Gig Review
Mike Dowling
Saturday, 14 November 2009:
Prior to this evening's concert, Mike Dowling had delivered an afternoon workshop to nine blues guitar enthusiasts, all of whom were now sitting just feet away from the stage where Mike now sat flanked by three guitars - a National Steel, a Gibson and an El Trovador, which is a wooden-bodied Resophonic signature guitar. Starting the first set with a Mississippi John Hurt number entitled “Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me”, this song had a gentle, loping, rhythm, and featured an early display of Mike's virtuosity with slide guitar. This was followed by one of his own compositions “Street Corner Rag,” a jolly jig-along tune incorporating more superb slide technique!
Next came another of his own instrumentals, which is dedicated to his wife and called “Jan's Song”. It is an exquisite love song and was beautifully and delicately finger picked throughout. The Delmore Bros' “Freight Train Boogie” is one of my favourite numbers performed by Mike and has a superb boogie-woogie rhythm which certainly highlights Mike's fingering dexterity and gets everyone's feet tapping.
During the evening Mike Dowling whipped up a fair bit of audience participation with numbers such as Wynonie Harris' “Down Boy Down”, which was all good fun and created a warm bond between the audience and the artist. Using the El Trovador he played his version of the much-recorded Cy Coben tune entitled “A Good Woman’s Love”, a very poignant song originally written by Coben for his wife. The tone on Mike's new signature guitar was simply wonderful – full, warm and rounded. To my mind Mike's tour de force in any of his performances is his arrangement of Duke Ellington's “Caravan”! There is an on-going driving rhythm and Mike's fingering is stunning, even incorporating a piece of the theme music from the 1950's T.V. series “Rawhide”! You really have to see/hear this to appreciate it!
Note: Click thumbnail to view full artist image.
Photo credit: Paul Martin.
... continued
In the second set, Mike Dowling treated us to some stupendous picking skills. Fats Waller's “The Jitterbug Waltz” is a really superb arrangement! A third composition by Mike called “Nit Picking” was gorgeous, the picking was fantastic!
I had asked Mike during the interval if he would play Chuck Berry's “Jaguar And Thunderbird” - a song about a car chase between two makes of car. Mike turned it into a full throttle, high octane belter; rounded out by audience choruses, this was simply great fun! A lovely interpretation of “Deep River Blues,” during which again the audience helped with the vocal chores. When he played “Hope Gabriel Likes My Music” at quite a clip, the chord changes were rapid and the fingering picking again was outstanding!
A full house showed their appreciation by getting Mike Dowling back on-stage for a final number, the Big Joe Turner classic “Flip, Flop and Fly”, a good time boogie that barrelled along.
A truly wonderful evening of top class music from a masterful musician that will be talked about in this part of the south-west for quite some time to come! A tour de force!
Review by: Lewis A Harris.
© Bluesnights. The Dorset Blues Society.
14 November 2009.
