Rakaia River

That’s the soulful sound of Darren Watson, a resonator, a valve mike and a truckload of talent turning up the heat!

Last year I had the lucky chance to interview Darren Watson when I was writing for the Jamarama Guitar Blog and this year I was lucky enough to see Darren just recently cooking up some great blues tunes at the Ruby Lounge in Wellington whilst enjoying some fine, fine ales amongst the company of like minded blues rock afficionados.

What particularly caught my attention was Darren’s band. They were tighter than two coats of paint, never overplayed and the bass man was definitely off the hook – as fluid as a lavalamp in zero gravity.

Darren also cooked up some serious glass finger bottleneck on the stratocaster that really had the place buzzing. Every now and then the band segued into classic guitar motifs, such as Jimi Hendrix‘ melody hook from Third Stone From the Sun; and, I was pleased to see Darren bashing the ole guitar with his fist every now and then to generate some feedback. Something we can ALL relate to. It was a versatile set and a great show with plenty of varied pace and Darren’s range, tone and fidelity are something else – not only that Darren Watson is a great guy so go to his show – say “hello”, and  check out his records at www.darrenwatson.com.

Here is the interview from  last year and what will impress upon you immediately is Darren’s no-nonsense, down to earth unpretentious approach to the guitar, the blues and life in general; it’s a guitar lesson in itself!

Today I`m going to spend ten minutes with highly accomplished south pacific blues master Darren Watson. You may not have heard of Darren but in a career spanning three decades Darren has worked on the bill with such blues luminaries and giants as Robert Cray, Koko Taylor, George Thorogood, Billy Boy Arnold, Doug MacLeod, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dr. John and Keb Mo . . certainly no bunch of blues slackers by anybodies stretch of the imagination and a real testament to Darren’s skills as a musician.

To those who remember New Zealand music back in the day, in the ’80s, or those who have even a passing interest in blues, the name Darren Watson will always bring on a smile. As the founder and leader of Wellington powerhouse band Chicago Smoke Shop, Darren enjoyed a 6 year stint in the public eye with chart singles like Mind On My Sleeve and I Can’t Live Without Your Love.

He has been nominated a colossal six times for New Zealand Music Awards for a body of recorded work that includes two Top 40 albums and singles and three critically acclaimed solo albums including 2002’s Tui Award nominated ‘King Size’, and 2005’s stunning and genre breaking ‘South Pacific Soul’.

Darren is the real deal when it comes to blues guitar. I’ve been listening to guitar myself for 30 years and Darren has style, taste, timing, technique and tone…and just what the hell else is there?

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QUESTION 1.

Jake:

Hi Darren, kia ora, How`s it going man, and how`s the weather up there, blue enough for you ?

Darren :

Heh heh… not today, bro`! It’s nine degrees and raining! Wellington in springtime.. heh heh

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QUESTION 2.

Jake:

Darren, our readers are more often than not beginner guitarists so I`d like to start by asking how, when and where you first became seriously involved in the guitar – was there anyone in particular that helped steer you in the right direction?

Darren:

I grew up in the era just after The Beatles broke up so their shadow loomed large in my life. That, and my cousin was guitarist in a pretty popular band in NZ in the 60s – the Librettos – so I got to hear a fair bit about how cool rock n’ roll was. I played some drums, piano and trumpet before I actually thought I had settled on bass. My first couple of years playing was on bass . . a regular rightie Macca heh heh…. in my DREAMS!
But, yeah then I stopped playing in covers bands at about 17 and started taking guitar seriously instead. About the same time I discovered blues for myself.

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QUESTION 3.

Jake:

And, did you start out with a high-end guitar like a gibson 335, or like most of us, begin playing on a rotten old plank from Walmart? (myself – I had an old plank but I had to take a ferry from the fretboard to the strings the action was so damn high!)

Darren:

LOL…. No way man. My first six-string was a nasty Carlos Les Paul copy. The neck warped within a couple of weeks. Grin* A total P.O.S..
I didn’t have my first real Strat` until we had a record in the charts when I was twenty-two!

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QUESTION 4.

Jake:

Okay. So, do you have any advice for those who are struggling to get to grips with the instrument? Can you remember your early days, and which artists really inspired you back then?

Darren:

I am really lucky in that music has always come really easy to me. I feel like I have always understood how it works, even before I had NAMES for things. Getting to grips with the guitar was all about mechanics for me – and I think it is for a lot of people – you know, finding a technique that works for them. I don’t buy this idea that there is only one ‘right’ way to play.

As for inspiration on guitar, I was hugely inspired by the ‘lefty-upside-down’ players like Albert King, and Otis Rush. Also really got into guys using different techniques and tunings – like Albert Collins and Skip James. You can’t go past early BB King either. I mean his 1950s stuff is almost without peer vocally and for the guitar stuff. I also like Robert Cray and early Jimmy Vaughan with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. I reckon Cray is the most important guy in blues today – he’s actually got his own voice. Too many Stevie Ray Vaughan clones out their, may he rest in peace one day…..

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QUESTION 5.

Jake:

Well Darren I`ve got to say I agree with you there. And why is the blues a great place to start when approaching the guitar? is it because there are a range of styles and forms from the simple to the highly complex that  allow players such a depth of expression ?

Darren:

I think it’s because to make it sound good you really have to get to grips with rhythm and your sound. There’s nowhere to hide melodically or harmonically. If you just wail away playing scales you are guaranteed to sound shit in my opinion. It forces you to be inventive with time.

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QUESTION 6.

Jake:

That`s a smart smart answer people! Right Darren; you`ve got a killer guitar tone – what`s the deal with your guitars and amps, have you got any particular amps and guitar combinations that you prefer for electric blues playing?

Darren:

Thanks man. I have really concentrated on this for most of my life. I used to think it was about gear but the older I get the more I realize it’s mostly in the hands. You can line up 30 people playing through the same gear and they’re all gonna sound completely different. Having said that, great gear helps plenty. At the moment I’m mostly playing a Fender ’59 ThinSkin Strat through a Headstrong Lil King-S. It’s like a souped-up blackface Princeton, LOL,  but not as souped up as  a MK1 Boogie! I run a HBE compressor and a MXR CAE clean boost into the amp and that’s it as far as effects go. The comp for slide and the boost for… um, well  boosting. Grin*

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QUESTION 7.

Jake:

Awesome Darren, just awesome. I just love the MK1 Boogies; but they`re definitely supercharged amp’s. The MXR CAE clean boost sounds great – and unusual; I’ve never heard of one before. Cool man.

For those out there just beginning to become familiar with the language of the blues are there any fundamental scales that you tend to use ?

Darren:

I’m a big believer in playing the changes and not getting too hung up on scales. Most of my favorite blues players aren’t big on the minor pentatonics like a lot of blues/rock players tend to be. I get modal from time to time but I really don’t think about it too much. I teach people how to use their ears and play the changes first. Too many people I hear playing in music shops and (God forbid!?!) sometimes on stage sound like they’re running exercises as solos. Rambling and phrase-less. I actually think we can all learn from singers and wind instruments. BREATHE in between those phrases, baby! Heh heh Make the notes count. Soloing is basically composition on the fly – so let’s have some hooks. I would rather play a fat groove than solo anyway.

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QUESTION 8.

Jake:

(smiles) Yeah Darren; I`m with you on that one it’s saxophonists for me!
So, when it comes to playing acoustic fingerstyle blues what do you look for in your guitar sound – I see you`re using a `58 Gibson LG-2 – could you also tell me what’s so special about this instrument and how it informs your playing?

Darren:

Oh man, that guitar is a total babe! I’m so lucky I found her. It’s the first small box I have found that lets me really dig in and doesn’t choke.  You can also play whisper quiet and the tops are just so silky sounding….. I’m in love with that guitar, man. It cuts without ever sounding nasty and there’s not a hint of nasty boxiness. But it’s also not a boomy strum box like the D28 etc. They’re o.k. for some stuff but for what I do a small box is perfect and this is about the best example I’ve played.

Jake:

I May have to translate that  for our readers a little Darren!
I think what Darren is saying is that this guitar allows him to really rhythmically groove, like a steam train, without losing any tone or characteristic timbre and clarity at high or low volumes. Here is what it sounds like:

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QUESTION 9.

It would be great Darren if you could pick five inspirational records and maybe give us a short explanation as to why they resonate with you:

Darren:

1. BB King – Live At The Regal

The ultimate blues performance? Probably. BB King at the peak of his powers. 40ish and taking no prisoners. The band swings like a whorehouse and even the audience is amazing.

2. The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Girls Go Wild

This album totally changed my life. Recorded in 1978 but it sounds like it could’ve been made in the 50s. I discovered Jimmie Vaughan and (harmonica great) Kim Wilson through this album. He was channeling all the great old blues players here – and his tone is to DIE for. Unlike Stevie Vaughan who was all about flash and brute strength, Jimmie had sweet touch and a rare economy of phrasing that puts Stevie in his place I reckon. If you haven’t heard this album I suggest you try your darndest to pick up a copy.

3. Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombnes

I was at high school when I saw a clip of Tom on TV. In a world of vapid synth-pop and dumb ass post-punk pop this record really spoke to me that blues, jazz and weirdness could still be grown and merged successfully. I’m a huge fan to this day. Not particularly about guitar this album but then neither am I really – I always reckon music counts above petty things like what it’s played on.

4. Top Of The Stax – Various Artists

Steve Cropper is a big hero of mine as a writer and a session master. He plays on most of the tracks on this Stax records compilation. He never played two notes when one would do – and how about the total genius of reversing the chords for the intro of Midnight Hour to make the riff for Knock On Wood. And getting away with it! Brilliant.

5. Muddy Waters – His Best 1947-55

This guy did more to teach me about TIME and tone than anyone else ever did. This is the best Muddy compilation and avoids a lot of the later crap that Chess Records led him into in search of a hit.

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QUESTION 10.

Jake:

Thanks Darren – these are great great discs and I think your comments about timing will really, really help some of our readers. Finally I noticed in some of your early performances with the big band sound you`re rocking a rather large quiff that gives you the suave yet dangerous appearance of a riverboat gambler – does this help at all – and can it be performed without blues supervision?

Darren:

LOL – yeah well at least I never sported a mullet, bro!     

Jake:

Fantastic !!
Well there you have it everybody , THE WORD from none other than south pacific bluesmaster Darren Watson. Thank you Darren for talking to us and for giving us such an invaluable insight into your approach to guitar and for sharing your time.

Darren is available for one on one lessons if you are in New Zealand’s beautiful harbour city capital of Wellington.

…working fucking hard on sorting through demo tracks recorded hastily under pessure when I wa flying up to the studio alot. It’s time consuming and of course, as everybody knows the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune still fly, and smart so keenly.

Myself right now, well I moved back down south;canned my job – it was sucking the life out of me -  living in an old spare room, next to the washing machine and that’s thanks to the charity of the only real friend I have; with little beyond a bmx bike, some clothes, one laptop, recently collected second hand literature, two mint condition old blues LP`s (muddy waters & ???),  a painting, two vases I don’t need, one stratocaster and one beaten up hofner for slide playing, a collection of rocks, pauau, a dreamcatcher bricolage of  found objects, talismans, feathers, trinkets, rosaries, crosses from as far afield as Barcelona, London, and Waikakahi, Hawea…

One day hopefully I’ll eulogise nostalgically about the good old days when I had nothing…and the washing machine was god.

down at the studio november `08 I cut this guide on the plank:

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We`re using the custom martin guitar to re-record the Rakaia River acoustic guitar tracks and there`s a world of difference. We`re also using Jamesons Irish Whiskey as it gives a warm, mellow tone – this music is made by authentic musicians who play with their boots off and their glasses loaded. Our mix is beginning to sound exceptionally smooth, with complex flavours of toasted wood, spice and sherry, superbly mellowed by time…Elijah Few recommends Jamesons Irish whisky, and, for Scotch The Balvenie and Lagavulin. Now it would be easy to suggest that the mystical otherness of the whiskey has infused our recording with the warmth and oak mellowed manuka tones we`ve been seeking but the fact of the matter is that  now we`re using 8 grands worth of acoustic honey.

So go on down to that big old river and sit on down amongst a million lonely stones. Contemplate your past and your future, where they collide. There isn’t really much worse a man can do than kill another man – destroy his gods, his belief. Truth is you can do it any number of ways – words, lies, deceit – try to break his spirit. It can be damn hard not to give way to your anger if vengeance, revenge or retribution are on your mind. A flood comes suddenly and without warning. The river song: a complex intertwined sequence of real experience, fictional events and the influence, recollected, of a million literary tragedies…of dynasties and histories, rendered unto dust…and washed away…Each river is a beautifully human and poignant book- a condensed history of human experience.

Rakaia River Sneak Preview

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original video version of the Rakaia River Murder song. This version was recorded into a camera whilst living on the floor at a friends house maybe 4 years back?
(I wrote all this song near Rakaia from 2005-2006 and recorded them in 2007).

I`d been out on the road, travelling around, living in a van. Hanging out. It was a metaphysical journey. 6 months re-reading Desolation Angels on the inverse hemisphere.Anyway, I didnt tune up too tight, didnt rehearse at all, placed the lyrics on the floor and hit record on a cheap Canon camera. I separated the audio and the footage later. If I can find it I`ll dig it up and post that too.

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the river became central to my experience…at the end of my time, the mother of pearl crucifix I wore around my neck for a decade had cracked and broken – on my last journey through the gorge cast my crucifix into the waters …When I came back into the countryside the following year,  the river welcomed me in high flood, submerging islands, wreaking havoc. I was inspired by true tales – real lives. sometimes anger and the devil will blind and trick you; choose the way of the gun and a vengeful Miltonic god or cast yourself asunder, through the tides.

SO go on down to that big old river and sit on down amongst a million lonely stones all tired and old muddy coloured its no good driftwood company

There`s a storm rolling in inking up the sky downwind
So she goes down to the edge of the water and fills her pockets with stones
whilst behind heer crippled daughter weeps and moans

Three bells toll in the clock tower warning
the water`s gonna rise by the hour of morning
the moon goes down while the wind blows up some meaner weather
black topped seeds rattle the rakaia river

Theres a storm rolling in inking up the sky downwind
She slowly sinks into the fast flowing water
pulled way down by the weight and the cold
there`s no prayer and no way that we oughta
let anybody know

Meet me where the waters freeze, beside the telegraph trees
And set your crosses free down upon the water
Go call the priest to say a prayer down into the canyon
Her rusty chair hidden by a chapel abandoned

Theres a storm rolling in inking up the sky downwind
Eyes shining like the moon on the stones
Eyes smiling the crippled daughter
As her mother walks home

Theres a storm rolling in inking up the sky downwind
You were warned vengeance in the sky
vengeance in the sky

(c)Jake Edwards 2005
Ive been holding onto these particular pieces of paper for about 4 years from continent to continent.
(I wrote this song near Rakaia and recorded it in 2007).

Well after finding myself back on the killing floor I`ve finally managed to get some time together in between dodging the exploded portions of my life that are falling out of the sky, to post some of our preliminary music work. Here it is, the song took 3 years experientially to write, maybe more; here`s one extremely hot day`s worth of work using the aforementioned plank and the good old stratocaster. Not bad for a days demo work, composition and maybe a quick twenty minutes of mixing and a little e.q.-ing. Shame the acoustic tuning is all over the joint. No matter, Ive got some very very special guitars lined up for the real sessions, this is just the precis.

It`s hard to understand probably exactly how crucial the overall feel is without some insight into the lyrics. I`ll post them soon under the Rakaia River category.

So here`s the compressed MP3 version.

Rakaia River Murder one

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I`m pretty fond of anecdotes, they sound so great; but then again is there any truth in them? Who knows. Most of life is conversation and therefore prone to becoming anecdotal. Some people live off them. Some people live inside them. Some people foolishly become them. Anyway I cant remember who said it; it was either Keith Richards, Jeff Beck or someone similar and Ive paraphrased it and embellished it myself over the years:

“I dont like the idea of my guitar signal floating around in the air man. Otherwise I`d record in space.”

What`s interesting is that during the last Elijah Recording session because of some weird routing anomaly problems my guitar signal took a rather tortuous and circuitous route to tape (hard drive). Here it is:

1. Guitar 2. Into transmitter. 3. Through air. 4. Into 2nd transmitter. 5. Into Sound Devices recorder.

6. Into Pro Tools interface. 7. Into desk & Computer.

I think thats it.

…using a really strange routing into the desk  and thrown away all of yesterdays tracking & hopefully with an intense days work we can get this demo off the ground. It`s 6.44 and we`ve finished tracking all the acoustic and all the lead and rhythm parts on the electric guitar, the stratocaster plus and the plank in one day. Oh and basic drums and some rough bass as well. It`s been intense and very hot. The original title is the RAKAIA RIVER MURDER. While everyone else has been chilling out on the beach in front of the studio we`ve been inside laying down as much creative work as we can, fighting the increasing humidity and working up a sweat. It has definitely been worth it. I havent time to listen to the demo mix because I need to eat something and get on the plane. Here are a few pictures.

Unfortunately we`re all too busy in the recording studio to make time for blog posts, so I apologise for the lack of content herein. Contrary to popular belief Studio time is intense, demanding, unsociable and very hard work requiring high creativity coupled with an unusually high level of productivity. You have to know your stuff, think very fast and turn on your skills like a tap. You need vision, experience, technical capability and imagination, but also need to work within the clients remit. The key is in manipulating your own strengths to fit within the overall vision of the project but it`s no different from any client engagement. `Listen and listen good`, there is no room for ego, only for brilliance. You don`t have to bury your personality beneath a lacklustre, formulaic veneer but flair, discipline, enthusiasm and professionalism are key elements. In a way youve either got it or you ain`t…but you can always improve your chances.