In Print  Home  Directories  Reviews  Get In Touch  Forums  Links  Gig Guide  

Stompin’ Nick and His Blues Grenade: Punk Blues

Christchurch-based Stompin’ Nick Jackman is a true one man band playing bass drum, snare, wailing harmonica and some bad ass Southern snake oiled guitar distortion – all simultaneously! It’s a tradition that kicks back to the vaudeville era. Yet Jackman’s stock and trade is dirty swamp rock ’n’ blues and in true Mainland style it’s a DIY affair. Save for a Huddie Leadbetter number (Black Betty) and Robert Johnson’s Preach the Blues everything here is self-penned and performed without the aid of loops, re-mixes, over dubs or other trickery. That in itself is remarkable but what really separates this one from banal novelty is the pure soul and guts of the performances. Opener One Man Band Fury lays down the manifesto in a wailing serpentine of guitars and cymbals. This is followed by the grinding Feral Mama and, later, Apple Wine revives the terrific poltergeist of Muddy Waters. Remember the snippet of a street musician from U2’s Rattle and Hum doing Freedom For My People? Well, this is like that. On acid! As the flyer rightly says ‘… it’s hard to believe it’s only one man grinding out this raw trash-boogie’.

Related Information