Seasick Steve

Seasick Steve

Steven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, (born circa 1941) is an American bluesman, although he prefers to be called "a song and dance man". He plays guitars (mostly personalized), and sings, usually about his early life living rough and doing casual work.

Biography

Early life

Wold was born in Oakland, California. When he was four years old, his parents split up. His father played boogie-woogie piano and at five or six years old Wold tried to learn but could not. At age eight, he learned to play the guitar (he later found out that it was blues) from K. C. Douglas, who worked at his grandfather's garage. Douglas wrote the song "Mercury Blues" and used to play with Tommy Johnson,. Wold left home at 13 to avoid abuse at the hands of his stepfather, and lived rough and on the road in Tennessee, Mississippi and elsewhere, until 1973. He would travel long distances by hopping freight trains, looking for work as a farm labourer or in other seasonal jobs, often living as a hobo. At various times, Wold worked as a carnie, cowboy and a migrant worker.

Of his time he once said:

Hobos are people who move around looking for work, tramps are people who move around but don't look for work, and bums are people who don't move and don't work. I've been all three.

Musical career

In the sixties he started touring and performing with fellow blues musicians, and had friends in the music scene including Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell. Since then, he has worked, on and off, as a session musician and studio engineer. In the late 1980s, while living in Olympia, near Seattle, he worked with many indie label artists. Kurt Cobain was a friend. In the 1990s he continued to work as a recording engineer and producer, including producing several releases by Modest Mouse.

At one time, living in Paris, Wold made his living busking, mostly on the metro. After moving to Norway in 2001, Wold came out with his first album, entitled "Cheap", recorded with The Level Devils (Jo Husmo on stand-up bass and Kai Kristoffersen on drums) as his rhythm section. His debut solo album, "Dog House Music" was released by Bronzerat Records on 26 November 2006, after he was championed by an old friend, Joe Cushley, a DJ on internet radio station Resonance FM.

Breakthrough

Wold made his first UK television appearance on Jools Holland's 'Annual Hootenanny' BBC TV show (broadcast on New Year's Eve 2006) where he performed a live rendition of "Dog House Boogie" on the 'Three String Trance Wonder' and the 'Mississippi Drum Machine' (see below). After that show his popularity exploded, as he explained in an interview:

I can't believe it, all of the sudden I'm like the cat's miaow!

He was well received in the UK, winning the 2007 MOJO Award for Best Breakthrough Act and going on to appear at major UK festivals such as Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury. In 2007 he played more UK festivals than any other artist; he also appeared on The Paul O'Grady Show.

Wold toured early in 2008, playing in various venues and festivals in the UK. He was joined on stage by drummer Dan Magnusson, formerly of his backing band the Level Devils. KT Tunstall also dueted with Wold at one concert (Astoria, London, 24 January 2008). Wold also played many other festivals throughout the world in 2008, including Fuji Rock in Japan, East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in Australia (also in April 2008) , and Roskilde in Denmark.

Wold's major-label debut, "I Started Out With Nothin and i Still Got Most of it Left" was recorded with Dan Magnusson on drums, was released by Warner Music on 29 September, 2008 and features Ruby Turner and Nick Cave's Grinderman.

He has toured the UK extensively since 2007 being supported by Duke Garwood, Gemma Ray, The Sugars, Billie the Vision and the Dancers in January 2008, Amy LaVere in October 2008 ( Melody Nelson at the Brighton Dome on 7 October) and Joe Gideon & The Shark in January 2009. His tours in October 2008 and January 2009 were all sold out and included performances at the Royal Albert Hall, The Edinburgh Queens Hall, the Grand Opera House in Belfast, the Apollo in Manchester, the City Hall in Newcastle and the London Hammersmith Apollo.

In 2009, Wold was nominated for a Brit Award in the category of International Solo Male Artist, That same year, BBC 4 broadcast a documentary of Wold visiting the southern USA entitled Seasick Steve: Bringing It All Back Home. On 21 January, Wold hosted "Folk America: Hollerers, Stompers and Old Time Ramblers" at the Barbican in London, a show that was also televised and shown with the documentary on BBC4 as part of a series tracing American roots music.

Musical equipment

As well as an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar, Wold owns (and plays) several obscure and personalised instruments, including:

• The Three-String Trance Wonder - This is a normal guitar, but with only three strings. It has an old Harmony pickup added (with duct tape) and is played tuned to G, G and B using an E string in the A position, a D in the G position and a G in the B position. At his gigs, he often tells the story that he bought it for $75 in this condition in Como, Mississippi from a man named Sherman, who later told him he only paid $25 for it the day before. Wold vowed never to add another string, and that he would tour the world telling his story of how Sherman ripped him off. All in good fun as Sherman Cooper is a good buddy, who gave him the guitar having had it nailed to the wall as a decoration. A lot of the time he also adds (while picking up or putting away the guitar) that it is the "...biggest piece of shit in the world, I swear".

• The One-Stringed Diddley Bow - This is a one stringed string instrument played with a slide (He uses an old screwdriver for this purpose). It consists of a 2 foot long 2x4, with a semi-loose guitar string nailed to it at both ends. It was made especially for him by James 'Super Chikan' Johnson.

• The 'MDM' (Mississippi Drum Machine) - A small wooden box that is stomped upon, providing percussion. It is decorated with a Mississippi license plate ("MC33583"), and a small piece of carpet.

Nickname

When asked about his nickname, Wold has said: "because it's just true: I always get seasick." When he was ill on a cruise in Norway, later in his life, a friend playfully used the name and it stuck. When asked about his name on British Sunday morning television show, Something for the weekend, he replied, "I get sick on boats, that's it!"

Personal life

Wold married his second wife, Elisabeth, in 1982, and together they have three grown-up sons. He also has two sons from his first marriage. Wold has problems putting down roots in one place, and he and his wife have lived in 59 houses to date. They currently live in Norfolk.

One of Wold's sons, Didrik, is an illustrator who designs the artwork for Seasick Steve albums and designs and runs the official websites. His youngest son, Paul Martin Wold, made a guest appearance with him on tambourine at the Royal Albert Hall and has since performed with Seasick Steve frequently.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Title	Other information	Label
2004	Cheap	(as Seasick Steve and the Level Devils)	Dead Skunk Records
2006	Dog House Music		Bronzerat Records
2008	I Started Out With Nothin and i Still Got Most of it Left		Warner Bros. Records/Bronzerat Records

EPs

Year	Title	Other information	Label
2008	It's All Good		Bronzerat Records

Charted releases

Year	Title	UK Album Chart	UK Independent Album Chart	UK Singles Chart	UK Independent Singles Chart	Album
2006	Dog House Music	47	1	-	-	-
2007	"Dog House Boogie"	-	-	187	-	Dog House Music
2008	"Cut My Wings"	-	-	151	-	Dog House Music
2008	"It's All Good"	-	-	-	5	It's All Good
2008 (re-release)	Cheap	198	8	-	-	-
2008	I Started Out With Nothin and i Still Got Most of it Left	9	-	-	-	-

See also

• Modest Mouse

External links

• Official website
• Offical MySpace
• Offical Facebook
• Seasick Steve interview at musicOMH
• Seasick Steve interview at Blues In London
• Hobo-Low: Seasick Steve Appreciation Forum
• Record Label - Bronzerat recordings