WDBB:Rogues & Fools

Rip It Up, Issue 63, 1 October 1982, Page 8

WDBB:Rogues & Fools

Pat Evers

Willy Dayson Blues Band, are about to release their second album, Rogues and Fools, a studio set recorded at Harlequin. To coincide with the release, the band is undertaking a national tour with Chicago bluesman Johnny "Big Moose" Walker. RIU interviewed Willy Dayson (guitarist) and Brian Glamuzina harmonica). What expectations have you for the tour? "Hopefully it will attract a lot of people," says Dayson. "Personally I'm looking forward to playing with a black musician." Glamuzina sees history being made. "This will be the first time that an NZ band has played with a black musician, especially a musician like him. He's heard our tapes so he knows how good ... or bad we are. According to the telexes he's a pretty bubbly, crazy sort of a guy. When he parties, he parties. He's prepared to play two sets of 45 minutes. He will feature in one and we will do the other." Who do you regard as your major blues influences? "Mine tend to be white musicians," says Dayson. "Pete

Haycock of Climax Chicago, Ry Cooder, Tommy Bolin. "I like to play the blues but I derive the blues from other sources than the blues. Blues to me is a feeling just a pure, basic, animal feeling. To be a blues musician you don't necessarily have to be black just as long as you have the inner feeling to play the blues. Glamuzina agrees. "I listen to a lot of guitar players to get harp licks. You've got to search around and listen for sounds. There's no point in listening to Little Walter in say 1956 and then copy it because that's not a feeling. Rather it has to be me, in 1982. Are NZ record buyers hearing the best of the contemporary blues? "No way," says Glamuzina. "They haven't heard any contemporary blues for the last 20 or so years." Who is the best act around? "Albert Collins," says Dayson. "He's got the 80s ah ..." "Sussed," contributes Glamuzina. "Yeah. What can you say about the 80s? It's a pretty rough time. He's got such momentum about his guitar playing."

How relevant is a white man writing blues lyrics in the 80s? Or black musicians writing about being down and out? Dayson: "Maybe they got trapped into the down and out theme. The original players such as Bukka White were really down and out so they wrote about it. Why should 8.8. King write about being down and out when he's not?'-'jdHBMMHBp "I reckon I'm more down and out than he is," quips Glamuzina. Any white blues artists you respect? "Duster Bennet, he had great feeling," says Glamuzina. George’ Thorogood? "Terrible player, poor voice, good dancer," says Dayson. "Got a lot of energy but I wouldn't really consider him to be a good blues player." "He's primitive good bn E," adds Glamuzina. "He's got every variation of E down to a fine art. But he's done nothing new for the blues. Elmore James was an innovator, now he's old hat and George is old hat." '/■ What have you achieved with Rogues and Fools that you didn't achieve with your live debut album? . ; "We got more into debt with this one," Dayson explains. "We had to go into the studio to prove that not only were we a live band but that we could be a studio band. It's a tidier album, better produced. The equipment in the studio had a lot more knobs than the one at the Globe so it must be better." "From a song point of view, it's more varied. Seventy percent of the album is original," adds Glamuzina who writes most of the songs. The title is Rogues and Fools. Why? Glamuzina explains: "My old man had a saying: There are only two people in life, a rogue and a fool. I thought it was a harsh saying but I've seen so much • backstabbing that I believe it." Any "possibility of overseas release? "We're getting Australian release through Festival," says Glamuzina. "Alligator records in Chicago were blown out by how ‘ much we had improved from our first album."