Seasick Steve - Dog House Music

Here are a couple of album reviews that were printed in Drum Media:SEASICK STEVE
Dog House Music
Bronzerat/Inertia

If American troubadour Steve Wold, better known as Seasick Steve, looks like the kind of old hobo that sits busking outside the local train station it’s because that’s exactly who he is. Kicked out of home at the tender age of 13, this colourful character has spent more than his fair share of time over the past half a century sleeping on the streets or in various county jails. If anyone is qualified to sing the blues, it’s him.

His second album of droll, earthy blues, Dog House Music, sounds like it belongs in the Deep South sometime during the early half of last century, yet it still has recognisable reference points. For instance, as Fallen Off a Rock crescendos, Wold plays slide guitar like Jack White’s cool Dad. On Dog House Boogie he barks like Tom Waits and, not unlike Johnny Cash in his later recordings, his cracked yet warm vocal is that of a man who has really lived a life.

In a time when all music seems so contrived, it is refreshing that someone can create such raw beauty on an album that was recorded in mono in a kitchen in Norway on a shitty three-string guitar. Indeed, the intensely personal Dog House Music is such a compelling listen that it is little wonder Seasick Steve recently won the Mojo Best Breakthrough Act award. Not bad for a bloke in his sixties who used to literally have to sing for his supper.