Retirement is not an option
The Davey Pattison Band – Backstage, Kinross, 7th April
The Davey Pattison Band – Backstage, Kinross, 7th April
It’s a subtle but telling name-change that The Davey Pattison Blues Band, who got a clutch of gigs under their performing belts last year to celebrate the return home (after 40 years in the Bay Area of California) for the still solidly toned voice of "oor ain" Davey Pattison, now perform as The Davey Pattison Band.
This does't mean Pattison (vocals, rhythm guitar) and his talented band – guitarists Jim Keilt & Ewan Maxwell, multi-disciplined keys player Mikey Grant and an in-the-groove rhythm section of bassist Alan Mcauley and drummer James Nevans – have suddenly dropped the blues and upped the rock quotient (with Pattison’s love of blues and his blues-hued vocality that was never on the cards).
But what it does point to is a band now far more comfortable in their own sonic skin.
A number of blues standards that featured in earlier performances & set-lists have been dropped (a few choice covers remain however) to showcase a broader range of songs that nod to just about every part of Davey Pattison’s noted career – the late 70s/ early 80s guitar & keys rock of Gamma with the late Ronnie Montrose, a batch of albums with Robin Trower in the late 80s and mid-noughties and two soulful rock blues solo albums (Pattison also voiced a couple of covers albums with Michael Schenker as the Schenker Pattison Summit).
This does't mean Pattison (vocals, rhythm guitar) and his talented band – guitarists Jim Keilt & Ewan Maxwell, multi-disciplined keys player Mikey Grant and an in-the-groove rhythm section of bassist Alan Mcauley and drummer James Nevans – have suddenly dropped the blues and upped the rock quotient (with Pattison’s love of blues and his blues-hued vocality that was never on the cards).
But what it does point to is a band now far more comfortable in their own sonic skin.
A number of blues standards that featured in earlier performances & set-lists have been dropped (a few choice covers remain however) to showcase a broader range of songs that nod to just about every part of Davey Pattison’s noted career – the late 70s/ early 80s guitar & keys rock of Gamma with the late Ronnie Montrose, a batch of albums with Robin Trower in the late 80s and mid-noughties and two soulful rock blues solo albums (Pattison also voiced a couple of covers albums with Michael Schenker as the Schenker Pattison Summit).
Opening with a slightly Stonesy, blues grooving reinterpretation of Gamma’s 'Dirty City' featuring a pumping bass line, some great ivory tinkling and Allman-esque twin guitar finale, the scene was set for a cracking hour and half from one of the best, but as yet underheard/ under-appreciated band’s on the circuit.
The brooding 'Too Hot To Sleep' (from Davey Pattison’s Mississippi Nights solo album) was as blues sultry as the title suggests, here complete with an atmospheric opening of piano & guitar before hitting is mid-tempo stride (and more great piano play from Mikey Grant).
Grant’s piano also opened a rollicking barroom blues interpretation of Merle Haggard’s 'Today I Started Loving You Again.'
The rockin' tempo was maintained for a pacey, boogie shuffle take of 'Inside Out' from Robin Trower’s Another Days Blues album, which featured a couple of nifty guitar solos exchanges from Ewan Maxwell and Jim Keilt (an over-to-you trait that enhanced many a number) and some serious organ play from Mikey Grant.
Both numbers also proved, should proof still be needed, that Davey Pattison can still belt it out as well as he can blues it up.
An atmospheric, slow-burn take of The Allman Brothers 'Midnight Rider' and an understated, impressively voiced rendition of Randy Newman’s 'Guilty' (a set highlight) made for an impacting back-to-back brace of classic covers before Gamma’s melodic AOR nugget 'No Tears' took centre stage, extended in arrangement to close out with more great Allman styled guitar interplay.
The brooding 'Too Hot To Sleep' (from Davey Pattison’s Mississippi Nights solo album) was as blues sultry as the title suggests, here complete with an atmospheric opening of piano & guitar before hitting is mid-tempo stride (and more great piano play from Mikey Grant).
Grant’s piano also opened a rollicking barroom blues interpretation of Merle Haggard’s 'Today I Started Loving You Again.'
The rockin' tempo was maintained for a pacey, boogie shuffle take of 'Inside Out' from Robin Trower’s Another Days Blues album, which featured a couple of nifty guitar solos exchanges from Ewan Maxwell and Jim Keilt (an over-to-you trait that enhanced many a number) and some serious organ play from Mikey Grant.
Both numbers also proved, should proof still be needed, that Davey Pattison can still belt it out as well as he can blues it up.
An atmospheric, slow-burn take of The Allman Brothers 'Midnight Rider' and an understated, impressively voiced rendition of Randy Newman’s 'Guilty' (a set highlight) made for an impacting back-to-back brace of classic covers before Gamma’s melodic AOR nugget 'No Tears' took centre stage, extended in arrangement to close out with more great Allman styled guitar interplay.
Another couple of solo album songs then made their mark – the slow, swaying and rhythmic 'Mississippi Nights' and the rock and Nashville roll of 'Married to the Blues,' from Pattison’s second solo album Pictures. Both songs also featured some deft, song enhancing slide work from Ewan Maxwell, while Jim Keilt again proved he can do a tasty Robin Trower-styled lick (and a cheeky but accurate RT facial impersonation) or deliver a rock guitar solo as well as any on the circuit.
Other highlights included a rugged take of J.J. Cale’s 'Same Old Blues' (a great studio version featuring Pattison and Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis appears on the 1992 L.A. Blues Authority album) and a barnstorming, main set ending rendition of 'Maggie’s Farm.'
The latter not only 'Peter Gunn'd the bejesus out of the intro and instrumental break, it also had a few folks dancing up front, while the rest of the audience gave it vocal plenty on the chorus.
The Davey Pattison Band aren’t a good live act, they’re a great live act, one that can, as evidenced on a number of the songs, settle into their own pocket (something that's more common in a blues/ rock trio than a three guitar sextet).
In short, they merit the sort of audience numbers and respect Pattison's fifty-plus rock and blues career, and the quality of this band's collective talent, deserve.
But this is still relatively early days for the band and, after four decades in California and what is now very different musical climate, a case of almost starting again for Davey Pattison, a man for whom retirement is not an option.
Equally however, they are not exactly going unnoticed, as an invitation to play the 2025 Tyneside Americana Blues Festival in January underlines.
Nor will the potential issue of an EP to promote their wares (three songs have been recorded) do them any harm as regards getting the message out, because a lot more rock and blues fans need to hear, and see, just how good this band are.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo Credits: Philip Gorman (colour images); Raymond Meyer (b&w images)
Other highlights included a rugged take of J.J. Cale’s 'Same Old Blues' (a great studio version featuring Pattison and Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis appears on the 1992 L.A. Blues Authority album) and a barnstorming, main set ending rendition of 'Maggie’s Farm.'
The latter not only 'Peter Gunn'd the bejesus out of the intro and instrumental break, it also had a few folks dancing up front, while the rest of the audience gave it vocal plenty on the chorus.
The Davey Pattison Band aren’t a good live act, they’re a great live act, one that can, as evidenced on a number of the songs, settle into their own pocket (something that's more common in a blues/ rock trio than a three guitar sextet).
In short, they merit the sort of audience numbers and respect Pattison's fifty-plus rock and blues career, and the quality of this band's collective talent, deserve.
But this is still relatively early days for the band and, after four decades in California and what is now very different musical climate, a case of almost starting again for Davey Pattison, a man for whom retirement is not an option.
Equally however, they are not exactly going unnoticed, as an invitation to play the 2025 Tyneside Americana Blues Festival in January underlines.
Nor will the potential issue of an EP to promote their wares (three songs have been recorded) do them any harm as regards getting the message out, because a lot more rock and blues fans need to hear, and see, just how good this band are.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo Credits: Philip Gorman (colour images); Raymond Meyer (b&w images)