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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
New Dub/Blues Album from Tom Walbank
New Dub/Blues Album from Tom Walbank
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DevonTom
226 posts
Oct 24, 2012
5:49 PM
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http://tomwalbank.bandcamp.com/
My new Studio Album is available on Bandcamp, you can listen to whole songs before purchasing. I would love to hear what my fellow harpers thought.
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isaacullah
2168 posts
Oct 25, 2012
4:51 AM
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I love it, Tom. I'm buying it now. In my opinion, you have captured the essence of what modern blues harmonica is and should be in the 21st century. This is simply great music. Bravo!
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Last Edited by on Oct 25, 2012 4:51 AM
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DevonTom
227 posts
Oct 25, 2012
8:34 AM
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Thankyou for the kind words Isaac , I was hoping you would dig it!
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isaacullah
2174 posts
Oct 28, 2012
8:36 AM
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I'm bumping this one too. Tom's album is great, and I think it deserves some more time hanging out at "the top" of the MBH page... Perhaps the link needs to be html-ified? Well, here it is: http://tomwalbank.bandcamp.com/
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View my videos on YouTube!
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Last Edited by on Oct 28, 2012 8:36 AM
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DevonTom
228 posts
Oct 28, 2012
9:38 AM
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Isaac, your'e a gent.
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DevonTom
229 posts
Nov 05, 2012
6:47 AM
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Thought I would put this back in the mix. I worked really hard on this album and would love to know what people thought.
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kudzurunner
3616 posts
Nov 05, 2012
7:27 PM
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Tom, I'd like to ask about a particular cut. I've been crazed with work these days and don't get a chance to listen to complete albums; I've got Joe Filisko's and Mississippi Heat's (Pierre Laquoque's) new albums in my car and haven't listened to either of them all the way through--and feel guilty about that. But there you are.
So I sampled yours, and the second cut I hit was "Walkin' Desert Blues." The vocals sound eerily like John Lee Hooker. I can't for the life of me tell what Tom Walbank sounds like on this cut, but you've proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can conjure the ghost of Hooker. Was that your intention--to evoke Hooker as a vocal mask that you've donned? To hide behind your version of him? To "do" Hooker? To blend 98% Hooker with 2% Walbank and in doing so to create a new mix? Or to do something entirely different--something I've simply missed here?
The harp playing is terrific. As far as I can tell on a first listening, you're cycling through several harps, and all of them sound great. They're passionate, virtuosic. And they're all in the service of John Lee Hooker--or a version of John Lee Hooker. Those vocals are an extraordinary act of mimicry. I don't believe I've ever heard anybody do it better. You're so far ahead of the next John Lee Hooker copyist that it truly isn't funny. They might as well all quit now. Your guitar playing is a key part of that. You've got Hooker down cold.
Is that what you were trying for on this particular song? I find it distracting. I find myself saying, "Oh, he's doing Hooker. He does Hooker extremely well." But when I listen to blues, I want to hear the person whose name is on the album, not the named star that whose style he's doing. When Keb' Mo' does Robert Johnson, I still hear Keb' Mo'. In some cases, when somebody does the style of another player extremely well, it raises the question for me of what the performer himself actually sounds like when he's simply being himself, simply being whatever persona he's evolved in the course of his blues training.
I'm being unusually honest here because you've posted here and solicited reactions. Every now and then I risk unadulterated honesty when someone insists that they want it.
Last Edited by on Nov 05, 2012 7:26 PM
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DevonTom
230 posts
Nov 05, 2012
9:32 PM
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First off , thank you Adam for giving it a listen, and your question was very generous with your time. The track in question was the only song with vocals on the album. With this album I had decided to do something different with my music. In order to shake up the muse a bit I thought I would assemble an album of songs which combined the Nyahbinghi drums , percussion and production techniques of early seventies Dub, with my first love - blues. So with the Hooker track I wanted to try and evoke John Lee as best I could, not hide behind the imitation, just put my ego aside and give it my best shot, in tribute.
I normally do not sing like Hooker but for example, in Preachin' Blues by Robert Johnson he not only tries Son House's song on for size but also his gravelly delivery. I am not setting a precedent by any means.
In this song I wanted to pay the man as much tribute as I could, so I really tried to take the imitation as seriously as possible. John Lee is one of those guys who if you are imitating him- people know. More so, it was a conscious decision to evoke what John Lee's vocals do for me. There is a live album of mine also on Bandcamp where you can hear what I sound like normally. Thanks again, Tom.
p.s. the first position harp in the track is also a tribute, to Jimmy Reed, who, as you probably know, was one of Hooker's early accompanists.
Last Edited by on Nov 05, 2012 10:56 PM
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Resonator
16 posts
Nov 06, 2012
2:35 PM
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Just downloaded the album Tom. Really enjoying the vibe. Thanks.
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tolga7t
261 posts
Nov 06, 2012
3:02 PM
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wow, this stuff is really amazing. besides this community, I think non-harp-lovers would also enjoy listening to it.
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DevonTom
231 posts
Nov 06, 2012
5:08 PM
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Thanks Resonator and tolga7t !
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kudzurunner
3617 posts
Nov 07, 2012
8:12 AM
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Tom: Thanks for your thorough and gracious explanation. Given that you were trying for an homage, I think it was a phenomenal success.
It was unfair of me, obviously, to dip into an album, sample one tune, and start asking hard questions. Any album deserves to be taken in its entirety. I've made two solo albums in the last several years, and both of them were imperfect labors of love. (The latter album cost three times as much and is selling one-third as well. Go figure.) I look forward to sampling the rest of what you've done. You're a heck of a player and I'm glad to have you sharing your stuff here.
Last Edited by on Nov 07, 2012 8:12 AM
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isaacullah
2183 posts
Nov 07, 2012
10:04 AM
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It's interesting that Adam zoomed right in on "Desert Walking Blues". While I think that it's a great song, IMO, it is NOT representative of the album. Actually, it's the one song that sticks out, for a variety of reasons: it's the only one with vocals, it's the least "dubby" of all the tracks, and it's the most straight ahead blues of all the tracks (but also, IMO, not cliche blues, by any means). If I had to pick one track that is more representational of the whole album, it'd be a toss up between Dub Cubano and Harmonica in Dub. In general, I find the album to be a totally refreshing and new take on the Blues. I've not heard anything quite like it before, and it clearly fits the definition of "Modern Blues Harmonica". More so, perhaps, than anything else I've heard so far, including the harpboxing/looping stuff that I'm into myself. I say this because it keeps more of a Blues identity to it than the harpboxing stuff, but does so without sacrificing that crucial "modern" quality to the sound (which I think Harpboxing absolutely attains as well). What Tom has pulled off here, IMO, is an eloquent marriage of new and old, blues and reggae, familiarity and dissimilarity. What he has built out of that is a new and intriguing sonic form.
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View my videos on YouTube!
Check out my songs on Soundcloud!
Visit my reverb nation page!
Last Edited by on Nov 07, 2012 10:06 AM
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Resonator
17 posts
Nov 08, 2012
4:11 PM
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Just to reiterate, really digging this album.
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