| If You Go Victor Wainwright and the WildRoots, Mark Hodgson, Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, Ray Guiser and the Daytona Blues Society All-Stars 8 p.m. Saturday News-Journal Center, 221 N. Beach St., Daytona Beach TICKETS: $20 general admission; preferred seats $35 single or $60 per couple (includes copy of Wainwright's CD). Tickets available at the Daytona State College box office, Building 220, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach; Angell & Phelps Café, 156 S. Beach St., Daytona Beach; or at the door the night of the concert. INFORMATION: 386-506-3042. |
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
When Victor Wainwright graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach in 2004, he had earned a double degree in air traffic management and psychology.
The Savannah native and piano player also had earned what he calls a "double major in boogie, a master's in rhythm and a Ph.D. in swing." While hitting the books during his Daytona days, Wainwright had been schooling himself in the blues in area nightclubs, honing his craft under the mentorship of blues man Mark Hodgson.
Wainwright took his ERAU degree and landed an air traffic control gig in Memphis -- Memphis! The home of Stax Records and Rufus Thomas and Elvis!
"The mecca of genuine rock 'n' roll and blues," Wainwright says.
The perfect place to guide planes and play blues.
Except soon after Wainwright touched down in Memphis, he wasn't playing the blues -- he got the blues. Big time.
"I was working crazy hours, long hours," Wainwright says by phone from
his Memphis home. He's returning to Daytona Beach on Saturday to
headline a concert at News-Journal Center celebrating the 10th
anniversary of Angell & Phelps Café.
"Everybody says, 'Oh, air traffic control is a really stressful job,'¤" Wainwright notes. "They don't understand -- it is THE most stressful job.
"It hit home that
I wasn't going to be able to play music no matter what. I started to
have major, major anxiety attacks, not being able to breathe. Nothing
like that had happened to me before. I had a really, really big one
where I couldn't breathe and they took me to the hospital. I said,
'That's enough.'"
Air traffic's loss was the blues' gain.
Wainwright offered to play for free at Wet Willie's, a club on Beale Street in Memphis. After a month they hired him as the house musician.
And Wainwright renewed his partnership with Daytona-area musician Stephen Dees. The result is the new album "Beale Street to the Bayou" by Victor Wainwright and the WildRoots, with 13 of its 14 tracks of blues, R&B and roots music written or co-written by Dees.
Saturday's concert will feature Wainwright and the WildRoots performing music from the CD, plus performances by Hodgson, R&B pianist the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, sax player Ray Guiser and the Daytona Blues Society All-Stars.
Dees, an Edgewater resident who plays bass and guitars in the WildRoots, has a pop/rock resume that includes stints as bassist with Hall and Oates, Todd Rundgren and many others. He landed on MTV and Billboard's rock charts in the 1980s with his band Novo Combo. From the 1990s to today, Dees has fronted his own Bowie/Beatle-esque pop-rock band, the Bandees.
"I'm not that big into genres," Dees says. "I like Johnny Cash because he was Johnny Cash. I don't just like rock 'n' roll across the board. When I first met Victor, he was talking about the same kind of roots music that I grew up on: early Elvis, Sun Records, Fats Domino, B.B. King, hardcore roots artists who I love as well."
And so "Beale Street to the Bayou" includes the now booming, now soulful and controlled baritone of Wainwright surrounded by the jazzy, urban blues of the song "Mighty Man," the acoustic delta blues of "Sold Down River" and the Allman Brothers-style groove of "Long Way to Go" (which name-checks Martin Luther King).
There are echoes of Brook Benton and Otis Redding in the ballad "Blues in the Rain," and echoes of Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" in the soulful, environmentally conscious "Planet Earth."
Occasionally Dees, who produced the album, pumps some straight-up rock bite into his guitars and those of lead guitarist Greg Gumpel. And the acoustic guitar folk ballad "Not Afraid" features a delicate vocal from Wainwright over -- cello!
"In the blues community, they'll sometimes get in an uproar about what kind of blues you're putting out," Wainwright says. "They're very particular about what they consider quote-unquote the blues. I think that's a shame.
"You hear people say 'Keep the blues alive.' The quickest way to watch the blues die off is for everyone to keep playing the same thing over and over again the same way it's been done for 50 years.
"How many blues musicians does it take to screw in a light bulb? It takes one, and then five others to tell you exactly how Muddy Waters would have done it. But Muddy Waters wasn't trying to sound like anybody else.
"Pay homage to the greats, pull from them, but also put yourself in there. Put a little of Victor Wainwright in there and don't worry about anything else. Blues is nothing but a feeling, really."
"Everybody says, 'Oh, air traffic control is a really stressful job,'¤" Wainwright notes. "They don't understand -- it is THE most stressful job.
"It hit home that
I wasn't going to be able to play music no matter what. I started to
have major, major anxiety attacks, not being able to breathe. Nothing
like that had happened to me before. I had a really, really big one
where I couldn't breathe and they took me to the hospital. I said,
'That's enough.'" Air traffic's loss was the blues' gain.
Wainwright offered to play for free at Wet Willie's, a club on Beale Street in Memphis. After a month they hired him as the house musician.
And Wainwright renewed his partnership with Daytona-area musician Stephen Dees. The result is the new album "Beale Street to the Bayou" by Victor Wainwright and the WildRoots, with 13 of its 14 tracks of blues, R&B and roots music written or co-written by Dees.
Saturday's concert will feature Wainwright and the WildRoots performing music from the CD, plus performances by Hodgson, R&B pianist the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, sax player Ray Guiser and the Daytona Blues Society All-Stars.
Dees, an Edgewater resident who plays bass and guitars in the WildRoots, has a pop/rock resume that includes stints as bassist with Hall and Oates, Todd Rundgren and many others. He landed on MTV and Billboard's rock charts in the 1980s with his band Novo Combo. From the 1990s to today, Dees has fronted his own Bowie/Beatle-esque pop-rock band, the Bandees.
"I'm not that big into genres," Dees says. "I like Johnny Cash because he was Johnny Cash. I don't just like rock 'n' roll across the board. When I first met Victor, he was talking about the same kind of roots music that I grew up on: early Elvis, Sun Records, Fats Domino, B.B. King, hardcore roots artists who I love as well."
And so "Beale Street to the Bayou" includes the now booming, now soulful and controlled baritone of Wainwright surrounded by the jazzy, urban blues of the song "Mighty Man," the acoustic delta blues of "Sold Down River" and the Allman Brothers-style groove of "Long Way to Go" (which name-checks Martin Luther King).
There are echoes of Brook Benton and Otis Redding in the ballad "Blues in the Rain," and echoes of Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" in the soulful, environmentally conscious "Planet Earth."
Occasionally Dees, who produced the album, pumps some straight-up rock bite into his guitars and those of lead guitarist Greg Gumpel. And the acoustic guitar folk ballad "Not Afraid" features a delicate vocal from Wainwright over -- cello!
"In the blues community, they'll sometimes get in an uproar about what kind of blues you're putting out," Wainwright says. "They're very particular about what they consider quote-unquote the blues. I think that's a shame.
"You hear people say 'Keep the blues alive.' The quickest way to watch the blues die off is for everyone to keep playing the same thing over and over again the same way it's been done for 50 years.
"How many blues musicians does it take to screw in a light bulb? It takes one, and then five others to tell you exactly how Muddy Waters would have done it. But Muddy Waters wasn't trying to sound like anybody else.
"Pay homage to the greats, pull from them, but also put yourself in there. Put a little of Victor Wainwright in there and don't worry about anything else. Blues is nothing but a feeling, really."
Victor Wainwright and the Daytona Blues Society All Stars at the News Journal Center was absolutely fantastic! Wainwright & Dees - a match hard to beat. As the show went on, it just kept getting better and better! Mark Hodgson & Rev. Billy still got it and then some!
I feel sorry for those who missed the encore! Wainwright invited his grandfather, dad and uncle to the stage. What talent! Now we know where Vic got his from. Grandpa can sure hit the keys and still has a strong voice and lots of energy. As a friend of mine said...I bet Christmas is a blast at their house!
so over rated wainright, daytona is a tiny place w/ basic talent . there has not been any graet music here since Duane Allman left. just a bunch of sidewalk wanna bee's