All about guitar and music

Setting Up

Recently I helped present a slide guitar master class at the Bath International Guitar Festival. The slide guitar seminar was open to all students and only one or two came with their guitars specially rigged up for the occasion. The others struggled throughout the afternoon and were barely able to participate in the session.

My point here is that setting up your guitar correctly is an absolute must for all those serious about playing slide. There are various ways of going about this I suggest you use this quick fix that allows you to revert your guitar back to normal with the minimum of fuss.

We need to raise the action slightly and we can do this by removing the strings and tapping out the nut at the end of the fret board. Place a small shim beneath the nut and replace, the shim should be about .5mill thick at the very most, a strip of an old 35-mill film negative will suffice. This should just help clear the strings of the fret board enough to stop your slide banging on the frets.

Next the bridge needs the same treatment, if you are fortunate enough have an acoustic that has adjusters then raise the saddle slightly, slightly more on the treble side. If you have a traditional style acoustic bridge then remove the saddle (you might need needle nose pliers) You need to put in a shim and replace the saddle in order to raise the action slightly. Make a shim by cutting of a slice from an old credit card, before you replace the saddle just pack a small single layer piece of paper, shim width, underneath the treble side, this also will help raise the top strings slightly more. The majority of your slide work will take place on the upper strings so it makes sense to do this.

Your strings should now sit slightly higher on the treble side, many finger positions used by the player during slide accompaniment take place on the lower strings, if the action is too high here the guitar will sound out of tune if the lower strings are too high.

Selecting String Gauge

As my set up allows the use of normal finger style techniques choosing the correct string gauge is an important factor in the set up equation. For most slide applications I would recommend starting with nothing less than a 13 15 24 34 44 54 medium gauge set. However, we need to modify this slightly, but it only requires the purchase of one extra string-a 17 plain which we then use as the 2nd string Discard the 13 (or trade it for the 17) move the 15 to the 1st position and you are ready to go.

These gauges are only to be used in a D tuning, tune these strings any higher and you might damage the guitar.

Selecting a slide

The weight and material of the slide will play an important part in helping to ensure that the learning process is as painless as possible. I will not sit on the fence here as I bear no allegiance, after playing for so long you must remember that I have had experience of most types of slide. For the last 10 years I have been using a glass product, I find them hygienic, clean sounding and easily replaceable and for me they produce a fatter more musical tone.

If you have seen or heard any of my performances and you wish to emulate a similar learning path to mine then I recommend a glass slide that covers about 4-6 mill more than the width of your fret board. You can still work the top strings just as you would with a smaller slide but the means to slide all 6 strings is still available. For the set up described above you will need a medium weight slide and definitely not the thin walled lightweight variety, they do have their uses but are not suitable for this style of set up. Typical weight should be around 30 - 40 grams.

Which finger?

Without a doubt place your slide on your little finger, this not only leaves the others free for chord accompaniment but also allows for more controlled dampening behind the Strings. Using the tip of the little finger a small amount of pressure can be applied to the inside of the slide. Try holding the slide upside down and you will naturally grip it to stop it falling on the floor.

I have outlined below a quick fix to set up your guitar ready for slide playing. If after trying this set-up you decide you are seriously going to study slide guitar then you will need to look at the advanced set-up guide, this set-up is paramount to a successful education in slide guitar, it is slightly controversial and does not comply with the normal text book teaching, but I highly recommend that try it, just once.

Which Vibrato?

Just like the human voice the tones of your playing style are controlled partly by the vibrato you prefer. Basically there are two types, the more frenzied quicker style as portrayed by Stefan Grossman or the slower “fatter” style as used by Ry Cooder, Kelly Joe Phelps and many Hawaiian pioneers. This is my preffered style and one, which I have used all my life. These then are sound basics for the initial part of understanding jut how many of today”s slide greats achieve their goals. With the guitar set up in the above fashion you are now ready to begin this wide and wonderful journey of slide guitar playing.

Kevin Brown and Moussa Kouyate - KORA BLUES

This latest offering from slide guitar maestro Kevin is a stylish follow-up to 2001’s Mojave Dust, similarly atmospheric but in a completely different way. It teams him up with Senegalese master kora player Kouyate for the first time on record, although the two musicians have played together much over the past two years, ever since their chance meeting at the Bath Fringe festival in 2000. It’s a shame that there’s only 37 minutes of music on this CD, for I could easily have listened to twice that amount, so intoxicating and beautiful is the blend of instrumental textures and so stimulating is the musicianship. There’s a striking empathy between the two musicians, but this was hard-won, and emanated not as you might expect from the common kinship between West African music and the country blues, but from what Kevin has described as the discovery - following many hours of struggles of understanding, efforts to find common ground and eventually finding through their faith in each other’s musicality and inner strength - that their ‘internal clocks beat from the same pulse’. This is a genuinely uplifting album, a highly spiritual experience yet one that’s fully accessible and not in any way discordant or unduly esoteric, and more than all that it exudes a very real sense of collaboration, with music-making that’s utterly natural and unforced. Captured live in the studio, with all the immediacy and low-key dynamism that implies, this is a superior product indeed, full of joyous spirit and so much more than a one-off memento of the two musicians getting together.

“Traditional Music Maker”-review, 2001

Kevin Brown is a Lancashire lad, the son of a sign writer and schoolteacher However, you might be forgiven for thinking that he hails from the Mississippi delta or Chicago since his feeling for the Blues is inherent in his playing. He may not be a household name but don’t be put off by that, this is the real thing. Kevin cut his first disc Pickin Good Tunes on his own label in 1984. This was subsequently released by Hannibal as Road Dreams and since then he has released Time Marches On via the Chrysalis label, followed by ‘Sunny Side Up’. Kevin is now firmly estabtished and well recognised in the Blues field. Although equally at home playing solo or with a band this latest release ‘Mohave Dust’ is his first solo CD and is made up of his own tunes, bar one, Travelling Riverside Blues by Robert Johnson. The playing is quite superb and delicate. Kevin knows how to pick the tune and keep a gentle rhythm going. No savage sweeps up the fingerboard here. Apart from the playing Kevin has a centred, in-tune voice with no resort to gimmicks and is easy to listen to. Of the 12 tracks on the album, the title track Mohave Dust and his closing track When Saturday Comes, take the biscuit for me. Self-recorded in his home studio this is an object lesson for all would be singert/song writer/guitar players, or people who just like good slide guitar and the Blues. Don’t miss out on it.
Brian Healey, “traditional music maker”

The story

The idea of making a record had been one of my driving ambitions since fooling around with a neighbour’s grundig in the mid 60″s. We had a local band called “The Link” and we played covers by the Stones, Pretty Things and Nashville Teens, plus Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters, my roots were taking hold.

Many years later I was fortunate enough to meet Jo-Anne Kelly, whose help and encouragement inspired me to write to Nick Perls at Yazoo/Blue Goose, who had already recorded some British Slide giants of the period, Sam Mitchell, Roger Hubbard and Graham Hine. Nick needed some demos and on a borrowed Ferrograph in my student bedsit I made desperate attempts to record myself, trying to capture “where I was at musically.

Having witnessed the live performances of the above mentioned players, I soon realised that my material, my voice and the equipment had a long way to go. I abandoned the idea and continued my life as a newly qualified teacher, wandering the streets of Europe, busking my way around this new found freedom having finished my education.

The next 10 years saw me teaching by day and playing by night doing the rounds of the London Pub Rock scene, which launched so many careers within the R&B/Country scene. The candle was indeed burning at both ends and in an act of pure self-preservation I crawled out of London to the peace and tranquillity of Bath, where I was re-united with my oldest buddy and slowly began to recover from 10 years of “City Life”.

Breaking my ties with the city and relocating to Bath enabled me to focus on the task of getting that first record made. I managed to find various odd jobs to fund my first demos in a 4-track studio run by local ex BBC sound engineer David Lord. I was kindly assisted in these recordings by Mick Feat, Les Binks and Alan Lisk. They volunteered their services and were to reappear at various points throughout my career. These demos led me to Nigel Grainge at Ensign records, who signed me up and funded more demos, again in David Lords 16 track studio.

The following year the album was done for real at Ridge Farm, using a new batch of musicians chosen by my producer Geoff Haslam. Unfortunately these recordings were not to our liking as they had lost all the feel of the original demos recorded in Bath using local artists.

This two-year period left me drained and fairly downhearted, my dream was in pieces. But from these ashes grew a collection of recordings from the earlier demos that was to form the basis of my first release. I had played the demos constantly since the first 4 track recordings and realised I only needed another 4 tracks to do it. “Talk to me” and “Some People” were done in Andy Allen”s Cave Studios in Bristol in one day. “Put a smile on your face” and ‘Farther Along’ were recorded and engineered by Paul Rideout on his newly acquired Fostex 8 track. The record was mastered at the Town House by Tony Cousins who had been involved with me in the London Pub Rock Scene of the mid seventies.

With the recordings now mastered another good friend at the time Chris Wroe helped enormously on the sleeve design and artwork. The final piece of the jigsaw came with the launch of the new Government Enterprise Allowance Scheme to help people set up new businesses.

So that was it, all I needed was a name for the label. Chris and I were big Robert Crumb fans and his Crumb inspired logo design lasted for many years until the revamp in 1999. Doodah Records was finally born.

The Album entitled “Picking Good Tunes” came out on Doodah and I personally drove to the pressing plant in East London in a hired Ford Escort Van. I barely made it home; the rear of the van was under so much weight. The record was distributed by Making Waves, quite a force in its day.

So that was it, I was on my way, gigging and selling albums around the country in 1983. I was rather surprised then to get a call from Joe Boyd at Hannibal Records who finally got to hear a promo demo I sent him some 18 months earlier. After a few chats I signed “Picking Good Tunes” over to him, which he released as my first “proper” record under the title “Road Dreams”.

Meanwhile Doodah records was already preparing for its next release. In 1984 I returned from my first trek across the US, where I found my holy grail in the shape of Austin Texas. There I heard my first Texas Swing bands and became intoxicated with that sound, it was so uplifting and was the perfect vehicle for my thirst for slide guitar material. Returning to Bath, I gathered around me some of the finest acoustic musicians in the area and formed “5 Guys Named Mo” This band was to embody material from all the various slide/swing/Hawaiian/country vocal ensembles I was into at the time; Louis Jordan, Mills Brothers, Sol Hoopii, Jimmie Rogers, Cliff Carlisle, and steel player Howard White to name but a few.

We recorded two sides for a double A sided release to be sold at gigs and placed on local juke boxes (sadly missing today) Five Guys Named Mo and Kalakamo Kamoo were the featured cuts. The record helped increase demand for the band and we were soon the talk of the nation!

My repeated visits to Austin and the release of my second album for Hannibal, left little time for the swing outfit. However we still managed to expand and Five Guys became “The Four Frenchmen” which then became “The Three Caballieros” Offshoot bands also made their mark in the form of the The “Glee Club” and “Hot Strings”.

In recording “Rust”, my second release on Hannibal I used mainly local people who knew and understood where I was coming from. I believe this resulted in some outstanding recordings and I really thought things would start to happen for me after its release. However, nothing seemed to change much and I continued to gig around the country with my band at the time, featuring Dale Marshall on drums, Jerry Soffe on bass and Richard Dutton on Hammond.

Thanks to Richard Hutchinson, my manager at the time, I was soon to sign a major deal with Chrysalis Records. It was on the strength of my first two releases and the hard work of Richard that this deal came through. I had met Peter Van Hook and long admired his work with Van Morrisson, he agreed to produce the album and I was happy to trust him with the various rhythm sections he was outlining for the project. It was a privilege for me to work with Paul Carrack, Alvin Lee, Roger Cook and many others and the record “Time Marches On” was delivered on time and under budget. It was an absolute corker and I was very proud of it. Unfortunately unknown to me, EMI bought Chrysalis the week I delivered the album making many of us instantly redundant.

Michael Prince interviews Kevin Brown

Bath-based British singer, songwriter and slide guitarist Kevin Brown has been busy with various projects in recent years. His latest album Mojave Dust has just been released on his own Doodah label to great critical acclaim. Michael Prince caught up with Kevin just before Christmas to find out more about his recent activities.
Michael Prince: Your new album, Mojave Dust, features just you and a guitar, as opposed to your previous band efforts. I know you have often been asked for something like this at your live shows. How did the recording come about and was it in some ways a response to those requests?
Kevin Brown: Mojave Dust is in a way the record I have always wanted to make, but for various reasons the pieces of the jigsaw have only recently come together. When I was with record labels, both independent and major, an album such as this was very far removed from their requirements, plus during those times I was very interested in a band-orientated style of delivery. I had spent the 60s and 70s working solo and when I moved to Bath in 1979 I was ready for a change. Now 20 years and 5 albums later my interests are once again focused on solo guitar and voice. My main inspiration comes from just wanting to be a better slide player. I am fascinated by overcoming its restrictions and learning embellishments that help create smooth, flowing, continuous pieces. Mojave Dust therefore came to be recorded at home and in my own time. I worked for a year just writing and working on a little Dictaphone or small Panasonic recorder from the 70s. Parallel to this, I was developing a keen interest in live sound recording and thanks to some friends I was able to try a variety of methods to help me achieve the sound I was looking for. After much trial and error, I came up with ¼ inch analogue tape using a single valve or ribbon mike with the same signal going to right and left channels. Once a song was complete lyrically, I would spend some time working on the delivery and style. With no editing or overdubs, there were some hairy moments when great takes were disturbed by car horns, babies crying or just plain mistakes - if you listen carefully, you can hear an owl at the end of ‘Gypsy Boy’! On the question of recording an album that reflected my live show, it is true that people at my concerts were initially disappointed that the CD they took home was not a reflection of the show they had just seen, i.e. solo voice and guitar. Now when I finish a show, they take home a virtual memory of the occasion and because they are live recordings they can relive the moment.

Michael Prince: You have also done some concerts with the Senegalese master kora player, Moussa Kouyate. How did that collaboration come about?
Kevin Brown: Throughout the Mojave Dust project, I became obsessed with that solitary Mississippi emptiness that just seems to cut through you and leave you semi-paralysed. Its beauty was in the silence that often accompanied a single chord arrangement. When I visited Africa, I again became mesmerised by the local West Coast kora players. Years later, back in Bath I took my daughter Jessica to a children’s festival in my local park. Within minutes of walking through the gates, I heard the sound of a kora and there under a tree was a full blown Senegalese master kora player in my local park! Were it not for Jessica, we might not have met. Luckily his host was an old acquaintance and before long we were sitting in my home exchanging tunes.

Michael Prince: Did it come easily, given that you have your roots in country blues and the blues has its roots in the music of West Africa?
Kevin Brown: When we first met I thought ‘OK here we go, the blues is my driving force, he plays a music from which the blues came - let’s rock’, but I was in for a nasty shock. I could not find any common ground! He would just play one phrase after another, without ever seemingly repeating himself, no verses, no chorus, just endless patterns all inside out and back to front. Playing with Moussa has been the most difficult thing I have ever done, but to our advantage we both have very good timing and our internal clocks beat from the same pulse. Finding the way musically has involved many, many hours just playing together. Often it does not work, but there will be one little grain that inspires us and we desperately grab it and set the clocks ticking. ‘Training’ as he calls it represents sheer struggles of understanding - putting the two of us together often required much inner strength as there were many mountains to climb before the joyous noises we knew we were capable of creating came about. We have toured the UK twice and major plans are being made for next year. If the funding that we are trying for comes through, then a major album release can be expected in the spring of next year, ready for a tour in September.

Michael Prince: I understood you have already recorded the tracks for an album with Moussa.
Kevin Brown: Our album is now recorded and was again done live in my 2-track studio, using a stereo pair and a centrally-placed valve mike. Right now I can’t stop listening to it. I was very concerned that the spirit and joy of our creations was not lost in some ‘collaborations-for-the-sake-of-it’ scenario. Moussa lifted himself and some of his musical explosions have thankfully been captured on tape. We are very lucky to have found each other, we lift spirits and change people’s feelings. They come back time and time again. It is like a medicine that we need. We actually have a very accessible product and are not surprised to find children eagerly awaiting our concerts. It has taken two years of unravelling and re-assembling material in order to have our present sounds. But what you have now is a collection of material of much greater depth, and I have to say I am very, very pleased with the album. We have overcome the struggle and it sounds wonderfully organic and natural.

Michael Prince: You mention your times with different record companies. Do you feel more in control now you are back to recording on your own Doodah label?
Kevin Brown: Since my first album Road Dreams, I have always had control of my recordings. It is what happens afterwards that has been the problem, throwing your heart and soul into writing and recording for two years to then find your label has gone defunct is a serious waste of time and effort. Having Doodah guarantees that will never happen again. But having said that, I am not an ‘admin.’ kind of person and have to wear a rather strange hat when I walk into Doodah headquarters and start checking the accounts.

Michael Prince: You seem to be a bit of dab hand at picking interesting musicians with whom to co-operate on projects. Apart from your work with Moussa, you have also been playing a bit with session guitarist Justin Adams.
Kevin Brown: Justin Adams is a like-minded individual who moved to Bath a couple of years ago, and if you move here and play slide, you are going to get a call from me. He responded, we met and did some recording, his particular interest lying in North African stringed and percussion instruments. He is a fabulous ngoni (African 4-string baby fretless guitar) player. With writing being such a solitary experience, I very much welcome the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with new friends. I hope we can continue to meet, he is a very cool dude and we have a little magic going there.

Michael Prince: You are also a demonstrator for Ovation Guitars, giving clinics up and down the country at trade fairs, etc. How did you hook up with them?
Kevin Brown: The only link I ever had with Ovation was that I played their guitars, they saved my life, got me out of jail, enabled me to work in the late 70’s and into the 80’s. I could play loud in bars and earn a living. I had the guitar and a PA, so I could work. Twenty years later they got wind of my enthusiasm and invited me to travel around the country demonstrating their product. I do actually have faith in them, as they are strong and they work. They now also sound great acoustically, as you can hear on Mojave Dust. I play a ‘Longneck’ which is actually a baritone guitar, using what should be open D tuning, but it is tuned down a step to C, using quite heavy gauge strings (top string 18 then a 20). The depth inspires me and has helped further my interest in Asiatic flute players.

Michael Prince: You don’t just use Ovations though do you?
Kevin Brown: I have a National Bendaway which never made it to the album, but has been featured on the recordings I made with Moussa. I also have a Kinkade ‘Porchmaster’ which has been set up for regular playing.

Michael Prince: If you get the time amongst all these projects, what are you listening to on record at the moment? What would you say are your current influences?
Kevin Brown: Right now, I am listening to Hollow Bamboo by Ry Cooder and Ronu Majumdar. As far as I am concerned, there is no answer to this record, it is at the absolute limit of inspired expression. There are flute players and there is Ronu. Working with Moussa has in a way introduced me to this other kind of level. When I hear Ronu, he opens all those doors again, it’s that Mississippi thing again, its the same vibe, those vast holes of emptiness that become the backdrop for your imagination. It’s the blues thing, the happiest joyous noise, blues is absolute joy and I am very lucky to have a job that allows me to be involved in it as a musician. I would say that 80% of my listening material for the last 3 years has been the American field recordings made by John and Alan Lomax, I return to them time and time again, because they are helping me to understand who I am and where I am going. If you are interested in slide playing and communicating, they provide the key to everything. Jesse Mae Hemphill, R.L. Burnside and Skip James are amongst others who continually shine their torches when the way gets a little confusing! Also I love Gillian Welch, because she also draws me into her unique world and I get so much pleasure listening to her. Jimmy Vaughan will always be my favourite blues player, I admire a lot of his work, especially his tone and phrasing. Eric Bibb I saw recently, he’s got that hill country thing and is very inspiring. Every aspiring young musician should be made to see Eric, as his performances can teach you so much about how to get the message across, and more importantly what kind of message you want to give.
Paul Bufton of ‘Blues Matters!’ talks to Kevin Brown

Further to the release of his new album, Kevin Brown continues his discussion with Paul Bufton about his early albums.

Blues Matters: Prior to your recording of Mojave Dust, you made 4 albums: - Road Dreams, Rust, Sunny Side Up and Time Marches On. What were your feelings and aspirations when you initially started on your road to a musical career - or should I say your ‘Road Dream’?
Kevin Brown: My road dream was and always will be, sharing the thing that I love to do most of all with people that are close to me and also with those who are new to my work. To create a song from thin air, record it, and witness the pleasure it brings, creates a sense of satisfaction that helps keep you going when things get a little tough. ‘Road Dreams’ became my trademark and it holds values and aspirations that I still retain to this day. I try to make records that you put on and leave on. They were designed that way and that is the way they are meant to be heard. They know no barriers and have allowed me the freedom to explore freely my musical interests without ever being hampered by record company protocol. That is why I think the records sound so interesting I was always given total control.

Blues Matters: Your debut album ‘Road Dreams’ is a 10 track album with a blues/soft rock feel to it. All bar two of the numbers are K.B. with subtle and melodic slide guitar underlying the score more or less throughout the album. The inclusion of Annie Huchrack on some of the numbers really works well and gives another dimension to your compositions, especially on ‘I still love you.’ There were 11 other musicians on Road Dreams. (When was this recorded?)
Kevin Brown: Road Dreams was recorded from 1982 -1984. Every single person on that record was hand picked from my circle of friends at the time, some had known me for years and we all wanted to feel proud of it, to have the record go out with my name on it was the best start anyone could wish for. Annie Hutchrack I discovered singing in a bar shortly after arriving in Bath in 79. She had the purity that I needed to get that transparent type of harmony that could lift a song. I still see her and we often chat about it.

Blues Matters: The opening bottleneck guitar on Road Dreams is haunting and almost eerie, nice, and the acoustic track ‘;put a smile on your face’ demonstrates your love for slide guitar. The album closes with the traditional acoustic instrumental ‘Farther along’ arranged by yourself with both traditional and acoustic bottleneck guitars. This is a superb debut album. What do you feel now looking back at ‘Road Dreams’?
Kevin Brown: The slide guitar that opens the album was done on location in a valley outside Bath which is where I also wrote just a valley away. I had a battery powered amp and recorder plus a telecaster. That is where I spent many days writing ‘Road Dreams’ literally in a field beneath a fine old oak tree. At the end of each day I would listen to the sound sketches and found this piece of wailing noises, Tony Cousins at the Townhouse insisted we use it as he was cutting the record. My feelings now are of complete contentment and pride towards Road Dreams. It was actually recorded twice but I stuck true to the demos, it meant losing my deal with Ensign but I knew those recordings had captured my spirit, how I was ever persuaded to record it again with pro musicians I shall never know, luckily it was only the demos that saw light of day. They were 2′ 16 track recordings plus one 4 track (Diamond Ring) I had a very fine engineer David Lord and Glenn Tommy plus Andy Allen. I produced the album using the same method I have done ever since. That is every thing down together with voice and guitar totally isolated, so we could patch up later if necessary.

Blues Matters: Your next album ‘Rust’ which you recorded over a 4 year period 1987-1990 is pure wall to wall blues. An excellent 2nd album, which you recorded with various backing musicians; 11 tracks all self penned. Again your slide work is superb, but I have to say that on 5 of the tracks your electric lead guitar work is very nice indeed- reminiscent of Freddie King/ early Peter Green.
Kevin Brown: Some songs were driven by that clean guitar style that Peter had slaughtered us all with, plus I had a working band out at the time. Dale Marshall and Jerry Soffe, drum and bass plus Richard Dutton on Hammond. Many songs on Rust were honed on the road and these players just made them sound fabulous. Again I went back to the 2′ 16 track in Bath and used totally local players for the studio cuts, Bible, Southern Streets etc. Adrian Utley who went on to help create Portishead played a major part in that album and helped instil a raw freshness to the sound. ‘Don’t Qui’, plus ‘If I had my way’ and ‘Meltdown’ were done at the Dungeon in Oxford.

Blues Matters: I notice that all bar one of the tracks were recorded in England, except for the slow blues ‘You don’t have to tell me’ with a superb harp solo, which was recorded in Italy.
Kevin Brown: ‘You don’t have to tell me’ was written during the train journeys of an Italian tour I did in ‘87. One night I opened up for this wild trio, Hammond, drums and harmonica. We became friends and had a lot of respect for each other. When I finished the tour I returned to Milan and cut that in the middle of the night. It has a devastating intro and Sals harmonica solo is breathtaking. I learnt a valuable lesson that night. The blues cares not about colour, age or nationality, it is there for the taking but you have to treat it with respect. Do that and it will reward you a thousand times, those Italian musicians changed my outlook on who can and who supposedly cannot ‘play the blues’

Blues Matters: On the superbly rocking track ‘Hey Joe Louis,’ you duet on guitar and vocal with the highly respected Sanfranciscan blues man Joe Louis Walker. How did this collaboration with him come about?
Kevin Brown: ‘Hey Joe Louis’ was the last track I cut for the album. We had just toured together and he did it as a favour. I wrote the song during the tour and he liked it enough to help me out. To have him and his road band on a cut was the icing on the cake for the album.

Blues Matters: Rust closes with the bright instrumental number ‘Sunny side up’ viz the title track from your next album, a purely slide instrumental album. What inspired you to do an instrumental album? The title really embraces the ambience of the album, i.e. a bright and sunny array of 10 numbers 9 penned by your good self and your arrangement of the traditional number ‘Ghazel’.
Kevin Brown: ‘Sunny Side Up’ had been in the pipeline ever since Joe Boyd of Hannibal records heard a Hawaiian Band I had called ‘5 Guys named Mo’. After giving him ‘Road Dreams’ and ‘Rust’ he then suggested we put out a collection of my original slide guitar pieces that were lying around. It reflected my range of musical interests and enabled me to stretch out on some untried territory for slide. Unfortunately the week I delivered the album; Hannibal/Rykodisc was bought by Chris Blackwell who immediately put a stop to such uncommercial nonsense!

Blues Matters: Has any of your instrumentals been used for film scores, T.V. commercials etc?
Kevin Brown: Yes I was fortunate enough to make some music specifically for broadcast which has been used constantly ever since, it features many slide styles and creates great excitement in the house when we hear it on a programme we might be watching!!

Blues Matters: 1999 sees the launch of your next album ‘Time marches on’ on the Taxim label. On this album you work with a multitude of talented musicians, viz. Paul Carrack, Clem Clempson, Mo Foster, Alvin Lee, Rabbit, Pete Thomas, Adrian Utley and others! ‘Time marches on’ is yet another musical illustration of the K.B. package. Original and varied compositions with superb guitar work, soulful vocals and lyrics to the accompaniment of quality musicianship. Of the 11 tracks, 5 you wrote yourself, 2 you co-wrote with Roger Cook, 2 co-wrote with Alvin Lee and 2 co-wrote with Phil Crowther. It must have been fantastic working with these guys?
Kevin Brown: Time Marches On’ was to be my first release on a major label and had a lot of money thrown at it. Being with a major (Chrysalis) meant I had to create a slightly more commercial product but at the same time retain the spontaneity and organic nature of ‘Rust’ and ‘Road Dreams’. I think it works really well, having Paul Carrack and all the other guys around just lifted me, plus I had some old friends from the first albums there too. I was literally exhausted after writing and recording my first ‘pressure’; album. Sadly history repeated itself and as the record was delivered Chrysalis were bought by EMI who did not really understand these more rootsy recordings. The album was shelved. Five long hard years later they released it to me and Taxim put it out in Europe and the UK.

Blues Matters: Again you embrace the blues and its associated genre.
Kevin Brown: It’s all I know, I can’t do anything else, its what I have spent my whole life being true too. The blues and its related genres are my life, the time I spend with my family allows me to look at my work from a distance and live a normal life. Within that every day normality I have to somehow find inspiration for ideas, its all tangled up together really I just have to try and create a living from it all.

Blues Matters: One of the numbers you co-wrote with Alvin Lee ‘Only just a matter of time’ was recorded in Alvin Lee’s house.
Kevin Brown: Alvin was introduced to me by his publisher at Warner’s. We worked for three days in his 16 track Studer equipped studio. We jammed along with a drum box until we got bored. Then in the evenings we would listen through and pick out sections of interest, those sections became the foundations of ‘Dallas’ and ‘Only just a matter of time’.

Blues Matters: The album closes with the moving love song ‘You’re the one’, with soulful slide and vocals. The passion really comes across on this gem of a number.
Kevin Brown: I love playing slide when Paul Carrack is close by singing. ‘You’re the one’ wraps up the album and kind of says ‘there you go, done and dusted!! The passion in the delivery from the whole band reflects the general feel good factor about the album, which is again a record that makes me feel very proud.

Blues Matters: Do you include in your live gigs nowadays any of the numbers from your previous albums?
Kevin Brown: Not yet, I am still getting Mojave Dust of my chest but as more people become aware of my back catalogue I am starting to get requests from my past works.

Blues Matters: Are there any new albums, collaborations etc. in the pipelines Kevin that we can look forward too?
Kevin Brown: My project with the Senegalese Kora player ‘Moussa Kouyate’ is in the can and scheduled for September release. We are touring extensively during that time so keep tuned to the website [www.thekevinbrown.com]. Plus I have been invited to be a guest slide player alongside Jimmy Vaughan and Duke Robbillard on David Maxwel’ s new album. (Piano player, Freddy King, Roomful of blues etc.) Meanwhile I am writing the follow up to Mojave Dust and looking forward to taking that giant leap to stereo having worked in mono for the last three years, very exciting!!

Blues Matters: Thank you once again for supporting Blues Matters. We all wish you well for the future and we look forward to hearing your new projects