Dom Turner & The Rural Blues Project
Friday 19 Jan
Saturday 20 Jan
Sunday 21 Jan
Dom Turner & The Rural Blues Project
Description:
Dom Turner (of Backsliders) and The Rural Blues Project return to Thredbo Blues Festival again in 2024 playing blues beyond the 12-bar. The band presents versions of 20th century guitar-based blues songs, all played in an upbeat, raw and fiercely electrified style—from Robert Johnson to Lead Belly, Fred McDowell to RL Burnside, breathing new life into old songs for 21st century audiences. Their ‘Sit Tight’ album, released in 2023 to critical acclaim, has spent months in the Australian Blues and Roots Airplay Charts (ABARAC).
As a multi award winning Australian blues artist, Dom is best known as guitarist, lead vocalist, and founding member of the iconic Australian blues group, Backsliders. Joining Dom is the shuffle king himself, legendary drummer Rosscoe Clarke (Foreday Riders, Cyril B Bunter) and violin master, George Washingmachine.
Quotes:
“Turner is a phenomenal guitarist – slide and otherwise – and brilliant songwriter with trademark vocals” Rhythms Magazine
“The man is a phenomenal blues player.” BWW Reviews
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Dom Turner BIO
“Turner is a phenomenal guitarist – slide and otherwise – and brilliant songwriter with trademark vocals” Rhythms Magazine 2015
“The man is a phenomenal blues player.” BWW Reviews 2015
2022 Traditional Blues Artist of the Year (Sydney Blues Society)
Dom Turner is best known as guitarist/ vocalist, founding member and key songwriter of the iconic Australian blues group, Backsliders. He has toured the Australian festival circuit since the 1980s and regularly appears at most major blues related music festivals including Bluesfest, Woodford Folk Festival and Blues on Broadbeach to name but a few.
Dom’s influences are many and varied – a blend of Mississippi hill country blues, delta blues, Piedmont blues, rock, dub and sounds of Asia. He is a highly regarded speaker on blues music and has guested on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio programs (including a weekly series on ABC Gold Coast entitled ‘Blues Tuesdays’ and guest presenting Radio National’s ‘Music Deli’) and presented music workshops at festivals and in universities (both nationally and internationally).
In 2004 Dom was voted ‘Blues Songwriter of the Year’ at the Australian Blues Awards. As well as over 30 years of recording and performing blues in Australia and internationally with the Backsliders, Dom has embarked on a variety of solo and collaborative musical projects including touring as a solo artist in the USA, playing and teaching blues guitar at Augusta Blues week in West Virginia, touring Mexico with US blues greats, Del Ray and Steve James. His trademark ‘slide’ guitar sound can be heard on myriad session recordings and his songs have featured on the ABC TV programme ‘Seachange’, as well as the soundtrack to Tim Winton’s best-selling novel, ‘Dirt Music and the 2013 Channel 9 TV series ‘Underbelly – Squizzy Taylor’. In 2008 Dom was invited onstage to play with slide guitar legend Derek Trucks at the Adelaide international Guitar Festival.
Dom’s other musical projects include international collaborations; The Turner Brown Band with Toledo Ohio based lap steel guitarist Nikki D Brown of the Sacred Steel guitar tradition, Phil Wiggins & Dom Turner with US National Heritage Award recipient and harmonica virtuoso, Phil Wiggins, Kim Sinh & Dom Turner with Vietnamese stringed instrument master, Kim Sinh, as well as Dom Turner & Jin Hi Kim with innovative Korean komongo musician, Jin Hi Kim.
Local projects include; ‘Supro’, a mix of dub and blues and features original and reconstructed songs, The Angry Tradesmen, a grunge-rock project with fellow Backsliders, Rob Hirst, Dom Turner & Tony Wheeler with Chinese Guqin musician, Tony Wheeler, Dom Turner & Ian Collard with award-winning harmonica player and regular in Backsliders, Ian Collard.
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