Yes I rate Seasick Steve. I've seen him live a couple of times. First time was quite an intimate gig where he really had time to talk to the crowd about his life stories. He was a revelation, I had not heard his albums at that stage and was really special. Bought his album, got it signed and a picture with him. Went to see him again last year where he was playing a larger venue. The main difference was he had a drummer play with him on some tracks. Again I loved the gig. although missed a little of the intimacy of the first gig. His new album came out last week and has the snappy title, I Started Out With Nothing And I Still Got Most Of It Left. Not heard it yet, but I did see the song on Jools. I notice it had backing singers, not sure if they feature on the album.
Musically there's sounds of a hundred late bluesmen in his tunes, including John Lee Hooker and Junior Kimbrough. He didn't get alot of music tuition but apparently was taught by a little known bluesman called KC Douglas who had a minor hit with Mercury Blues.
Steve lived as a hobo for a large period of his adult life, leaving home due to his abusive stepfather at the age of 13. He was a music producer in Seattle in the early 1990 and knew the guys from Nirvana pretty well.
In recent years he has lived in Norway, where his wife is from, and recorded his first two albums there. Due to his phenomical success in the UK he moved to Norfolk this year where he recorded his new album. From being an unknown in 2006 and appearing on Jools Holland at the end of that year, he will shortly play the Royal Albert Hall!
There's a few misconceptions about Steve though in the British public, he is not a cowboy or a hill billy and he does not play country music. The venue I was at the last time insisted on playing this horrible country and western music before he came on which was lightyears aways from Seasick Steve's music.
I'm glad he's got his success, but I wish our younger homegrown talent would also get some of it too!
"The recently formed Edinburgh Blues Club has identified an appetite for the personal communication between musicians and audience that the blues long ago perfected." The Herald Newspaper (Scotland)
http://www.edinburgh-blues.uk