Twenty
years of performances in the U.S and Europe and six albums-with more
on the way-have helped Microwave Dave & The Nukes establish a
wide multinational audience. Venues vary from French soccer stadiums
to Bike Week in Daytona Beach, from blues cruises on the Big Red Boat
to neighborhood saloons, but the thousands of shows delivered by the
band all reflect one core element: the heritage blues music enjoys as
a lifter of spirits. As Microwave Dave puts it: "Blues is
America's first-and still best-self-help program." Microwave
Dave brings his unique slide guitar skills to Kenlake's Hot August
Blues Festival, Saturday, August 25th
at Kenlake State Park, near Aurora, Kentucky.
While major-label stars gauge success by sales figures
and chart positions, the predominate barometer for traditional blues
artists is simpler: repeat bookings. Microwave Dave & The Nukes'
annual itinerary features music festivals and holiday engagements
that have billed the act for fifteen consecutive years; motorcycle
events for more than a dozen; and a considerable list of major
hotels, international deep water fishing tournaments, schools and
social organizations that re-acquire the group's services year after
year. Indeed, it is such continuous work that led the Alabama Blues
Society to present the band it's Blues Achievement Award in 2001,
"for accomplishments in performing, writing and preserving blues
music."
Formed in 1989, Microwave Dave & the Nukes' blues
apprenticeship included a three-year stint as Jerry 'Boogie' McCain's
back-up band, interspersed with shows backing Bo Diddley both of
whose styles are integral flavors in the band's recipe. Microwave
Dave produced Gotta Get A Cadillac as a cassette release in 1991; the
album was re-released and promoted world-wide on compact disc by
Australia's Full Moon Records in 1999.
Producer Johnny Sandlin, legendary in his work with the
Allman Brothers Band, Delbert McClinton, and Widespread Panic among
others, recorded the group's next release, Goodnight, Dear, for Ice
House (BluesWorks) Records. The 1995 release propelled the band to
Europe when their cover of Bo Diddley's "Road Runner"
became a soccer stadium smash in Paris and subsequently a solid dance
hit across America. Goodnight, Dear was re-released in Europe as
Nothin' But The Blues on the Dixie Frog label. Two other selections
from the album appeared in the film soundtrack of The Poor &
Hungry, which has enjoyed broadcast on the Independent Film Channel,
but "Road Runner" has remained the top seller and
most-leased record in the Icehouse catalog to date.
Johnny Sandlin returned to produce 2000's Wouldn't Lay
My Guitar Down for Duck Tape Records, on which Microwave Dave fronted
an all-star band of veteran players from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm
Section, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Cowboy, and Little Richard's band.
The title cut and a swampy cover of Roosevelt Syke's "Don't Care
Blues" became staples on XM Satellite Radio's 'Bluesville'
channel, and "Hat" was later covered by Little Milton.
Atomic Electric was released on the Distant Farmer label
in 2003. Producer/engineer Tom Gallaher returned to the band's own
players and, utilizing vintage analog methodology and gear, garnered
the best critical responses for the band's music to date and Atomic
Electric found a home on many blues program playlists. The album
scored well at Canada's REAL BLUES Awards, gathering wins in the 2003
Southern blues releases and Southern blues band categories, and
naming Microwave Dave "2003 Southern Blues Guitarist Of The
Year/Modern." "Trail Of Tears", the LoweBow
instrumental composed by Dave for the album, received a nomination in
the "Best Other Instrument" category from Nashville's Music
City Blues Society in the fall of 2004.
American Peasant is Microwave Dave's fifth cd, a live
recording documenting the groundbreaking solo electric blues style
Dave has developed utilizing real-time loop accompaniment. The
Distant Farmer release, also produced by Tom Gallaher, received
excellent notices internationally and is the premier release
showcasing live looping in the traditional blues idiom.
An invitation to perform live on Public Radio
International's "Whad'ya Know? With Michael Feldman" in
November 2006 brought the band high praise from the broadcast's 1.5
million listeners on XM Satellite Radio and National Public Radio
stations nationwide, adding power to the launch of the Nukes'
long-awaited live album, Down South Nukin', also produced by Johnny
Sandlin for Rockin' Camel Records.
MICROWAVE DAVE (Dave Gallaher) was born in Chicago,
raised in Texas and has lived most of his life in the Deep South. His
first performances were in the children's choir at First Presbyterian
Church in Amarillo, Texas, and he heard his first blues songs there
on late-night radio. After moving to Dallas, then Houston, Dave took
up ukulele, followed by his father's old Stella guitar when the uke
broke. After a few accordion lessons, he began studying trumpet in
the 7th grade, continuing on several brass instruments in school
while picking guitar at home and listening to the all-night blues
dj's on KYOK. During his sophomore year in high school, he was
switched from French horn into the drum section for football season,
and began playing a drumkit as well, landing a job in the Houston
Oilers' dixieland band, called the Supersonic Philharmonic during the
AFL's inaugural season.
When Dave's family relocated to Atlanta, his exposure to
soul music and r&b began to supplement his blues and dixie
background, and a Fender bass got him jobs in several area bands.
After high school graduation (during which he produced and
participated in a Beatles act), he enrolled as a journalism major at
Georgia State College and formed the Majestics to play horn-driven
r&b, and the band worked the college circuit initially before
finding employment at Atlanta's top chitlin circuit venue, the Royal
Peacock. There, the Majestics backed Carla Thomas, William Bell, The
Tams, Billy Stewart and appeared with a young Aretha Franklin and
began to secure occasional session work. However, before the band
could hit full stride, the Viet Nam draft began pulling members, and
soon Dave was in the Air Force as an intelligence specialist and on
his way to Saigon.
During his tour in Viet Nam, Dave found solace in a GI
soul band called the Rotations, with members coming and going as
their tours completed. During this period, he made the decision to
become a full-time musician after the service, and following his
reassignment to Langley AFB, Virginia (where he played at rough
backwoods jukes in a band called the Empacts), he mustered out and
enrolled as an arranging and composition major at Berklee College Of
Music in Boston with guitar as his instrument.
In Boston, Dave joined the Cameron Company and moved to
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a twelve-year run. Eventually renamed
Cameron, the band recorded three albums and played 300+ dates a year,
including many concert appearances with name attractions of the
period. During this period, Dave met and studied blues guitar with
Johnny Shines in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The last Cameron recordings,
accomplished in Muscle Shoals, Alabama under producer Barry Beckett,
fostered connections that led Dave into the Thrasher Brothers, a
Grammy-winning gospel group that was courting mainstream country
audiences. During three years of Nashville-based touring, Dave began
to long for music that was closer to his blues/r&b foundation,
and he moved to Huntsville, Alabama in the mid 1980s and took up
woodworking, and the Nukes were formed in 1989. Concurrently, an
opportunity to produce a local blues radio program began Microwave
Dave's sideline as a dj and host. His programs were nominated for a
WC Handy award in 1995. Around 1993, Dave began playing regular
weeknight solo blues performances in Huntsville when the Nukes were
not on tour. Both radio and solo work are ongoing.
RICK GODFREY plays bass, neck-rack harmonica and sings
backup vocals in the band. A Huntsville native, Rick worked for
twenty years as a visual artist in stained glass and woodworks in his
own shops. His lifelong desire perform music was first exercised when
he was drafted to play bass in a 7th grade talent show, and he took
up acoustic guitar during high school, writing songs and occasionally
performing in public. Dave began working for Rick in 1987 and the
band was born during lunch-hour jams in the woodshop, Rick returning
to the bass. When the group suddenly found itself booked on a public
radio fundraiser, his on-the-job training in professional
musicianship began in front of audiences hungry for blues. Since no
formal instruction was involved, Rick developed a unique
thumb-and-fingers style that is conceptually his own. This style was
further individualized by his altering the tuning on his Fender
Telecaster bass to match the lower four strings of a five-stringed
instrument, and the deeper tones add to the large sonic footprint of
the Nukes. Rick continues to write songs, some of which are in the
band's recordings and live playlists, and his domestic and overseas
performances have continued without missing a single gig since the
band was launched. Recently, Rick has begun a series of acoustic
guitar solo performances in the Tennessee Valley on the band's nights
off, featuring an entire repertoire of his original compositions.
James was born into a musical family in Decatur,
Alabama, and his first performances were at home jam sessions, where
he played snare drum from age 4 onward. His eighth birthday got him
his first drum kit, but by 10 he was learning to play bass and guitar
as well on a diet of classic rockers such as Buddy Holly and His
Crickets, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Dire Straits. This
experience allowed him to secure his first professional performances
at the young age of 15, working local dances, parties and VFW clubs
with more experienced musicians.
Two years later, James recorded demos featuring his
singing and a twelve-string guitar for the purpose of working solo
gigs. While he was successful in landing his first solo at the
Kaffeeklatsch in Huntsville in 1999, little work availability in this
mode at that moment influenced him to accept slots in larger local
acts on guitar and bass that eventually appeared at area festivals
and provided James experience with larger audiences, and these
associations led to his becoming the 'house drummer' at Sunday blues
jams and Monday open mics. It was at the Kaffeeklatsch Sunday night
blues jam that Microwave Dave first encountered James' drumming, and
he was invited to join the Nukes on the spot. His work has garnered
him consistent praise from long-time Nukes devotees who are happily
surprised to see a young man play the blues so well. Despite the
Nukes' schedule, James was able to record in Muscle Shoals a
self-titled album of his original material that was released in 2007.
James performed all the instrument and vocal tracks on the release,
which received international airplay on XM Satellite Radio's
XM43-Indie/College Rock channel.
The Kenlake Hot August Blues Festival is set for
Thursday through Saturday, August 23-25 at Kenlake State Park in
Aurora, Kentucky. Discount tickets are available at KenlakeBlues.com.
Charities which will benefit from this year's Hot August
Blues Festival include The Shriners, who will be operating festival
shuttles with all tips and proceeds going to the Shriners' Childrens'
Hospitals, and the Knights of Columbus.
