I called this site, “mydeltabluesmusic.com” but this does not confine it, nor do I play exclusively Delta Blues, it just seemed a good idea at the time and the name was, amazingly available. Delta blues, Texas blues, Slow blues, Risque blues, Jump blues, Ragtime blues, all have a place here with the exception of Heavy Loud Rock Blues, this does not have a place here, so if that is what you are looking for………..

Blues music has had a fascination for me as long as I can remember, in fact my earliest recollection was of my father calling me to listen to a blues artist on BBC tele. The rhythm was solid, basic, primitive even, this has to be the father of all music, if man began in Africa, then so did music. Josh White was the man on the tele. I don’t want to say how long ago this was, but it was a @#*+&% * long time, and you could not go to a shop (store) and buy this stuff, so it was maybe a couple of years later that I acquired a recording of Big Bill Broonzy, that was it……….

When I was eighteen or nineteen I helped form a “group” in my hometown of Liverpool, we played mostly rhythm and blues standards, Muddy Water’s Hoochie Coochie Man, Jimmy Reed’s Shame Shame Shame, John Lee Hooker etc…..badly. I moved on and joined an already established group the “Defiants” they already had a fan club, it was great, although individually as musicians we were adequate at best, we gelled really well and produced a solid tight sound. I loved playing in that group and not a gig went by when I didn’t stand on stage and think back to myself as a kid playing air guitar (or my brother’s tennis racquet), now here I was doing it for real, it was magic. We later changed our name to “This End”… very trendy…

Then the realities of life hit me……I had to get a proper job………..

Thousands of years and a multitude of life changing events later I moved to Chiangmai in northern Thailand, and once again picked up the guitar, going back to the roots of blues music, playing Robert Johnson, Mance Lipscome, Blind Blake, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson etc. playing this stuff is wonderful, of course as a white boy from a middle class English background I can’t really do it justice, although I have had my share of the blues over the years (actually…more than my fair share)

I started writing, simple stuff, and was helped by my friend Scott Jones an accomplished pianist and guitarist with three Cd’s under his belt, also by Aey a Thai recording artist, great guitarist and fabulous voice, he helped by storming off in a bad temper whenever my timing went astray, but he is such an amazing musician that I hung on in, Scott by comparison and my eternal gratitude had loads of patience with me and helped out whenever he could.

Dave Toussaint. Dave wandered into “Hug” bar where I played and just blew me away with his incredible harmonica playing, we teamed up and it was amazing, he is so good, so talented. We later formed “Chiangmai Blues Club” with the multi-talented Steve Brooks on lead guitar, slide guitar, mandolin and 2nd. Harmonica, he also has a great voice and plays the drums………..Tim Davies played Bass, but he also plays guitar, banjo, violin, and piano……(who are these people ???) Chiangmai Blues Club split up.

Dave Toussaint returned to dear old Blighty (England) and I had to go it alone. Boy !! was I nervous ?? I felt confident enough until I sat on that little stool, on that big stage, under that bright light and my bottle (nerves) would go…..my legs would start twitching up and down, words would disappear and my fingers would jam together like the keys of those old typewriters when you got out of sync. I am OK now but I do prefer the safety and the camaraderie of numbers.

So this brings us up to date, Dave Toussaint comes back next month (May 2008) Tim and I have already started to play together, Brooksy is off in France somewhere making a fortune.

I will continue to try and do justice to the music of the old Delta Blues guys, but I am also going to get my rocks off on some old Jump Blues “Big Joe Turner” etc. and Boogie woogie and some Jazzy ( I use the word loosely) blues. So ! join me in my site and listen to some of these guys play.