The (Dave) Hole Story

I first heard Dave Hole's sizzling slide guitar on one of Alligator's compilations, "Crucial Guitar Blues", doing a tune called "Phone Line." These CDs are a boon to us deejays because you get twelve different artists and because somebody else has already picked out the "best" tunes - at least, that's the assumption. I got addicted to his frenetic edgy vocal styling and the sounds he conjures up out of the guitar. My new favorite is "Short Fuse Blues", off - I admit it - yet another compilation, but this cut stretches the limits of the instrument, making it scream, wail, and drift off into the gray area between blues and rock, echoing Clapton and Hendrix.


As it turns out, "Short Fuse" was the name of Dave Hole's band as well as his first recording in 1990, the result of 20 years touring the Western Australian pub circuit. Hole moved Down Under with his family at the age of 4. His fascination with the blues started when Dave heard a friend's Muddy Waters album at the age of 6, finally picking up the guitar when he was 12. Since there were a few thousand miles separating Hole from the Mississippi Delta, he taught himself by listening to Elmore James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi Fred McDowell and - naturally- Robert Johnson. Breaking a finger in a football accident actually lead to his unique style - he was left-handed, so Dave Hole simply switched to playing right handed, putting the slide on his index finger and letting his hand hang over the neck - a method that stuck even when his finger healed.


"Short Fuse" proved to be Hole's breakthrough. He sent a copy to Guitar Magazine, which gushed over his music to the extent of comparing the unknown Australian to Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn, which got the attention of Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer and resulted in a contract for the first non US resident in the label's history.


I picked up a copy of "Under The Spell" at the North Atlantic Bluesfest last July, little realizing it was the Australian Recording Industry Association's top pick for Blues/Roots in 1999, the only one of Hole's ten albums to win that designation. The integration of his expressly modern lyrics - as evoked by titles like "Holding Pattern" and "More Love, Less Attitude" - with his outstanding runs and frequent meltdown solos will have you on your feet plucking away at your air guitar - not that I would do anything like that. Some of my other favorites are "Bird's Eye Blues", "Yes or No", and "Blues is the Truth", but I actually listened all the way through, resisting my radio induced temptation to just play one or two cuts.


Dave Hole has done the global circuit, appearing at blues festivals from Brazil to Belgium. When he's not on the road, Hole holes up in Western Australia for six months out of the year. As I begin scouring the racks for more of his CDS, I am reminded of the fact that Dave Hole has raised my level of appreciation for Australian imports to new heights - a definite improvement over Fosters and dwarf -tossing ,mate.