MICROWAVE DAVE: American Peasant

Microwave Dave

American Peasant

© 2004 Dave Gallaher (635759162428)

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Groundbreaking and unique solo electric blues utilizing real-time loops in an astoundingly detailed live recording that seats the listener at the head table in a crowded small club.

notes

AMERICAN PEASANT CONTAINS A LIVE RECORDING OF "TRAIL OF TEARS'--THE LOWEBOW (CIGAR-BOX GUITAR)INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMED BY MICROWAVE DAVE ON NPR'S "MICHAEL FELDMAN'S WHAD'YA KNOW?" ON NOVEMBER 18, 2006.

NOW AVAILABLE ON CD BABY: MICROWAVE DAVE & THE NUKES' LIVE ALBUM, DOWN SOUTH NUKIN'--FEATURING THE SECOND SELECTION PERFORMED ON THE PROGRAM, BODY AND FENDER MAN. TYPE DOWN SOUTH NUKIN' IN THE SEARCH BOX TO ACCESS THE ALBUM INFO.


The one-man-blues-band takes a twenty-first century step in Microwave Dave's December 2004 release, AMERICAN PEASANT. Combining venerable blues traditions with modern looping technology, Microwave Dave brings a celebratory audience with him on this disc, which was recorded at the Kaffeeklatsch Bar in downtown Huntsville, Alabama during June, 2003.

Dave's foot-operated loopstation allows instant self-recording and playback of lines and rhythms, creating a groove tapestry that olden bluesmen must have dreamed of when playing alone. Keeping it real are the low-fi tubes and single speaker that compact the sound like a 1954 table radio caressing King Biscuit Time.

Produced and recorded by Tom Gallaher, mastered by Brad Blackwood---the team that produced the award-winning ATOMIC ELECTRIC---AMERICAN PEASANT features audience favorites, a live recording of Microwave Dave's LoweBow classic, "Trail Of Tears", and two new Microwave Dave originals: "Unity", a slide guitar commentary on public dishonesty sonically endorsed by Hound Dog Taylor; and "Goin' To Brownsville", where jug band joyfully meets jam band.


"The LoweBow...uses an actual cigar box as the base and humble parts such as a mop handle and radiator clamps augmented by hand-made pickups and professional tuners. Not only is it a sight to see, but the sound it generates, especially at the hands of an artist like Dave, are worth the price of the CD alone." VALLEY PLANET, December 2004

"His set with the cigar-box slide guitar is guaranteed to raise chills. It's enough to make you wonder if Dave Gallaher didn't ink the same contract as Robert Johnson one dark night down at those Mississippi crossroads." VALLEY PLANET, November 2004

"2003 Best Southern Blues Guitarist/Modern: Microwave Dave." REAL BLUES (Canada), Spring/Summer 2004

"'Microwave Dave' Gallaher damn near vaporizes his strings... To quote Frank Barone, 'Holy crap!'" GUITAR ONE, January 2004

"A first-rate guitar individualist." BLUES REVUE, November 2003

"The kind of unwritten understanding of what the blues is meant to be." MISSISSIPPI VALLEY BLUES NEWS, November 2003

"Delivers like a freight train on fertility drugs." MOJO (UK), July 2003

"Dave brought out the cigar-box guitar for a thrilling set that left a packed Cotton Club awestruck." ALABAMA BLUES SOCIETY, May 2002

"The distorted guitar and foot stomping harkens back to the
Detroit sounds of a half century ago." LIVING BLUES, April 2001

"His slide, a fine mix of precision and grit, is the sound of a player who's payed dues aplenty." BLUES REVUE, February 2000

reviews

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  • Awesome Blues
    author: Bob Ehresman

    Trail Of Tears on the Lowebow? Haunting and raw... Dave and all his instruments loading the tape loop? Fascinating to witness, fantastic to hear, and definitely memorable. I've caught his solo act from time to time over the last few years in area clubs and always wanted to take it with me. That's what American Peasant is.

  • What a great talent!
    author: Tim Wigginton

    American peasant is absolutely fantastic, hard to imagine one guy getting that much mojo working. I saw Dave perform solo and just had to have this CD and it has just sustained my level of excitement for his music. Thanks, Microwave Dave!

  • Microwave dave is one of the Greats!!!
    author: Ben Prestage

    I've heard Dave live and on cd, and am always amazed. American Peasant really captures the passion intensity of his live solo performances. It's hard to believe this is one guy making so much music. Dave is true to the roots of the Blues, but at the same time is pushing the boundaries of this American artform...Thanks Dave for another amazing masterpiece!!!

  • A standout, in fact it's essential...the epitome of slide.
    author: Roger Stephenson/Magic City Blues News

    I had the chance recently to listen to Microwave Dave's recent CD AMERICAN PEASANT while driving to Atlanta. Well, I played the CD twice and was just into the third playing when the Atlanta skyline appeared in the distance. It's either a long CD or I speeded up listening to Dave's lightning riffs. We're lucky to have this talented Huntsville artist live so close to Birmingham 'cause we can often hear him playing around town. This is surely a unique live 'solo' performance recorded at the Kaffeeklatsch Bar in downtown Huntsville. Well, not entirely solo--Dave accompanies himself, using modern looping electronic wizardry. Playing at lightning speed and miraculously stomping on an array of pedals, it sounds like he has full group backing. In fact I heard the bass player, but it must be imagination as there was a whole audience to vouch for his solo performance! I love good slide guitar and Dave delivers just what I like on track 3 "Unity". How can it get any better? Oh yes it does. To me the epitome of slide is listening to Dave on his LoweBow Cigar Box guitar. So I was thrilled as I listened to him giving that LoweBow a workout on the very next track. "Trail Of Tears" starts peacefully with the guitar's haunting emotional sound, then three minutes into the track the tempo doubles and then doubles again. I can't sit still. I'm amazed that anyone can play that fast. There are eleven great tracks all so good it's hard for me to pick a favorite. Forced into a choice I'd pick "Soul Of A Man" which showcases Dave's great guitar playing as well as his deep natural singing style. Unless I wanted to put on my dancing shoes---when I'd pick his rendition of John Lee Hooker's "Little Wheel". I get the chance to listen to many new CDs and most are quickly forgotten. This one is different; it's a standout, in fact it's essential to any blues CD collection. Put it on your Christmas list and buy one for all your blues luvin' friends.

  • Unpredictable, risky but generally successful, certainly exciting...a tour-de-fo
    author: BLUES & RHYTHM Magazine (UK)

    Alabama's Microwave Dave Gallaher acquits himself well as a solo electric guitarist on this set recorded at the Kaffeeklatsch Bar in Huntsville, Alabama in June 2003. Proceedings start politely enough but by track four, 'Soul Of A Man', Blind Willie Johnson is the starting point before Dave proceeds to get low-down without ever losing the plot as a more rock-inflected player would. 'Anna Lee' follows, not the expected slide guitar workout but solo quasi T-Bone Walker. 'Goin' To Brownsville', an original, evolves into an almost Hawaiian guitar tour-de-force. I should mention too that Dave is a convincing and unforced singer. Every number has something to commend it. The CD overall is unpredictable, risky but generally successful, certainly exciting. (Norman Darwen)

  • "Trrail Of Tears"--an evocative slide piece--heats to a jaw-dropping crescendo.
    author: BLUES REVUE Magazine

    AMERICAN PEASANT (Distant Farmer) documents a live performance by Microwave Dave, a modern-day one-man band who keeps things basic with guitar and stomp boxes, yet incorporates sampled loops to fatten the rhythms (ed. note: the loops are recorded and overdubbed on the spot, not previously sampled). If the Alabama artist plays too fast on the opening cover of William Clarke's "Gambling For My Bread" and the closing version of John Mooney's "Too Tall To Mambo", he redeems himself with the raw, rude slide piece "Unity"--it's hard to resist a lyric like "Shut your mouth/and get off my tv." On "Soul Of A Man" guitar and vocal snarl in unison; "Little Wheel" is a satisfying shuffle in several movements; "Trail Of Tears", an evocative slide piece, heats to a jaw-dropping crescendo over seven minutes.

  • The Best Live Album I've Ever Listened To
    author: Jack Wood

    WOW! I normally don't like "live" albums because of the sound not being the greatest, but this is the best live album I've ever listened to. The quality is top shelf and the music moved my feet without my even thinking about it.

  • It's amazing that his strings don't melt for he is blistering.
    author: SACMAN

    As a guitar doodler listening to this CD really inspires me for it's the man all by himself & yet he makes it sound as if their is a full band present. I have seen him countless times & not only is he a great musician but also a wonderful entertainer. He is simply superb & magnificent. Buy this CD now for Microwave Dave is a treasure.

  • Microwave Dave KNOWS The Blues !
    author: John D. Wyker / MIGHTY FIELD of VISION

    Microwave Dave KNOWS The Blues..he also plays and sings it very well....and he does a great weekly Blues radio show on a 50,000 watt station in The Rocket City of Huntsville ,Alabama. Microwave Dave is a one man collection of Blues informantion...stories,licks,styles, true history or The Rest of The Story as Paul Harvey would say.Its' great to know that someone like Microwave is keepin' the Blues tradition and spirit alive and well ! Check him out!

  • The sounds generated on this CD are downright incredible.
    author: Sheryl and Don Crow--Music City Blues--Nashville, TN

    Known for several years as the driving force behind Microwave Dave & The Nukes, there's a side to guitar master Dave Gallaher that the casual fans might not realize. For the last twelve years, Dave has held down regular weekly solo gigs in his home base of Huntsville, AL. This set was recorded live in front of quite an enthusiastic audience at the Kaffeeklatsch Bar in June, 2003, and is probably the premier blues recording that features the use of loop technology in a live setting. In layman's terms, the loop technology, through the use of stomp-box foot pedals, allows Dave to come across as a literal one-man band, giving Dave's solo performances the sound of a full backing combo. The sounds Dave and his brother, Tom (the CD's producer) generate in this manner are downright incredible. Check out one of Dave's original compositions, "Goin' To Brownsville," for a good example of this ingenious technology. As anyone who was fortunate enough to hear Dave at the Bluesey Awards in Nashville on November 7 can attest, Dave is indeed the master of the LoweBow, the cigar-shaped throwback to the homemade instruments used by the early bluesmen. Dave uses this unique guitar on two cuts, "You Got To Move," and a haunting original instrumental from the ATOMIC ELECTRIC sessions, "Trail Of Tears," which builds in intensity to a wailing finish and seems to invoke the ghosts of Robert Johnson and Charley Patton. An accomplished vocalist as well, Dave turns in fine performances of William Clarke's "Gamblin' For My Bread," "Anna Lee," and another tune that works its way up to a frenetic finish, "Too Tall To Mambo." Our favorites, though, were a very danceable version of John Lee Hooker's "Little Wheel," and a sho'nuff slap in the face to campaign ads and politicians who lie in the name of "Unity." We've been fans of Dave Gallaher for a long time, and it was a pleasure to be asked to give our thoughts on this CD. We urge all blues fans to go over to his site and get a copy of AMERICAN PEASANT for a taste of some solid, down-home picking from one of the best in the blues.

  • This album is a masterpiece.
    author: Martin M the Bluesman/ KPAN, Hereford, TX

    First a qualifier (I hate qualifiers) : I don't hand out bouquets. If I like something I say so. Same if I dislike it. No playing favorites here. I said that so I could say this: This album is a masterpiece. Listening to it I feel like I am right there in the club with you. That foot operated loopstation gizmo is a hell of a deal. Hard to believe it is just you. Sounds like a full band. I can't wait to get this spinning on KPAN.

  • A solo masterwork. . . a finesse that comes from natural talent and years of pr
    author: Lucia Cape / Valley Planet

    This CD has two very unique features worth mentioning up front. First, Dave employs loop recording technology that allowed him to lay down rhythm tracks from his guitar and effects pedals, then play lead over them, sounding like far more than one man on stage. Second, on the other end of the technology spectrum, is the LoweBow or cigar-box guitar. The LoweBow is the creation of John Lowe of Memphis which uses an actual cigar box as the base and humble parts such as a mop handle and radiator clamps augmented by hand-made pickups and professional tuners. Not only is it a sight to see, but the sound it generates, especially at the hands of an artist like Dave, are worth the price of the CD alone. AMERICAN PEASANT opens with "Gambling For My Bread," a bluesy social commentary by harp player William Clarke that has almost more notes per second than the ear can process. Using the aforementioned loop technique, Dave lays down his own rhythm section and then plays blistering lead on top, real time. As unbelievable as it seems at times, this is a live, one-man recording. Edits were made during production to shorten some songs and to take out--yes, I said take out, not add--sections that seemed redundant. "Gambling" builds speed and complexity, then takes the most subtle turn at the end, showing not just a mastery of the guitar but a finesse that comes from natural talent and years of proving it all night. It's a perfect opener for this collection and sets the bar for the songs that follow. The mix of audience favorites on AMERICAN PEASANT, both covers and originals, shows Dave's appreciation for his fans and his understanding of crowd dynamics. Far from a showman intent on performing 'to' people, Dave engages his listeners while bringing them along. The call-and-response section of the CD's closer, "Too Tall To Mambo," sounds more like seasoned back-up vocalists than bar patrons, a testament to their enthusiasm and familiarity with Dave's music. While the cover selections reveal a wide range of influences, Dave's originals are even more telling. "Goin' To Brownsville" is a jaunty ballad, almost rockabilly, covering classic blues territory--a gamble lost and the promise of payback. "Unity" goes political without being partisan in an electric blues package: "Now shut your mouth and get off my TV / I said shut your mouth and get off my TV / I got a lot better things to do / Than to watch you get paid to lie to me / I know you think I'm crazy and you might think I'm blind / I know you think I'm crazy and you might think I'm blind / Well you know I could be both / And I could still tell that you're lying / Now shut your mouth and get off my TV / I said shut your mouth and get off my TV / 'Cause lying to everybody / Ain't no way to make no unity." The song "wrote itself," Dave said, after the 2002 election. Since this CD was recorded a new verse has evolved that sums up the political-media crisis in this country: "No matter what happens, no one has to take the blame / No matter what happens, nobody ever takes the blame / You got us watching the cheerleaders--- / We ain't paying no attention to the game." Not only is this an obvious 'Klatsch favorite, based on the whooping and hollering, but Dave says it's also a hit with school kids and their teachers. The most moving song on the CD is the LoweBow instrumental "Trail of Tears." The song came to Dave after performing at the dedication of a historical marker at a site on the Tennessee River that had been a port for the Cherokees being shipped upriver to Oklahoma. A sudden cold front resulted in the death of a whole group awaiting transport, and they were buried en masse in an unmarked grave. The song starts off somberly, mournfully; creating images of isolation and despair. The LoweBow proves a versatile and expressive instrument as the song builds to an angry crescendo, capturing not only the plight of Native Americans but also the disgrace to our country for its treatment of them. No words are needed---the song's title and Dave's playing say it all. Rather than let his audience get too troubled, Dave moves into the reworked traditional "Soul of a Man," a fitting follow-up that raises existential questions against a rockin' blues landscape. From there, it's an easy ride through classic material including John Lee Hooker's "Little Wheel" and Lightnin' Hopkins' "Backwater Blues." Produced by Tom Gallaher for Distant Farmer Recordings, AMERICAN PEASANT is a solo masterwork from a local hero of national and international acclaim. (Lyrics from "Unity" copyright by Dave Gallaher, Microdave Music/ASCAP, used by permission).

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