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Pete Feenstra chatted to Paddy Wells (Dust Radio) for Get Ready to ROCK! Radio. First broadcast 3 September 2023.
Bandcamp [Release date 23.06.23]
Dust Radio is essentially the duo of Paddy Wells (vocal, blues harp and lyrics) and Tom Jackson (guitars/vocals) with occasional full band support from Stu Baggaley (bass) and Stevie Oakes (drums).
‘Problem & Remedy’ consistently serves the song with subtle dynamics that leave plenty of space. They let a lyric breath via delicate tones, undulating melodies and enveloping grooves, while reshaping their own brand of noir filled down-home blues and Americana.
And in Paddy Wells they have a harp playing lyricist with the technique and feel to bend his notes and fully realise melodic possibilities.
They have been described as “raw and rootsy blues” and like Moreland & Arbuckle before them, they focus primarily on story telling narratives. However, unlike the latter they never stray too far from interwoven musical patterns that eschew relentless boogie or heavy riff led bluster.
Their use of eclectic wordplays and phrases, steely riffs and deep grooves operates in the same way a painter might apply different pressures to their brush strokes in creating their art.
Paddy Wells lyrics, though apparently routed in a cinematic Deep-South, are a sideways step away from an urban poet, while his melodic country blues and occasional train-time harp is the perfect foil for Jackson’s intricate rhythm parts and assertive solos.
The significant narratives feature noirish characters, which in the case of the superbly written ‘Problem & Remedy’ applies a circular logic, reflected in the album’s snake oil salesmen art work.
The song could equally be interpreted as the work of a preacher fulfilling his mission of problem solving role in the old West. Either way, it’s a great example of how the duo brings something fresh and new to the blues genre.
Every element of Dust Radio’s music contributes to a full musical journey. The album is anchored by the sparkling acoustic jingle-jangle and harp of the beautifully crafted 1 minute 41 second instrumental ‘The Canyon’.
And if ‘The Canyon’ is a snap shot of an imagined filmic style landscape worthy of the song title, then the full band work out of ‘Face Don’t Fit’ subtly explores the possibilities the duo have so far given themselves.
‘Gallows Pole’ is curiously mixed back a little and doesn’t quite have the immediacy of its predecessors though the punchy guitar line and slide runs contributes to a brooding tension, which is resolved at the 2.20 mark by Wells’s warm harp line.
Dust Radio’s real oeuvre lies in the colourful tales brought to life by aching harp parts, spirited guitar lines and funky grooves. In the case of ‘South Of Nowhere’, the mix of funky guitar picking into slide playing and a train-time harp gives the track its sinewy feel, complete with a slightly exaggerated outro.
They open with ‘By Way Of Fat Sam’, which fills a mellifluous groove with a stuttering harp break, some subtle instrumental interplay and slightly doctored vocals. The song is also given an unexpected push by a ‘call and response’ vocal and a final harp flurry. The almost hesitant outro is a nod to the live in the studio vibe.
On the afore mentioned eclectic ‘Problem and Remedy’ they deliver the hook early and set about impressively building the verse narratives in the slip stream while letting the lyrics do the work: “I’ll steal all the silver from your lovers eyes and take it down Mexico way.”
They also make a good fist of ‘Dr. John’s ‘I Walk On Gilded Splinters’, with the original perfect gumbo given an extra lift by Jackson’s razor edge guitar solo.
In sum, the 8 track album feels like a linear musical journey on which each song reveals more musically and lyrically. The feeling of total absorption and being ‘out of time’ gives the album an essential flow which irresistibly pulls us into the extended closing slow blues ‘No More Trouble.’
It opens with an almost mournful sounding harp, as Wells finds his “extra” voice” to explore the parameters of the feel, mood and direction of a slow dirgy blues that defines the band deeply wrought style: “I got no more trouble’ from you, done all the bad days that I’m gonna do. And if I never make it back home no more, may the long night’s hell be through.”
Wells also pens evocative lines such as: “That ring slipped from you finger too many times, ‘til I finally gone and lost my way.”
Every vocal inflection, nuanced tone and each deliberated shuffled beat maps out a contemporary blues classic with a timeless feel. It’s almost as if everything that has gone before was part of a musical mosaic which reveals itself on the closing track.
There’s also a rare balance of (lyrical) anger and (musical) restraint, represented by Wells’s sumptuous harp tone and Tom’s cutting edge guitar. The latter punctuates the groove as if offering us an escape route from the melancholy of the narrator.
The slow build rises like a tidal wave you never saw coming and sweeps you up in its undertow, countered by a country blues inflected harp which suggests a reflective sense of calm, emphasizing the song title’s finality.
Wells’s final extended note into the fade is the perfect finish to an open-ended song that never has to rely on a big cliché crescendo.
‘Problem & Remedy’ is a very impressive debut album. Much like the way they build their songs Dust Radio have taken their time to forge their own style. They started with an EP and then on this album comprising 7 narrative driven songs and an instrumental, they have settled on an exhilarating broad based musical style that is something all of their own. ****
Review by Pete Feenstra
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Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
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UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 2 April 2024.
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