Riding the crest of a wave
Edinburgh's Liquid Rooms was heaving for Seasick Steve's appearance at T on the Fringe, one of many festival gigs in the UK this summer as Steve Wold rides the crest of a popularity wave, despite having been making music for over fifty years.
The bluesman shook hands with as many people at the front of the crowd as he could reach before his one and a half hour performance. The interacting with the audience continued between virtually every song, especially amusing was the way he joked with heckling fans at the back of the venue.
Much of this set drew from 2006 debut solo record 'Dog House Music', with every moment of his mix of traditional blues and the decent side of country rock being lapped up by this enthusiastic crowd. For me though in a set that ran for this long, there wasn't a great deal of variety on show as plenty of his songs sound very similar to each other. He did regularly change the tempo of the songs, allowing for plenty of chances for him to show off his first class guitar playing.
There were a couple of slower moments, one of which was a song he called 'The Death Song' which he said he'd written in hospital. The chorus line of "noone's coming back from the dead" provoked a rare sing-along moment to which Wold responded by saying "man, you're the best choir I've ever had".
His instruments had a makeshift look about them. His guitar strap was a piece of string, and towards the end he played on what he called his "didly bow", this was a plank of wood with one string that was attached via some tin cans and a spoon, that he played with a screw driver.
Seasick Steve appeals to a very broad cross-section of people, making him the perfect act to play at the Edinburgh Festival. He's also set to be at Bestival, as well as reading and Leeds.