Married to the Blues.
Davey Pattison Blues Band (with Ross Alexander) – DreadnoughtRock, Bathgate
9th June 2023
Davey Pattison Blues Band (with Ross Alexander) – DreadnoughtRock, Bathgate
9th June 2023
It’s a long road from the Bay Area of California to King Street in Bathgate.
Nor can the very changed and hard-sell times (more on which later) since Scotland’s Davey Pattison ventured to California more than four decades ago (after Paisley based, EMI backed band Findo Gask didn’t become the next big thing as predicted) be discounted.
It's an equally decades old road since Davey Pattison co-founded rock band Gamma with the late and legendary Ronnie Montrose; but flash forward past Gamma, later albums with both Robin Trower and Michael Schenker plus a couple of great blues hued solo records, to Pattison’s return to his homeland to showcase his love of soulful rock blues.
Frankly, at 77 years young, having been there (playing to 80,000 at the Oakland Coliseum with Gamma), done that and bought the T-shirt, Davey Pattison could do the literal microphone drop and retire.
But, as stated in recent interview pieces he "tried that and hated it," realising his love of both performance and the blues (the latter self-evident in his Trower years) was never going to let him put his feet up (especially as he is still in very good voice).
Nor does it hurt that Pattison has a fine band around him to (re)establish his blues credentials.
The Davey Pattison Blues Band feature noted guitarist of many a blues band Jim Keilt and/ or six-stringer Ewan Maxwell, multi-styled keys player Mikey Grant and a blues-rock solid rhythm section in the shape of bassist Alan Mcauley and drummer James Nevans.
However at the DreadnoughtRock, following gigs at The Bungalow in Paisley and The Cathouse in Glasgow (the latter supporting Chantel McGregor), Jim Keilt was MIA to allow recovery after a routine op.
It was a slightly unforeseen 11th hour call-off but between them Messrs Maxwell & Grant ably covered Keilt’s parts while delivering their own, respective keyboard fills, solos and blues licks.
Prior to the Davey Pattison Band hitting the stage, local lad Ross Alexander (who also plays in The Killers tribute band Killer Instinct) played a half hour solo spot that allowed him to have some fun with a selection of covers as well as present three originals.
While playing the likes of 'It’s a Kind Of Magic' (vocally assisted by pedal controlled self-harmonising, as were a few other songs), 'Born To Run' and 'Hotel California' is always going to get a crowd onside, all are brave choices for a solo acoustic performance, given the multi-layered sound of the originals, their chord changes and transitions (and there were a couple of acoustic or vocal hiccups, something Alexander was honest enough to admit, accept, and shake off).
They were also, however, songs guaranteed to get a wee crowd sing-a-long (as was the obvious choice of closing with The Killers 'All These Things That I’ve Done'), but for this reviewer & listener the original numbers were of far more interest, ranging as they did from bluesier forms to hookier soul-pop.
Davey Pattison reminded of his blues period past by opening with two numbers from his 1999 solo album Mississippi Nights – the slow, swaying and slightly countrified title track (with a nice scene-setting slide opening from Ewan Maxwell) and the mid-tempo groove of 'Too Hot To Sleep,' which was as blues sultry as the title suggests.
The Allman Brothers 'Midnight Rider' then provided well performed, classic cover contrast before 'Inside Out' nodded to Davey Pattison’s reunion in 2005 with Robin Trower for the Godfather Of Tone's Another Days Blues album (the song, played and arranged up-tempo, featured a couple of nifty solos from Ewan Maxwell and some serious organ play from Mikey Grant).
Grant was also a feature of 'Blues at My Window,' from Pattison’s 2003 solo album Pictures.
Opening with a fun, vaudevillian piano intro the song settled in to its barroom rag blues core before downtempo, Cajun styled ballad 'Pretty One' (another from Mississippi Nights) provided delicate contrast.
Nor can the very changed and hard-sell times (more on which later) since Scotland’s Davey Pattison ventured to California more than four decades ago (after Paisley based, EMI backed band Findo Gask didn’t become the next big thing as predicted) be discounted.
It's an equally decades old road since Davey Pattison co-founded rock band Gamma with the late and legendary Ronnie Montrose; but flash forward past Gamma, later albums with both Robin Trower and Michael Schenker plus a couple of great blues hued solo records, to Pattison’s return to his homeland to showcase his love of soulful rock blues.
Frankly, at 77 years young, having been there (playing to 80,000 at the Oakland Coliseum with Gamma), done that and bought the T-shirt, Davey Pattison could do the literal microphone drop and retire.
But, as stated in recent interview pieces he "tried that and hated it," realising his love of both performance and the blues (the latter self-evident in his Trower years) was never going to let him put his feet up (especially as he is still in very good voice).
Nor does it hurt that Pattison has a fine band around him to (re)establish his blues credentials.
The Davey Pattison Blues Band feature noted guitarist of many a blues band Jim Keilt and/ or six-stringer Ewan Maxwell, multi-styled keys player Mikey Grant and a blues-rock solid rhythm section in the shape of bassist Alan Mcauley and drummer James Nevans.
However at the DreadnoughtRock, following gigs at The Bungalow in Paisley and The Cathouse in Glasgow (the latter supporting Chantel McGregor), Jim Keilt was MIA to allow recovery after a routine op.
It was a slightly unforeseen 11th hour call-off but between them Messrs Maxwell & Grant ably covered Keilt’s parts while delivering their own, respective keyboard fills, solos and blues licks.
Prior to the Davey Pattison Band hitting the stage, local lad Ross Alexander (who also plays in The Killers tribute band Killer Instinct) played a half hour solo spot that allowed him to have some fun with a selection of covers as well as present three originals.
While playing the likes of 'It’s a Kind Of Magic' (vocally assisted by pedal controlled self-harmonising, as were a few other songs), 'Born To Run' and 'Hotel California' is always going to get a crowd onside, all are brave choices for a solo acoustic performance, given the multi-layered sound of the originals, their chord changes and transitions (and there were a couple of acoustic or vocal hiccups, something Alexander was honest enough to admit, accept, and shake off).
They were also, however, songs guaranteed to get a wee crowd sing-a-long (as was the obvious choice of closing with The Killers 'All These Things That I’ve Done'), but for this reviewer & listener the original numbers were of far more interest, ranging as they did from bluesier forms to hookier soul-pop.
Davey Pattison reminded of his blues period past by opening with two numbers from his 1999 solo album Mississippi Nights – the slow, swaying and slightly countrified title track (with a nice scene-setting slide opening from Ewan Maxwell) and the mid-tempo groove of 'Too Hot To Sleep,' which was as blues sultry as the title suggests.
The Allman Brothers 'Midnight Rider' then provided well performed, classic cover contrast before 'Inside Out' nodded to Davey Pattison’s reunion in 2005 with Robin Trower for the Godfather Of Tone's Another Days Blues album (the song, played and arranged up-tempo, featured a couple of nifty solos from Ewan Maxwell and some serious organ play from Mikey Grant).
Grant was also a feature of 'Blues at My Window,' from Pattison’s 2003 solo album Pictures.
Opening with a fun, vaudevillian piano intro the song settled in to its barroom rag blues core before downtempo, Cajun styled ballad 'Pretty One' (another from Mississippi Nights) provided delicate contrast.
A quintet of well-chosen and well-performed covers then followed, allowing for more audience-familiar territory.
Cover highlights included guaranteed crowd sing-a-long pleaser 'Maggie’s Farm,' Randy Newman’s oft-covered 'Guilty' (played in a fairly understated manner, it came over strongly as a true set highlight) and a great slow-groove meets heavy honky-tonk arrangement of 'Tobacco Road,' with Davey Pattison in soulfully impassioned voice.
The Nashville-tinged 'Married to the Blues' (from Pictures) broke up the covers mix up before '(I Got the) Same Old Blues' (a version featuring Pattison and Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis appeared on the 1992 L.A. Blues Authority album) closed out the main set.
Opening with a tasty little solo from Ewan Maxwell the JJ Cale number then blossomed into a purposeful rhythm ‘n’ blues.
Call back number, a slide driven, piano backed take of blues standard 'Rock Me Baby,' brought the show to a close.
The Davey Pattison Blues Band aren’t a good blues based ensemble, they’re a very good blues ensemble, which makes the lack of audience numbers all the more disappointing (for both band and venue).
Even with pre-gig promotion and the return to these shores of Davey Pattison being touted in a number of press circulars, the audience numbers didn’t match that expected – but those who did turn up were attentive and vociferous throughout, with Davey Pattison noting "you’re small, but extremely appreciative!"
The DreadnoughtRock, like just about every other club venue up and down the country, now, more than ever, relies on tribute nights/ tribute bands to move tickets and get punters in – that, in turn, allows for the opportunity to book original bands/ acts, such as the Davey Pattison Blues Band.
Current cost of living concerns also lead to a lot of picking and choosing, usually in favour of what folks know or already have in their personal Playlists or Vinyl/ CD collections (when Ross Alexander returns to the DreadnoughtRock later in the year as part of Killer Instinct it’s almost a given he will play to a far bigger audience).
Whether we applaud, enjoy and support each and every such tribute act or condemn the tribute scene for its stranglehold and stymieing effect on other ticket sales, it is a fact of music club (and even theatre sized) life, with no likelihood of change in the near future; perhaps ever.
If Davey Pattison decided to play a Gamma set (something he has done in the past, Stateside) he would probably have a larger target (classic rock) audience.
But for Davey Pattison, that was then.
In the now, Pattison (and hundreds of other old stagers who still have the chops), just wants the opportunity to play to an audience size he and his bandmates deserve; playing music they enjoy performing, have a love for and truly feel – and the blues most certainly ticks the latter boxes.
It’s no less than one of oor ain deserves.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Graham Milne (all images from The Bungalow, Paisley gig)
Upcoming Davey Pattison Blues Band shows:
27th July - Belladrum Music Festival, Inverness (10pm, Icehouse (jazz/ blues) Stage
29th September - Ivory Blacks, Glasgow
3rd December - Backstage at the Green, Kinross
Cover highlights included guaranteed crowd sing-a-long pleaser 'Maggie’s Farm,' Randy Newman’s oft-covered 'Guilty' (played in a fairly understated manner, it came over strongly as a true set highlight) and a great slow-groove meets heavy honky-tonk arrangement of 'Tobacco Road,' with Davey Pattison in soulfully impassioned voice.
The Nashville-tinged 'Married to the Blues' (from Pictures) broke up the covers mix up before '(I Got the) Same Old Blues' (a version featuring Pattison and Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis appeared on the 1992 L.A. Blues Authority album) closed out the main set.
Opening with a tasty little solo from Ewan Maxwell the JJ Cale number then blossomed into a purposeful rhythm ‘n’ blues.
Call back number, a slide driven, piano backed take of blues standard 'Rock Me Baby,' brought the show to a close.
The Davey Pattison Blues Band aren’t a good blues based ensemble, they’re a very good blues ensemble, which makes the lack of audience numbers all the more disappointing (for both band and venue).
Even with pre-gig promotion and the return to these shores of Davey Pattison being touted in a number of press circulars, the audience numbers didn’t match that expected – but those who did turn up were attentive and vociferous throughout, with Davey Pattison noting "you’re small, but extremely appreciative!"
The DreadnoughtRock, like just about every other club venue up and down the country, now, more than ever, relies on tribute nights/ tribute bands to move tickets and get punters in – that, in turn, allows for the opportunity to book original bands/ acts, such as the Davey Pattison Blues Band.
Current cost of living concerns also lead to a lot of picking and choosing, usually in favour of what folks know or already have in their personal Playlists or Vinyl/ CD collections (when Ross Alexander returns to the DreadnoughtRock later in the year as part of Killer Instinct it’s almost a given he will play to a far bigger audience).
Whether we applaud, enjoy and support each and every such tribute act or condemn the tribute scene for its stranglehold and stymieing effect on other ticket sales, it is a fact of music club (and even theatre sized) life, with no likelihood of change in the near future; perhaps ever.
If Davey Pattison decided to play a Gamma set (something he has done in the past, Stateside) he would probably have a larger target (classic rock) audience.
But for Davey Pattison, that was then.
In the now, Pattison (and hundreds of other old stagers who still have the chops), just wants the opportunity to play to an audience size he and his bandmates deserve; playing music they enjoy performing, have a love for and truly feel – and the blues most certainly ticks the latter boxes.
It’s no less than one of oor ain deserves.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Graham Milne (all images from The Bungalow, Paisley gig)
Upcoming Davey Pattison Blues Band shows:
27th July - Belladrum Music Festival, Inverness (10pm, Icehouse (jazz/ blues) Stage
29th September - Ivory Blacks, Glasgow
3rd December - Backstage at the Green, Kinross