Extra blues

US musician Kent DuChaine is helping to put Blues At The Bay events at the Cleveland Bay in Eaglescliffe on the map with an appearance on Wednesday, October 5. DuChaine started in music when his father taught him to play the ukulele at the age of six.

At 13 he got his first electric guitar and formed a band with his buddies in his hometown of Wayzata, Minnesota, Hearing a Robert Johnson album, he was astounded and fascinated by the banging sound as the bottle neck knocked against the frets when Johnson slid it up and down the neck of his guitar.

DuChaine used a butter knife at first, determined to recapture the wonderful sound.

He immersed himself in the blues music of Johnson, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins, TBone Walker and Bukka White and never looked back.

The performer learned to play the slide guitar and soon developed his own ferocious wild style.

In 1970 he opened a show for one his heroes, the slide guitar genius, Bukka White.

From 1972-1975 Duchaine performed in a band with Kim Wilson from the present-day Fabulous Thunderbirds. The band backed blues greats such as Fenton Robinson, Boogie Woogie Red, Luther Tucker, Hubert Sumlin and Eddie Burns.

The reputation of the band grew and Willie Dixon arranged a recording contract plus a concert sharing the bill with Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf and Margie Evens. In 1979 DuChaine met up with his beloved and ever faithful Leadbessie. She’s a beat-up 1934 National Steel Guitar that wows and astounds audiences when the equally beat-up case she travels in is opened.

The guitarist linked up with Johnny Shines in 1989 and over three years they performed more than 200 shows together.

The pair recorded Back To the Country with harmonica great Snooky Pryor and were honoured with the coveted WC Handy Award for best country blues album. Shines died in April, 1992.

Since hitting the road, DuChaine and Leadbessie have probably clocked up over two million miles together, including at least 80 overseas tours.

The musician confesses there has also been a (small) handful of wives picked up and lost along the way and many stories gained of friendships, loves, heartaches and the blues that he communicates to his audiences. Most of his stories leave folk laughing or scratching their heads in disbelief.

DuChaine also speaks of the history of the blues music, the great men who developed it, and his incredible involvement with some of theme.

Songs such as Shake Your Money Maker and Jitterbug Swing have folk up dancing, while DuChaine’s versions of Trouble In Mind and St James Infirmary have been known to bring tears to many eyes.

The Sunday Times colour supplement has named him as one of the best five concerts in the UK. (in any music genre). Duchaine has dedicated fans all over the world who have bought his seven albums and one live DVD. The mix here includes his own ingenious compositions as well as songs that he loves and keeps alive that those wonderful, old blues guys produced.

• All Blues At The Bay nights are free

ADRIAN Edmondson’s celebrated folk-punk outfit, The Bad Shepherds are set to hit the road again this autumn. Their extensive 21- date, The First Farewell tour, offering the unique blend of “Punk songs with a Celtic feel” reaches The Sage Gateshead on November 19.

The Bad Shepherds will be taking an extended sabbatical throughout 2012. But with no firm plans in place for future tours these gigs are the first chance to say farewell.

Conceptually born out of Edmondson’s accidental (drunken) mandolin purchase and a subsequent backstage jam at a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band gig, the idea came to fruition when he convinced two of the most talented folk performers on the circuit (virtuoso uilleann pipes player Troy Donockley and twice all-Ireland Fiddle Champion Andy Dinan) to join him in and form a band.

The Bad Shepherds have released two albums; Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Metheral and last year’s By Hook Or By Crook. They were nominated for Best Live Act at the 2010 BBC Radio Folk Awards (where they also performed).

• Saturday, November 19, Gateshead The Sage.

Box Office: 0191-443-4661

THE Earthbeat Theatre Company, which is one of the most prestigious learning disabled theatre companies in the country, will be returning to Middlesbrough Theatre on September 27.

The show, Let There Be Swing, is set in a Las Vegas nightclub in the Fifties and the song list includes Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Summertime, Sway, Unforgettable and the exhilarating Zoot Suit Riot.

Director, Jan Towers says: “We’ve put a lot of shows together over the years. but this is one of our best.”

• Let There Be Swing starts at 7pm. Tickets: £7 (£5 concessions). Box Office: 01642-815181