(Modern Electric / Australian Blues) The Backsliders - Starvation Box - 2011, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Sydney’s Backsliders - founding member and guitarist/ vocalist Dom Turner and ‘new’ drummer/percussionist Rob Hirst (of Midnight Oil fame: he’s been a Backsliders for only 10 of the band’s 25 year existence) return after a long absence with their new album.

Recorded in another former Midnight Oil member Jim Moginie’s studio, Starvation Box is an affectionate nod the band’s past heroes containing five covers of past greats including Lead Belly, Robert Johnson and blues mandolin elder statesman and another key Backsliders influence, Yank Rachell.

The album title is based on the story that Lead Belly’s father used to call his son’s guitar a starvation box, “coz you ain’t gonna make no money outta that thing!” On the album and on the band’s forthcoming run of concerts, they’ll be alternately joined by two of Australia’s supreme harmonica players; the legendary Broderick Smith (Dingoes, Brod Smith’s Big Combo) and ARIA award-winning harmonica guru Ian Collard (Collard, Greens & Gravy).

---

---

The silver foxes from acoustic blues band, The Backsliders are celebrating their silver anniversary. Over 25 years the group have developed their trademark, delta-blues wall of sound; won numerous awards; and offered the soundtracks to “Sea Change” and Tim Winton’s “Dirt Music”. They have even been dubbed the “Best acoustic blues band” by one Doug Mulray and with the power and volume at play on their material it’s easy to understand why.

Starvation Box is the latest album by Dom Turner and Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil). It was named so because blues legend, Lead Belly’s father called the guitar this very thing because quote: “You ain’t gonna make money outta that!” But as we all know, it ain’t always about the dollars, often it’s about the music pure and simple. On Starvation Box The Backsliders doth their caps to the past heroes of the genre including the aforementioned plus the infamous Robert Johnson with a series of affectionate covers and tracks inspired by the legends.

The eleven tracks clock in at 41 minutes and sound like they’re being made by some hungry youths from the Deep South with empty bellies save for the fires burning bright inside of them. The music is the kind of thing that Keith Richards would love as it conjures up a time long before his band were singing about a “Little Red Rooster” and The Beatles hadn’t yet said “She Loves You”. It’s all about rolling under a blue moon, meeting Maggie May and Susie Q at the crossroads where they get raunchy and put a spell on you.

Turner is known for his bottle-neck, slide guitar playing, executing this well on both six and 12 strings because from the opening, “Emmett Til” through to “Failed Preacher” it is heard in some form or another. Added to this is some dynamic harmonica playing and you’ve got something that should be cranked up loud on vinyl or on a battered, old car radio for a road trip.

“Flannelette Border” may have preceded the flanny-wearing members of camp grunge but musically it shares a few things in common with the proud wearer and Godfather of the genre, Messer Neil Young. Although less gritty than Young’s work, the message is loud and clear- that the media can be absolute scum taking pleasure in other people’s pain, chasing ambulances and door-stopping poor, grieving families.

“Angels Lie” sees some brass combined with a sea shanty and shuffle. “Preaching Blues” is a Robert Johnson cover featuring some of the album’s best guitar-playing. It’s the kind of thing that John Butler wished he’d written even though he hasn’t. Then again, one might argue that you’d have to make a pact with the devil to write something as good as that. Oh wait…

The Backsliders’ Starvation Box offers 11 blues acoustic tracks pure and simple. At times the blues and melancholy-soaked music can get a little repetitive but at its best it is hypnotically so. These two old masters prove they can recapture the young man blues and it is something that certainly can’t be faked. This record proves you have to be hungry like a howlin’ wolf to make the old starvation box sing.

---

---

THE BACKSLIDERS

With Special Guest SUZANNAH ESPIE The new Backsliders album, STARVATION BOX, released August 2011, is arguably their best yet.

Celebrating 25 years in the music industry, Iconic Australian blues group - Backsliders - are leaders and virtual pioneers in their own genre - ‘delta-blues wall of sound’. As a three piece, they can lift the roof off any venue – moving from straight ahead, in your face, ‘amped up’ original blues - ‘Blues ’not ‘Roots’ that is – to ‘all-acoustic’ unplugged ‘way down south’ delta blues. Multi-media celebrity, Doug Mulray describes them as ‘the best acoustic blues band in the country’. Guitarist/ vocalist, founding member and key songwriter for the band, Dom Turner specialises in "bottle-neck" slide guitar using resonator, as well as 6 & 12 string guitars. Dom’s influences are many and varied – a blend of delta blues, piedmont blues, rock, dub and sounds of Asia. He is a highly regarded speaker on blues and roots music and has guested on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) radio programs and presented music workshops at festivals and in universities (both nationally and internationally). As well as playing in the Backsliders, Dom has toured as a solo artist in the USA, playing Augusta Blues week in West Virginia in 1996 and 1998, and in early 2006, he toured Mexico with US blues greats, Del Ray and Steve James. In 2004 Dom was voted Songwriter of the Year’ at the Australian Blues Awards in Goulburn, NSW and has a sculpture in recognition of this honour at the Goulburn Visitors Centre. Drum and percussion virtuoso Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil, Ghostwriters, Hirst & Greene, Angry Tradesmen), an acclaimed name synonymous with the best of Australian music, has been with backsliders since 2000. Midnight Oil’s notoriety needs no explanation, and Rob’s talents have melded perfectly into the band. Rob Hirst is a founding member of Midnight Oil. He was the drummer, songwriter, and backing singer for 25 years. In 2003 he published his first work of prose on Pan McMillan – ‘Willies Bar & Grill’ which is the story of Midnight Oil’s USA & Canadian tour just after September 11. Joining Dom and Rob are two of Australia’s most innovative and dynamic harmonica players; the legendary Brod Smith (Dingoes, Brod Smith’s Big Combo) and ARIA award winning harmonica genius Ian Collard (Collard, Greens & Gravy). The 2 blues-harp dynamos play alternate gigs, each blazing his own trail to the raw energy of the Backsliders sound. It’s a furious ride – with Dom Turner and Rob Hirst doing their thing, setting the grooves and taking no prisoners, and Ian and Brod (you never know who you will get) firing-up the amps to fuel the maelstrom. The achievements, success and reviews over the band’s 20 years tell it all. The new Backsliders album, Starvation Box, released via Fuse Records August 2011, is arguably their best yet. Recorded in another former Midnight Oil member Jim Moginie’s studio, Oceanic Studios on Sydney’s northern beaches, Starvation Box is an affectionate nod the band’s past heroes containing five covers of past greats including Lead Belly, Robert Johnson and blues mandolin elder statesman and another key Backsliders influence, Yank Rachell. Many of the album’s original tracks follow the theme of paying tribute to musical heroes: “Failed Preacher Blues” is about the ‘Father of the Delta Blues’ Charlie Patton, for example, and “Bowie County” also mentions Lead Belly and the famous jail where he served time and escaped under an alias ‘Walter Boyd’ The 2009 mini-album ‘Throwbacks’ shows Backsliders paying tribute to a number of many of the now legendary 1960’s rock bands who started out recording versions of American blues. With ‘Throwbacks’ they took 5 classic original songs from The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who and Bob Dylan and given them the Backsliders down-home, swampy blues treatment. The 2007 ‘Left Field Holler’ is an eclectic mix of hard hitting, frenetic new blues anthems mixed with poignant ballads again taking the band to new limits. The 2005 ‘Live’ album is a collection of live performances from the Basement in Sydney, as well as the Melbourne blues festival. The 2003 DVD, ‘Live at the Basement’ features live footage from one of Backsliders many gigs at The Basement in Sydney. The concert featured tracks from Backsliders’ 8th and latest album, ‘Hanoi’. Described as a new direction for a band that welcomes evolution and seems to expand their audience with every new release, ‘Hanoi’ was voted ‘Rhythms’ Magazine Readers Poll Blues Album of the Year for 2002 and was a 2002 finalist at the prestigious Australian Record Industry Awards (ARIA). ‘Hanoi’ is a studio album of mostly original songs by Dom Turner and Rob Hirst. The band’s previous album, ‘Poverty Deluxe’ (1999), was a 1999 ARIA Finalist. A variety of tunes from the Backsliders’ back-catalogue of recordings has featured in the ABC TV programme 'Seachange’, as well as the soundtrack to the latest read by Tim Winton, ‘Dirt Music’ in particular ‘Down by the Riverbed’ from the Backsliders’ ‘Wide Open’ (1995) album. Backsliders have also appeared on a number of compilation albums featuring renowned international and Australian artists including the Byron Bay International Blues and Roots Festival and Live at the Basement Sydney, compilation albums. Backsliders have made numerous television appearances in Australia and are regular headliners at major Australian festivals – most recently the Melbourne International Music & Blues Festival (alongside Bob Dylan, Ray Charles & Tony Joe White). The band has headlined at various festivals over the years, having played the Festivals of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide and are regular favourites at the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival (at which the band has featured 13 years). The band has played with international touring acts such as Peter Green, Junior Wells, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, John Mooney, Rory Block, Roy Bookbinder, Guy Clarke, Cephas and Wiggins, Leo Kottke, Charlie Musselwhite, Christina Olsen, John Prine, Del Ray, Steve James and toured nationally with blues legend, John Hammond. In 1999, the band travelled to New Zealand as part of the Womad Festival.2005 sees the band back at the Festival of Sydney Jazz in the Domain and Jazz in Parramatta Park concerts as well as the Melbourne International Blues and Music Festival

---

---