Within a month of the Last Night of the Proms, the Royal Albert Hall played host to an altogether different musical treat on Thursday night as travelling bluesman Seasick Steve played to a sell out audience.
The gig represents a new peak in the extraordinary rise of travelling bluesman Steven Wold whose rough and ready street corner blues has been the surprise hit of 2008.
Armed with just a battered old guitar affectionately known as the ‘Three-string trance wonder’ SS ripped through much of his recently released LP I started out with nothin’ and I still got most of it left, and also threw in an impromptu version of Hank Williams’ I’m so lonesome I could cry. His failure to close the night with Rule Britannia was however a disappointing omission.
Seasick Steve continues to tour the country over the coming week, calling at Bristol, Brighton, Nottingham, Liverpool and Glasgow. That is assuming his motion sickness hasn’t got the better of him.
Words: Olly Brown