Kirk Special
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia | INDIE
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Chris Leese, one spoke in the three spoke wheel that is Bluepantz Productions, recently caught Kirk Special at the Tuxedo Cat and it jogged a memory or two. He was responsible for booking Kirk down at Willunga for a heat of the Killing Floor Blues comp and the rest is…..we’ll let Chris tell you about it.
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KIRK SPECIAL LAUNCHES DEBUT ALBUM
Kirk “Raisin’ Hell” Special has been rollicking along like a hillbilly riding a tank into Baghdad over the past year or so, winning the Killing Floor Blues Challenge, appearing at the Juke Joint at Queens and even festivals in the US. And now there’s damningly incriminating evidence: The Fewer The Facts The Stronger The Opinion, released through Stobie Sounds.
Watching Special at the Tuxedo Cat the other night, I was reminded of the first time I heard him play, while judging the third heat of the Killing Floor Blues Challenge in Willunga. He launched into what sounded like The Ramones covering RL Burnside, with all the volume and attitude of a four-piece punk band erupting from one skinny kid with a guitar and a bass drum. The locals who had filled the inn began streaming out the door, complaining “This isn’t blues” and shouting “Get off!” behind them. Unperturbed, Special blasted on and, when we judged him the winner, we were nearly chased out of town with pitchforks and torches.
That decision was vindicated, however, when three independent judges unanimously chose him as the winner of the Killing Floor final, thereby awarding him a slot at the Juke Joint at Queens. It was there that he caught the attention of JC Stobie, slide-maker by appointment to some of the best slide-guitarists in the country, and founder of record label Stobie Sounds.
Back at the Tuxedo Cat, Special was railing at plans to pull the building down and build student apartments -- literally shouting his disgust from the rooftop -- when Stobie turned to me. “You created this monster. Do you see what you’ve done?” he asked, wryly. “The guy is crazy”, I said, “but I only quickened the madness. I was going to Hell anyway.”
The Fewer The Facts The Stronger The Opinion is available now through Stobie Sounds. - Chris Leese
Discography
I've recently released Full-Length album "The Fewer The Facts, The Stronger The Opinion", recorded on quarter inch tape, through some really sweet amps and old-timey mixing desks.
9 tracks of powerful, powerful blues-punk. 9 crowd pleasers, swear.
One Mannin'
Shotgun Powder
Outta Control
Long Hair
Arkansas
Seven Sevens
Hole in a Hole
Sloppy Drunk Blues*
Cocaine
* taken from a forthcoming Big Joe William tribute album, "My Blues", released by Stobie Sounds late 2010. It's killer.
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Bio
I hail from Adelaide Australia, where I'm known for being just about the only one-man-band around. I take my influence from RL Burnside, Robert Belfour and Hasil Adkins as well as punk/garage bands like the Sonics and the Cramps.
Think fuzz, furiously fast finger-picked open-tuned licks, medium-fi vocals, bottleneck slide (an actual bottleneck, mind) and one dude kickin' two drums. Also, being Australian means I'm naturally charming and hard-working. Oh, and broke.
I'm just off the back of a bunch of tours around Australia(it's a big country, it's hard to do all in one go), playing with luminaries like the Snowdroppers, Abbe May (ABBE MAY!), Jackson Firebird and the Dunhill Blues.
Last year, a had a crack at Toronto, ON's NXNE festival, as well as a mini-tour of Ontario, involving some 7-odd shows in a week. The power cut out before my set, but it came good and I got to ply
I also played at the second and third annual Juke Joint festivals in my hometown with genius Aussie blues purveyors, Dallas Frasca and Mojo Webb. You probably don't know those names, but you really should.
Prior to that I went to Minneapolis, MN to play Deep Blues Festival '09 with T-Model Ford, CeDell Davis, the Black Diamond Heavies, Left Lane Cruiser (I learned slide listening to their first album, Gettin' Down on It) and a few choice Canadian bands like the Skirtchasers, the Schomberg Fair and the Speaking Tongues, whom I had the pleasure of reconnecting with during NXNE.
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