Described as country, blues,
and roots inspired by the devil, Doc White’s music has been speaking to him in a special way for over 40 years and is by the artist’s own admission, a religious experience. But Doc White isn’t the Robert Leroy Johnson type and certainly hasn’t sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, but he has his own unique style and is a master blues musician.
Preparing for a return to his hometown of Adelaide, Melbourne based Doc will be working his voodoo at the Promethean on June 28 and at the Semaphore Workers Club on the 29th.
First hearing Van Morrison’s version of ‘baby Please Don’t Go’, White was instantly hooked on the rhythm and after some further research found out that the song was actually written by Big Joe Williams with other versions by Lightning Hopkins and Muddy Waters among others. This research led to the discovery of the different variations of Blues from Mississippi, Georgia, Texas and Memphis. “All of it had appeal to me, as did old time country music. And there was no ‘colour barrier’ with music at the time. The problem was though, the conflict between playing gospel music and ‘the devil’s music’, as most were decent churchgoers. Blues was played to have a good time, drinking and carousing.”
Most blues was borne out of hardship and one can feel the blood, sweat, and tears in the music, but it was the vocals that were originally intended to be the heart and soul of the songs, with the music being primarily for accompaniment.
White sees African culture as extremely literary, particularly in their music sense. Styles such as rap and blues are innovative and minimal, with wordplay being the predominant factor. He also sees the original ‘father’s of blues’ as being a huge influence on music trends today. “Back in that era, there were only really three types of music that were recorded which were Jazz, Blues, and Country. That was what was heard and it was the influencing sound that everybody was basing their stuff on. There were very few artists to choose from and out of those there were a crop that stood out at the top. Without them there would have been no Ry Cooder or Eric Clapton, nor blues based rock and pop for that matter.”
White’s insight into the origins of his preferred genre leave little doubt that this is a man who is serious about his craft. He laments those who would have been exceptionally gifted musicians that unfortunately were never recorded, thus limiting historical archives of the variations in styling, The other tragedy is the modern need for artificial entertainment and the other artificial distractions that occupy our time being a catalyst for the lack of preservation of key music influences such as Blues. But White remains optimistic, and says “ there are a lot of younger bands now, particularly in the US, who are getting back to the source material. Bands like Mumford and Son, Neko Case and more who come out of punk or rock backgrounds and then discover this music, they embrace it and forge it into something really different but –it’s great”
He also believes that the music industry is divided into two halves, one being the ‘entertainment’ industry (Lady GaGa, Madonna etc) which serve the entertainment needs of people, and then the ‘music’ industry, where people go to see raw live music with the sound, lyrics and attitude being the focus, and that’s what we can expect from Doc White’s shows.
“Expect some variety, It won’t just be me up there playing guitar, I have a bass player and drummer so we’ll make a bit of noise. I’ll play some originals, covers, and tell stories of context about the music- what it means and where it comes from to explain the canon of blues music.”
Doc’s original music has won awards, with ‘Cropduster Blues’ taking out Song Of The Year at the 2004 VicTas Blues Awards and he’s played at most of the major music festivals. He’s a serious practitioner who doesn’t only sing the blues, he lives and breathes it. “It’s not really hard, as I love doing it, performing it, and playing it.”
With any luck, long after Doc White departs this mortal coil, musicians will be researching him and ultimately keeping the blues flame alive as Doc himself has done.
Saturday 28th June 2014 8pm The Promethean, ADELAIDE SA www.theprom.com.au – (08) 8212 0266
Sunday 29th June 2014 4pm The Semaphore Workers Club, SEMAPHORE SA (08) 8449 9110
For more information, please visit www.docwhite.com.au
Interviewed by Darren Hassan
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