Debra Dylan: Bluesy world fusion
TREY SANSOM’S DIDGERIBLUE
A wonderful advertising error occurred last fall when a local music venue ran the wrong ad for a Friday night show. I arrived expecting to hear a 1970’s style funk band, but onstage was a man setting up multiple didgeridoos and guitars. What the…?!? That man was Trey Sansom. Playing such diverse cover songs such as Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry,” Peter Rowan’s “The Hobo Song,” David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” and The Beatles’s “A Day in the Life,” plus very upbeat and positive originals, including an Aboriginal inspired instrumental that was so good I thought branches would start growing from his didgeridoos, I quickly became a rabid fan and I try to catch his shows whenever he and his band play.
Trey says “Didgeriblue is the concept of mixing American roots music with the ancient sounds of the Australian didgeridoo with a hint of the Caribbean to create a refreshing new sound. The blues, rock, bluegrass, reggae, Latin and indigenous sounds are all flavors that can be found at a Didgeriblue show. Some refer to the sound as “bluesy southern world fusion,” while others cannot describe what they’re hearing, or feeling for that matter. They just can’t believe what they are seeing. ” I couldn’t believe it either, when I saw Didgeriblue for the fist time. Prior to this show, I didn’t think I was particularly enamored of the didgeridoo, but I was immediately delighted and hooked by this unusual droning sound being joyfully incorporated into a variety of music styles.
Trey is also a solid blues guitarist and multi-instrumentalist with a powerful and appealing vocal style. He is joined in Didgeriblue with Shaggy, from Cornbred Blues Band, on bass, and Eric Keeble, from Moonshine Cherries, on drums.
I spoke to Trey about how this whole thing started:
520: Why didgeridoos?
Trey: It just kinda happened.
520: This kind of thing doesn’t just happen! This would never happen to me.
Trey: I was at friend and musician Devin Brewer’s house and he plays and the sound just kinda clicked with me. My parents have bamboo in their yard and I made my first didgeridoo, and then I started experimenting with making didgeridoos out of PVC pipe.
520: Why do you have three didgeridoos connected together?
Trey: That’s the “triple didg.” Each didg is one note and I use a method of circular breathing between the three to obtain a varied sound.
520: What about the single large didg next to the triple didg?
Trey: That is an authentic didg made from blood wood eucalyptus that was naturally hollowed out by termites. I bought that didg from Ganga Giri when he was playing at Preservation Pub. Giri plays didg for Peter Gabriel. This large didg is actually higher in pitch that the ones that make up the “triple didg.”
520: Have you always been playing didgeridoo while playing guitar?
Trey: No. When I was playing with a southern jam-rock band called “Left Foot Down,” I began adding the didg during a drum-jam, and I wasn’t very good at it. When I played with St. Somewhere, a Caribbean-influenced rock band, I put the didg on a stand and would play it while also playing percussion. When St. Somewhere broke up, I started playing the didg while playing guitar and it just really clicked.
520: What are your future goals for Didgeriblue?
Trey: I’d like to get to where the band plays an acoustic and electric set.
DIDGERIBLUE with Cutthroat Shamrock
December 29, 2006
Preservation Pub
28 Market Square
Knoxville, Tennessee
(865) 524-2224
Comments
Hey Trey, i am a guitar player trying to start a christian rock band.My problem is,is that i don't think i'm good enough.I work with you're mother and she told me you teach guitar and i would love to get together and learn and jam with you.E-mail me back when you can. Thanks
Daniel Kirby
Posted by: Daniel Kirby | February 17, 2007 02:36 AM
I am Trey's biggest fan!!! He is a awsome musician!!!
I love you trey
Posted by: Elizabeth Cate | April 6, 2007 01:58 PM