Q & A with Big Daddy Wilson

Hold on to yer hats, Big Daddy Wilson is coming.
Born and raised in a small town in North Carolina, where he worked tobacco and cotton fields as a child.  He grew up listening to country music and gospel.  He left school at the age of 16 and joined the army and went to Germany (where he now lives), serving for 7 years.  He’d written poetry and songs before he started singing, but actually ‘discovered The Blues’ in Germany – not his homeland.  He’s since gone on to have a successful career – touring Europe, Scandinavia and the US, and working with the likes of Eric Bibb.

This will be his first visit to Australia, so we thought we’d welcome him with a few questions to get y’all acquainted.

Hello Big Daddy Wilson! A massive congratulations is in order for the release of your album, ‘Time’.  Have listened to it several times (pardon the pun) now, and it had me from the get-go.  Though you’re US-born, you are based in Germany (and have been for some time). In your bio, it does mention that you ‘met the Blues in Germany’.  Germany’s definitely not one of the first countries to spring to mind when it comes to Blues, so how exactly did you meet the Blues there?

My First encounter with the blues was when my wife cared me out to a blues show in Germany. I was hooked right away. I knew that this was my music. It feel like it was calling my name. Although I had never sung in a band before, I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my live ” singing the blues”. You are right, Germany is not the first place you think about when you are talking about blues, it just goes to show that blues is a feeling. It don’t really matter were you from or where you at. It’s a feeling and so I’m very happy about the fact that this music it’s played all over the world.

Also curious to know if the Blues/Roots scene there is fairly niche, or does it have a wider-spread following?

Well, it’s not mainstream, it will never be. But it’s still the root of all modern music. The blues community is a small community, but they are devoted to this music. This is also the case in most of the country’s that I visit.

You worked with Blues legend, Eric Bibb on ‘Time’.  How did your artistic relationship come about?

I met Eric in a festival in Germany, but I have been long time fan of Eric Bibb and he is one of my blues heroes. I had the privilege to meet him backstage and I told him I knew all of his songs. And he told me if I hang around he might call me on stage in the end of his show. Of course I did not go anywhere. And when it came to the last two songs , he invited me on stage and I had the honor to share the stage with Eric Bibb. We received a standing ovation from the audience and a friendship was born.

Some years later I invited him to sing two songs on my ” Love is the key” CD which he did and we had a great time in the studio together. We decided than we wanted to do a bigger project together. So the time was right, I got a call from Eric that he would like to produce my next CD , so we called it ” TIME” , cause everything fell in place at the right time.

I loved how, when listening to ‘Time’, the sound of it has managed to blend those old school vinyl tones (there’s space in the music, which does give it a classic, under-produced quality), with a really rich, deep sound.  Was this intentional, or more of a natural feel?

Yes, it was intentional but at the same time it was very natural. Because you see , I have a old school type of approach to this music and we definitely wanted to pay tribute to the old legends, like Mississippi John and others.

My style of writing is using the old broken English what I grew up listening to as a child. So Eric and Staffan Astner (the co producer), gave me the sound that I need to a compliment my broken English.

Interestingly, you have a track on ‘Time’ called ‘New Zealand – Aotearoa’ – what is the connection you have to New Zealand?  (Also note, there’s plenty of Kiwis (New Zealanders) along the East Coast, so if you pull that track out, you’ll have them on side pretty quick).

My first time coming over to this side of the world , was to the beautiful country of New Zealand. The guitarist in my first bluesband was from Germany and he moved to NZ.

Twenty-five years later we got in contact and he organised two tours for me( 2012, 2015) in NZ. It was such a beautiful reunion after all of these years to play with the man I first played the blues with, plus the beauty of the country and the love that I felt from the people, inspired me to write that song.

You have a pretty extensive catalogue of music, but do you remember the first song you wrote, and what is was about? (And if so, do you revisit or rework it at all?)

Yes, the first song I wrote was the song called ” Mama”. It was about live , politics, wars and the unjust in this world. I never recorded the song , but who knows what will happen in the future. Maybe it will be on my next CD.

This will be your first visit to Australia, with a hefty 14 date-tour kicking off on March 11.  Apart from the shows, is there anything you’re looking forward to seeing or doing while in the country?

One of my guitarist want to eat a Kangaroo, the other one want to meet crocodile Dundee 😀.

But I want to visit “The Hat Store”, because I love Akubra Hats, there been my Sponcers for many years and I never had the chance to visit the store.

Awesome! Thank you for your time, Big Daddy Wilson! Once again, congratulations on the new album, and here’s to a fantastic time in our country.

Be sure to check out Big Daddy Wilson at The Imperial Hotel in Eumundi on March 20th. Doors open at 2pm, and tickets are $25.

Big Daddy Wilson’s new album, ‘Time’ is available for purchase via iTunes now.