Dave Hole
Encyclopedia
Dave Hole is an Australian slide guitarist known for his style of playing rock and roll
and blues
music.
, Western Australia
when he was four years old. He became interested in blues
music after hearing a school friend's Muddy Waters
album when he was around six years of age. Receiving his first guitar
at age twelve he started to teach himself due to lack of guitar teachers being available in Perth at the time, using the albums of Eric Clapton
, Jimi Hendrix
, Blind Willie Johnson
, Skip James
, Blind Lemon Jefferson
. He later continued teaching himself with the albums of Robert Johnson, Elmore James
, and Mississippi Fred McDowell
.
Hole is left-handed and, after breaking a finger in a football accident, he played the guitar right-handed by putting the slide on his index finger and hanging his hand over the top of the guitar neck. After healing he had gotten so used to the 'wrong' way of playing that he never changed back. He became a professional in 1972 when working with a band in London and returned to Perth in 1974. He toured the Western Australian pub circuit for twenty years playing in Perth and remote towns. To keep his fans happy he released Short Fuse Blues
a tape he financed, produced, and recorded with his band Short Fuse in three days in 1990, and which he sold during pub performances. On a whim he sent a copy to Guitar Player
magazine in the U.S. Editor Jas Obrecht was so impressed with the tape he wrote an article hailing him as the newest guitar wizard and comparing him to such greats as Stevie Ray Vaughan
and Albert King
. Soon a copy was in the hands of Alligator Records
president Bruce Iglauer
who signed him up as the first non-U.S.-based artist of their 26-year history.
Critics praised him all over the U.S., and new fans were exposed to him through radio play on more than 1000 stations. Reviews appeared in Guitar World
, Guitar for the Practicing Musician
, Billboard
, Audio, Spin, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post
plus other major publications, including The Associated Press
. Hole signed a deal for Europe with Provogue Records, with the albums and tours of the U.S. and Europe helping him to increase his popularity worldwide. Later tours of Europe have seen him headlining festival shows in Germany, Denmark, Holland, France and Switzerland with the Leverkusen Blues Festival in Germany
televised nationally. He has also performed in Brazil
, Sweden
, Norway
, Russia
, Austria
, Italy
, Spain
, Belgium
and the UK.
Under the Spell won an ARIA Music Awards
(Australian Recording Industry Association
) in the Blues/Roots category in 1999. After releasing ten albums, he continues to tour worldwide, returning to his home in the Darling Scarp
of Western Australia for the other six months of the year.
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
music.
Biography
Hole was born in England, but his family moved to PerthPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
when he was four years old. He became interested in blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
music after hearing a school friend's Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
album when he was around six years of age. Receiving his first guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
at age twelve he started to teach himself due to lack of guitar teachers being available in Perth at the time, using the albums of Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Blind Willie Johnson
Blind Willie Johnson
"Blind" Willie Johnson was an American singer and guitarist, whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals....
, Skip James
Skip James
Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter, born in Bentonia, Mississippi, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....
. He later continued teaching himself with the albums of Robert Johnson, Elmore James
Elmore James
Elmore James was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He was known as "the King of the Slide Guitar" and had a unique guitar style, noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.-Biography:James was born Elmore Brooks in the old Richland community in...
, and Mississippi Fred McDowell
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Fred McDowell known by his stage name; Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American Hill country blues singer and guitar player.-Career:...
.
Hole is left-handed and, after breaking a finger in a football accident, he played the guitar right-handed by putting the slide on his index finger and hanging his hand over the top of the guitar neck. After healing he had gotten so used to the 'wrong' way of playing that he never changed back. He became a professional in 1972 when working with a band in London and returned to Perth in 1974. He toured the Western Australian pub circuit for twenty years playing in Perth and remote towns. To keep his fans happy he released Short Fuse Blues
Short Fuse Blues
Short Fuse Blues is the debut album by Australian blues singer and guitarist Dave Hole, released in 1990. The album was recorded over three days at Planet Studios in Perth, Western Australia. It was financed and produced by Hole...
a tape he financed, produced, and recorded with his band Short Fuse in three days in 1990, and which he sold during pub performances. On a whim he sent a copy to Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
magazine in the U.S. Editor Jas Obrecht was so impressed with the tape he wrote an article hailing him as the newest guitar wizard and comparing him to such greats as Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
and Albert King
Albert King
Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...
. Soon a copy was in the hands of Alligator Records
Alligator Records
Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
president Bruce Iglauer
Bruce Iglauer
Bruce Iglauer is the American founder and head of the independent blues record label Alligator Records in Chicago.Iglauer was born in Ann Arbor and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cincinnati, Ohio...
who signed him up as the first non-U.S.-based artist of their 26-year history.
Critics praised him all over the U.S., and new fans were exposed to him through radio play on more than 1000 stations. Reviews appeared in Guitar World
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
, Guitar for the Practicing Musician
Guitar for the Practicing Musician
Guitar for the Practicing Musician was a guitar magazine published in the United States by Cherry Lane Music in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992, it was the most popular music publication at newsstands, selling 740,000 issues over a six-month period. It was popular for publishing songs with guitar and...
, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, Audio, Spin, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post
The Denver Post
-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...
plus other major publications, including The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
. Hole signed a deal for Europe with Provogue Records, with the albums and tours of the U.S. and Europe helping him to increase his popularity worldwide. Later tours of Europe have seen him headlining festival shows in Germany, Denmark, Holland, France and Switzerland with the Leverkusen Blues Festival in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
televised nationally. He has also performed in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and the UK.
Under the Spell won an ARIA Music Awards
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
(Australian Recording Industry Association
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
) in the Blues/Roots category in 1999. After releasing ten albums, he continues to tour worldwide, returning to his home in the Darling Scarp
Darling Scarp
The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north-south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia...
of Western Australia for the other six months of the year.
Albums
- Short Fuse BluesShort Fuse BluesShort Fuse Blues is the debut album by Australian blues singer and guitarist Dave Hole, released in 1990. The album was recorded over three days at Planet Studios in Perth, Western Australia. It was financed and produced by Hole...
- Independent (1990) ; Alligator RecordsAlligator RecordsAlligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
/FestivalFestival Records (Australia)Festival Records was an Australian music recording and publishing company which was founded in Sydney in 1952 and operated until 2005....
(1992) - The Plumber - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (1992)
- Working Overtime - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (1 January 1993)
- Steel On Steel - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (1 January 1995)
- Whole Lotta Blues - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (1996)
- Ticket To Chicago - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (11 February 1997)
- Under The Spell - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (20 April 1999)
- Outside Looking In - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (5 June 2001)
- The Live One - Black Cat Records; Alligator/Festival (11 March 2003)
- Rough Diamond - Black Cat Records; Black Cat/ShockShock RecordsShock Records is Australia's largest independent record label. It helps distribute records from overseas records labels such as Epitaph Records, and also for small record labels designed specifically for that band such as Cement Records...
(19 May 2007); Blind Pig Records / Stony Plain (22 May 2007)
Contributions
- Huh - Blues Issue Special (1 track) (1995)
- Masters of Blues - A Tribute to Elmore James (1 track) Icehouse Records (1996)
- The Alligator Records 25th. Anniversary Collection (1 track) Alligator (1996)
- The Great Guitarists Vol.1 - A Celebration of Blues (1 track) Rounder Records (1997)
- Guitar Gurus (1 track) Sony (1998)
- Hound Dog Taylor - A Tribute (1 track) Alligator (1998)
- No. 1 Blues Album (1 track) PolygramPolyGramPolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
(1998) - The Alligator Records 30th Anniversary Collection (1 track) Alligator (2001)
- The No1 Blues Album (1 track) Polygram (2002)
- Crucial Guitar Blues (1 track) Alligator (2003)
- Alligator Records 35 x 35 (1 track) Alligator (2006)
- Crucial Slide Guitar Blues (1 track) Alligator (2007)
Further reading
- Dave Hole - interview with blues musician - Blues news (Perth, W.A), Vol.4 (Feb./Mar. 1994), p. 3,