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| Dylan-Thomas
Vance |
JANUARY 30, 2003. MEMPHIS, TN. Beale Street is packed with avid Blues fans who have traveled from around the country, some from around the world, to witness more than fifty unsigned acts compete for $25,000 worth of prizes at The International Blues Challenge. The room at Blues Hall is certainly no exception, as six acoustic solo performers each deliver brilliant sets. Among them, a young man originally from a small town in Montana, who has crossed the country from Portland, Oregon to participate.
Dylan-Thomas Vance's set came near the end of the first night, in a room alive with extremely talented musicians. Some like T.J. Wheeler, Charlie A'Court and Frank Fotusky have been plying their skills for many a year, building tremendous reputations within their own regions of the country. But, it didn't daunt Dylan, as he played lap-slide guitar magnificently and sang with pure emotion. Nervous? You bet. Try playing on a street as renowned as Beale with masterful artists in a heated contest to win fame and recognition.
Though Dylan did not survive the opening night of competition, his involvement in The International Blues Challenge representing Portland's Cascade Blues Association helped to break open the doors for greater success and achievements over the following year. And, it appears as if he has only scratched the surface of his potential.
Dylan-Thomas Vance hails from humble beginnings. Face it, Bozeman, Montana is not the first place that comes to anybody's mind when compiling the list of musical hotbeds in the United States. But, for Dylan, it served as just the right stepping stone to launch a lifetime's musical quest.
Music has always been at the core of Dylan's life. His mother had been a music major in college, while his uncle was a high school music director. Even his maternal grandparents had their part as his minister grandfather was a fantastic singer and his grandmother played the piano. There was also a constant variety of musicians available on the family turntable, with his parents' taste in classic Rock groups like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones intermixed with artists like Muddy Waters and Hank Williams. And, there was always Bob Dylan. Especially Bob Dylan!
Dylan was encouraged by his parents to pursue singing and playing music, so it's easy to understand why music classes were always his favorite in school. He started out playing drums, performing percussion in the school bands from middle through high school. He was also a member of the choir, singing tenor. Music was his life's ambition and he planned on moving to Boston following graduation to enroll at The Berkeley School of Music.
"But some friends of mine had moved to Portland," Dylan recalls, "and they called me up and asked if I'd come out and join their band. It sounded like a hell of a lot more fun than college, and a lot less expensive."
So
Dylan relocated to the Left Coast instead of Bean Town, becoming a part of the
group Tao Jones, a somewhat experimental band, working through Art, Progressive
and Alternate Rock sounds in the days prior to Nirvana breaking open the scene.
They did well, working in Portland's well-established clubs such as the
X-Ray Café, Satyricon and La Luna. They even made a few West Coast tours.
But, that Rock scene didn't keep Dylan's focus for long. He took on
a self-described study mode, exploring the thriving Jazz community he found
weekly at Jazz De Opus. In particular, The Leroy Vinegar Quartet, featuring
local all-star talent Thara Memory on trumpet, Mel Brown on drums and guitarist
Dan Faehnle. And, he began to take lessons on the guitar from Faehnle.
This
led to further studies in music and he enrolled in Jazz programs at Portland
State University under the tutelage of Jerry Hahn and Darrell Grant. But, going
to college also costs money, so Dylan took on a job as a waiter at Café
Lena, where he encountered a former Jazz bassist making a start as a Country
Blues performer working with a lap-slide guitar by the name of Kelly Joe Phelps.
Phelps also knew all the people that Dylan was learning from, so the two struck
up a friendship and the older guitarist told tales of his Jazz playing days
and of artists such as Miles Davis.
By 1998, Dylan had finished his schooling and had been performing as part of a Jazz Fusion band called Revelations. Like Tao Jones, Revelations had a little success on the region's music scene and they did some touring. But, as with Rock, Jazz just didn't feel like home to Dylan.
"I love playing music," Dylan remarks, "but I couldn't figure out how come it wasn't quite exactly what I wanted it to be every time I played. Or the way I wanted it to feel." So, he walked away from music for a couple of years.
During that time, he tried an experiment with an old "beater" guitar he had, converting it into a lap-slide. It had been five years since his friendship with Kelly Joe Phelps, but the second he modified that guitar and heard it, he knew this was the sound that he was looking for. The slide produced a singing voice, much like the human voice. So, he sat down and began to teach himself how to play this new instrument.
"For the first time in my life when learning an instrument, I wasn't following somebody else's pre formatted path," Dylan quips. "Whatever came out, came out. It's really a great discovery process."
It seemed only natural that the musical genres that fit this style blended Dylan's love for Country, Folk, Soul and Blues, as it is definitely an amalgamation of each. With the desire to place this mood onto CD, Dylan went to the studios at Alberta Music Collective in Northeast Portland. He wanted to put together something that would reflect on all of these traditions, but still draw on his personal background, too.
"For instance, I wasn't going to put out a Blues album," he states, "because, well, I'm a white boy from Montana. I love the Blues and I don't believe that you have to be an African-American or even from the South to play the Blues or anything like that. But, your experiences are definitely going to play into that kind of music. The same with Country. So yes, the project was going to be Blues. And yes, it was going to be Country. And yes, Soul. But, it was also going to sound like a guy from Montana playing all of those things, too."
The result was Dylan's debut solo CD, "Cowboy Soul and Country Blues, Volume One." That phrase, he felt, was the best description for the music's mood. He began working in some of the smaller acoustic rooms in Portland, initially at The Empire Room and later expanding into some of the McMenamin's Brewing chain of venues. The album has shown nice sales since its release, finding an interested audience, particularly among the city's Blues fans.
One person who took special note was former Cascade Blues Association president Susan Stewart, who convinced Dylan to apply for the 2002 Journey to Memphis competition, the CBA's contest to select the local representative in The International Blues Challenge. On a Sunday afternoon at The Trail's End Saloon in Oregon City, Dylan held his ground against acoustic soloist Joe McMurrian and electric outfits Blind Rhino and the Richard Day-Reynolds Band, amassing one of the highest scores ever in the local tournament. It was quite a huge surprise for Dylan, but it was also satisfying that his unique work had been validated.
Traveling back to Memphis is not an inexpensive trip, even with the $500 prize money offered by the CBA. Especially if you're a young musician trying to make a name for yourself. So, when the time came for Dylan to make his journey, he drove cross country, scheduling a series of small club dates along the route there and back, including three in Memphis outside of the Blues Challenge itself. He also was able to gain exposure on radio in Salt Lake City, on the local CBS television affiliate in Memphis and even discovering one of his songs being featured in the rotation on the nationally-syndicated "Blues Deluxe" radio program.
His first night in Memphis, former Beale Street Blues Society president Dennis Brooks had set up a gig for Dylan at the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. He shared the bill with guitarist Ben Prestige, who was also in town representing the Suncoast Blues Society from Florida. In the true spirit of camaraderie, the two guitarists struck up a friendship that carried over into the next night's competition, where they cheered one another on. But, during that first night, Dylan found himself studying a new instrument that had seen local fame in the hands of Richard Johnston, who'd won the International Blues Challenge the year before. That instrument was the Lowe-Bow, a modified version of the traditional Diddley-Bow, with multiple strings made from a cigar box, played with a slide. Being fascinated by all things that slide, Dylan was captivated by the instrument and the sounds it could create.
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| Dylan-Thomas
Vance in performance. |
Friendship can also be summed up as a by-product of The International Blues Challenge, as throughout the weekend many of the performers gathered together to jam and watch one another play. So, despite not making the acoustic/solo finals, Dylan still attended the following night to cheer on his friends and was very proud that Australia's Fiona Boyes took home the prize.
Returning home to Portland, Dylan's participation seemed to open doors to further offerings of work. Many of the younger acoustic musicians in the area gather together to work in various combinations and Dylan is no exception to this. He has steadily worked with artists such as David Lipkind, Rachel Browning, Joe McMurrian, Griff Bear, Mark Lemhouse, and Kevin Cowan (who also made the trip to Memphis with Dylan). He also found himself being called to perform at various locations outside of the Portland area, making a handful of tours into California, Washington, Idaho and Arizona.
Most recently, this past fall saw the release of a new CD titled, "Bittersweet." A step in a different direction than the previous album, "Bittersweet" is a collection of Folk and Roots numbers that have been playing through Dylan's mind over the past few months. Alongside a handful of original compositions, it also features songs by artists that have been a steady influence on his development as a musician, including, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson and Bob Dylan. It also gave Dylan the chance to lay down tracks with a handful of good friends such as harmonica player David Lipkind and fiddler Griff Bear.
And, speaking of working with Griff Bear, the pair have been holding court at Biddy McGraw's every Tuesday night for the past couple of months, bringing along a recording device to capture the energy sparks the two bring out in one another. These tapes will eventually be compiled into yet another CD which Dylan states should be available this coming summer.
Slide music continues to enthrall Dylan's mind and he finds himself listening to a variety of different forms, all of which he'd like to give a try himself someday. Though Kelly Joe Phelps has stepped away from the lap-slide as of late, there are numerous new musicians electrifying the sound, most notably the Sacred Steel movement from artists like Aubrey Gent, Glenn Lee and Robert Randolph, all playing the pedal-steel guitar.
Another artist who captures his attention is David Lindley, who uses a combination of pick-ups to capture different string sounds in different octaves. Tuning variations, as well as the Diddley-Bow, Lowe-Bow and Pedal Steel are all new territories that Dylan would like to explore in the future.
But, next on Dylan's immediate agenda is to return to the studio. He has a mindful of new material that he originally intended on pursuing as "Cowboy Soul And Country Blues, Volume Two," but set aside to explore the Rootsy songs he had running through his mind which became "Bittersweet."
"Having done that it clears the plate for me to go back to that energy," Dylan notes. "It's been a research project of mine these past couple of months, delving deeper into that."
"Cowboy Soul And Country Blues" lap-slide guitar has certainly made for a unique sound that immediately brings nobody but Dylan-Thomas Vance to mind. His vision of combining his love of various musical forms into this original style has garnered an audience in Portland, with all the potential to take him to even greater success beyond.
"Hopefully, I'm carving my own path," states Dylan. "You have to truly follow your individual muse. Be true to yourself. That's something that all the greats, no matter what the genre or instrument, everyone from Miles Davis to Bob Dylan to Robert Johnson, they were all true to themselves. True to their essence. I'd just like to continue on that projectory."
–
Greg Johnson
© 2004 Cascade Blues Association