&Y etc. etal grew and grew and I got into Joan Armatrading, Van Morrison, Mark Heard, Bruce Cockburn. I have swum in a sea of music all my life and could go on and on and on, and on, for it’s been my major influence and as the pioneer member of Blue Django I guess that’s my story, to be continued…. I’m currently searching for a partner in crime and have a few auditions lined up but as of now I’m still just a feral wolf howling at that big fat old romantic moon. Oh yeah and I really love Paul Simon’s album ‘One Trick Pony’ and have lately been raving on the music of Michael Hedges, so the journey continues …( video tapestry of the same : Blue Django’s Musical Roots File : From ‘Great Balls of Fire’ to ‘Aerial Boundaries’ ….. )
‘Once upon a time there were four old blokes sitting dangling their feet over the edge of the universe, sharing war stories and comparing scars.’
It’s over now, but we had some really sweet times.
Have a brew for me when you do.
Peace,
Eric.‘Smoke Stack Lightning’ was disbanded on 8.11.2011 – auditions for ‘Blue Django’ at katoikei@gmail.com or call me direct at UK 01693 403909
Update: I recently changed my Join My Band Add: rua guitarist, blues harpist, singer or? (North Walsham – Can travel)
