By Julie Fox, Australia Correspondent to thecountryblues.com
April 2015
Dom Turner is a name synonymous with blues music in Australia for many reasons, the first being that he is a master of his craft. Dom doesn’t just play the blues he studies the background and history of the players who have influenced him, such as Mississippi Fred McDowell and Johnny Woods, to name just two. Immersing himself in the stories and culture of these, and many more players, during several trips to the US, Dom has developed his own unique style, complementing and blending the old with the new along the way.
I asked Dom when he first became interested in the Piedmont style:
“In 1986 I first travelled to the United States and through a chance meeting was fortunate enough to make contact with a Piedmont guitar player, Joan Fenton, who put me in contact with John Jackson, John Cephas and Phil Wiggins and a local (to West Virginia), and I believe unrecorded mandolin player, Augustine Ellis. Joan and I worked as a duo on a number of gigs, playing Piedmont blues as well as other traditional West Virginian mountain music styles. One gig in particular was playing for tourists at a heritage listed hotel in West Virginia, focussing only on local music forms.
I was already playing professionally and had been studying blues since the early 1970’s, however this became the first opportunity to see blues, in particular Piedmont blues, performed by musicians who learnt the style first-hand. I was also incredibly honoured to be able to spend time with John Jackson, and through playing together with him casually I really was able to understand the nuances of the style.
During the stay in West Virginia I also attended the 1986 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC that featured, among others, John Jackson, as well as Mississippi blues artist Jessie Mae Hemphill. This was an opportunity to see Mississippi Hill Country Blues Music first hand for the first time. My biggest influence in blues, outside of Piedmont, is Mississippi Fred McDowell; the guitarist that I believe is a pioneer in the unique rhythmic ‘Hill-Country’ guitar style, and obvious key influence on Jessie Mae.
On this particular trip I also travelled to Mississippi, Louisiana, Memphis and Chicago, and aside from seeing live performances by an incredible number of acts: Junior Wells, Left Hand Frank, Sugar Blue, Carrie Bell, Sam Lay, Lonnie Brooks, Johnny Winter…(to name a few), I also had a number of playing opportunities, performing at a Memphis Blues Society event with the house band and a number of open-mic style solo shows around Washington DC.”
How many trips have you made to the homelands of these early blues musicians, and has this influenced your own playing, delving into their history and individual styles?
“To date I’ve had 5 trips to the United States. The whole experience of travelling to the geographical source of a style of music helps to deepen the overall understanding of the musical style, not only aurally and visually through live performances, dialects, customs, as well as cultural aspects of the region. In saying this, though, my aim is not to mimic, but to find the ‘soul’ of the form, and use this as a basis for creative expression.”
There must have been many memorable tours throughout the US, either as a solo artist, in collaboration with other musicians or through workshops?
“Probably the two most memorable tours have been the recent 2014 tour, where I did a series of shows on the East coast with harmonica virtuoso, Phil Wiggins. This was particularly memorable as it spawned a formal collaboration with Phil that has resulted in the production of an album, and cemented us as an ‘act’ as such. The second is the Elkins Blues Week; a workshop-style festival as part of the Augusta Heritage Centre of Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia. I taught ‘bottleneck’ slide guitar in 1996 and again in 1998. This was a fabulous experience in itself, and enriching in the after-hours jam sessions that occurred throughout the week(s).”
Over the years Dom has formed several duo and band combinations; the Backsliders, Dom Turner and Supro, Phil Wiggins and Dom Turner and Dom Turner and Ian Collard. These showcase the different styles he embraces through the musicians who have influenced him, as well as providing a platform for his own original song writing. Some of these compositions would be termed ‘urban’ blues, as Dom lives in an inner city suburb of Sydney, and this provides a wealth of visual fodder for his creative song writing skills.
‘Backsliders’ is primarily original material, however drawing strongly from ‘Hill-Country’ music traditions, and this is evident in the fact that there is guitar, harmonica and drums, but no standard bass guitar as such. If I had to name one key influence that has had the strongest effect on the overall musical philosophy of the band, it would be the guitar/harmonica duo of Mississippi Fred McDowell and Johnny Woods; in particular their work recorded by George Mitchell in 1967 – originally released on vinyl and recently re-released by Fat Possum records as a CD, ‘Mama Says I’m Crazy’.
‘Dom Turner and Supro’ draws from a variety of music forms, including blues, dub, funk and Tex-Mex. It is an all-electric band, with a more ‘regular’ format in that it includes bass guitar. The aim is to challenge audiences by including sampled sounds within the blues/dub/funk/Tex-Mex format, generally to link the past to the present through use of sounds and voices from the past. What we refer to as ‘voices of the dead’.
‘Phil Wiggins & Dom Turner’ is a Trans-Pacific project primarily traditional Piedmont, Delta and Hill Country blues duo, playing original songs as well as versions of songs by early masters.
‘Dom Turner and Ian Collard’: a guitar/harmonica duo focussing on the work of Fred MacDowell and Johnny Woods (among other blues greats).
When asking Dom about memorable tours within Australia he said: “There are too many to mention. However, the tours with John Cephas and Phil Wiggins in the late 1980’s and the 1990’s were wonderful, both educationally and collegially.”
For the guitar players out there I asked Dom about the many instruments he uses, particularly with the Backsliders:
“I play a number of stringed instruments live and on recordings with Backsliders, primarily 6 and 12 string guitars, both acoustic and electric. Resonator guitars, mandolin and a Vietnamese ‘Dan Thu’. The 6 and 12 string acoustics are all made by a local Sydney luthier, Gerard Gilet, and my main resonator guitar for the past 16 years has been a Beeton resonator, built by local luthier Greg Beeton. In live mode I generally travel with a mid 1960’s Teisco TG-64 electric guitar and the Beeton resonator guitar, both equipped with Hipshot Trilogy tailpieces, allowing me to switch between various guitar tunings. In recent years I’ve replaced the ‘Dan Thu’ in live performances with an electric Mandola that has the same scale length and is tuned closer to a ‘Dan Thu’ than a Mandola.”
Discography:
Backsliders: www.backsliders.com.au/discography
Dom Turner and Supro: ‘Electro-Vee’ 2000
Dom Turner and Ian Collard: ‘Mama Says We’re Crazy Too’ 2012
Kim Sinh and Dom Turner: ‘Two Days in Hanoi’ 2012
Phil Wiggins and Dom Turner: ‘Owing the Devil a Day’s Work’ 2014
