Published on Jun 22, 1999
After four previous albums, you’d think that I would have
discovered Dave Hole by now.
The Australian slide guitarist has made quite a name for himself
along the blues circuit for his style and for his performances
(including his unorthodox over-the-neck attack of his slide
playing). But for some reason, I just didn’t find myself getting
all that worked up about Hole.
Now that I’ve heard his fifth and latest album
Under The Spell, I’m convinced that Hole is an underrated
talent in the blues world with vocals similar to those of John
Mayall. But I’m also resolved in my belief that you can only listen
to so much slide guitar in one sitting.
With a solid backing band – keyboardist Bob Patient, rhythm
guitarist Michael Vdelli, bassist Roy Daniel and drummer Ric
Whittle – Hole could easily pass for one of the products of the
Chicago blues scene. If there is even a trace of his Australian
accent in his singing, I have yet to hear it come to the forefront.
As both a vocalist and slide guitarist, Hole is more than adequate
in both categories.
Aw, who am I kidding? On tracks like “Run With Me,” “Blues Is
The Truth” and “More Love, Less Attitude,” Hole shines like a
diamond in the rough, his smooth vocals easily merging with his
bottleneck slide action. His leads are incredibly clean, something
I still am not used to with slide guitar.
But Hole does show that one can have too much of a good thing,
as he drags “Bird’s Eye Blues” out to the point of being painful.
The song itself has a plodding beat that was a mistake from the
get-go. Fortunately, this is the only bad track on
Under The Spell; the rest of the disc ranges from pleasantly
listenable to dance inspiring.
What is toughest about
Under The Spell is that hearing nothing but slide guitar
leads gets to be a bit tiring to my ears, and my breaking point
came around the track “Lost At Sea” (which was an excellent track
otherwise). Most slide players I’ve heard seem to know when it’s
time to mix regular lead work in place of pure slide action. Maybe
if Hole had provided a little more variety of this sort, the disc
would have been a little easier to get through.
Still,
Under The Spell is a very pleasant disc that is sure to
serve as a wake-up call to people like yours truly that the blues
doesn’t just live in Chicago or the Mississippi Delta. Hole shows
how talented of a musician he is, and could well be one of the most
unheralded guitarists of his time. But the old saying does ring
true: variety is the spice of life. Here’s hoping Hole can throw in
even just a pinch of that spice the next time.