David Boxcar Gates
October 25th, 2011
Prism has the privilege of sharing the stage with some cool bands and artists, in festival billings and via opening acts. A standout is bluesman David Boxcar Gates.
Even if you're not a fan of the blues, Gates will change your mind. Some dismiss blues as a primitive, unschooled form of the rock idioms to which it gave birth. David takes the itinerant solo blues performance to the level of Mozart.
He enters the concert stage with a couple of hundred-year-old archtop and flat-top guitars, harmonica harness made of bicycle parts, and a wood block near his left foot for stomping. A microphone is respectively placed nearby.
Then it starts. The intricate finger-picking, double-stops, time signature changes, straight-fours to swing. All the techniques that rolled down the tracks before Robert Johnson perfected them in the mid '30s come alive in David's hands. The vocals moan, holler and soar, while that left foot stomp is as classy as a full drum kit. He even announces songs as the great bluesmen of yore; mumbling the chorus refrain lines as mythical story-telling.
When David opened for Prism in April 2011, our band stood in the wings awestruck. While not everyone in our crew is a blues devotee, we kept smiling at each other, all thumbs up; David Gates is great. He's also young, a west-coast Canadian, a humble man of faith with a great future. If he's not touring Europe, look for an upcoming show near you. And watch him here: http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Gates/672096411
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