Shameless Dave & The Miracle Whips
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Shameless Dave & The Miracle Whips

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"Shameless Dave in the House"

Augusta Chronicle
By Steven Uhles | Staff Writer

Bellying up to the Blind Pig's bar, David Bryan squints against the glare of soft saloon lighting bouncing off the array of stemware hanging, inverted, above his head. Searching by sight and touch, he runs his hands over the highballs, martini glasses and tall tumblers, finally pausing at a handled cup. Pouring strong, black coffee over a generous layer of nondairy creamer, he grins sheepishly.
"Ragweed," he says softly. "It takes a lot out of you."
Not very rock 'n' roll.
A few minutes later, a very different David Bryan takes the stage. Striding across the stage, his feet, clad in his trademark green footwear, seem to barely brush the carpet. He feathers the tone and volume knobs on his guitar, pulls off a few experimental licks, looks right and then left at his bandmates and then launches into a fiery amalgamation of Chicago blues, Southern rock boogie and Memphis soul.
David Bryan has left the building; Shameless Dave is in the house.
Shameless Dave and the Miracle Whips, who enjoy a regular gig at the Blind Pig, recently was named the best house band by readers of Augusta Magazine and will play a special Best of Augusta After Bash Benefit on Thursday at the Imperial Theatre, 745 Broad St.
Mr. Bryan admitted to a certain degree of dichotomy between his onstage persona and his far-lower-key self. He said only the power of music played passionately, and his emerald slippers, are able to channel his Shameless self.
"There is always that person inside that wants to get up and do that," he explained. "And I do have the green shoes. The thing is, I get genuinely excited about being able to get up and play, and I think people see that."
Although it bears the crying guitar and call-and-response structure indicative of the blues, Mr. Bryan balks a bit at labeling the Miracle Whips a basic blues band. Instead, their sound balances somewhere between rock and the hard place that is electric blues.
"It's really a sound that's based on the way we play and play together," he said. "I started, as a teenager, just playing the blues, learning off records. Then I moved on into other areas - rock, Southern rock and even country. By the time I got to this point in my life, I've played a little of everything and bring all that to the mix."
That experience, shared with members of his band, allows the Miracle Whip sound to warp and twist with the addition of new textures and elements of improvisation. Mr. Bryan said those are important Miracle Whip ingredients.
"It's really easy for something like the blues to get real boring real fast," he said. "You can fall into the trap of playing the same shuffle beat all night long. You need to be able to keep things interesting."
Like most musicians, Mr. Bryan's bread and butter comes from a day job, and he views a rock-star future with some skepticism. Still, the ability to pick up a guitar and make it sing remains his passion.
"People wake up in the morning and they are what they are," he said. "I've done all kinds of day jobs, mostly sales, but when I wake up in the morning, I am a musician. That's the first thing on my mind and something I can't ever get away from."
- Augusta Chronicle


"SD&MW Rock the Jockey Club"

Shameless Dave and the Miracle Whips entertained visitors and Wilkes County natives alike Saturday night as part of the Washington Festival of Music and Art. Performing at the Washington Jockey Club, the Augusta-based band had the audience up and dancing to a variety of rock and blues tunes. With "Shameless" Dave Bryan on guitar leading the way, the band delivered skillful renditions of blues and southern rock standards from artists like the Allman Brothers, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lynard Skynard and others. One patron declared the music to be "as good as when I heard the Allman Brothers."

Local musical legend and former band member of the Swinging Medallions, "Downtown" Freddie Brown joined in, adding his saxophone to the rock and roll. He jammed with the Miracle Whips for several songs much to the pleasure of the audience.

- Second Sight


"I Let My Guitar Do The Talkin'"

Miracle Whip Blues
Augusta Chronicle
Steven Uhles


I wasn't sure if Shameless Dave and the Miracle Whips, the house band at the long-defunct Blind Pig, was a going concern. I hadn't heard hide, hair or blues-based howl from the act in a couple of years. I felt sure that the quiet-in-public/raucous-on-stage guitar man David Bryan (Shameless to you) was still playing, but the band, I feared, had dissolved into blues oblivion.

I'm sure glad I was wrong.

I recently received a package. Inside was a nine-song album credited to Shameless Dave and his deeply funky Miracle Whips. Titled "I Let My Guitar do The Talkin'", it admittedly starts slow but picks up steam quickly.

The first track, the somewhat uninspired "Howlin' At The Moon", seemed a little too much like blues by the numbers, and the mix seemed muted. The rest of the record, however, is a funky blues winner.

A blues record can be tough going. Because it's a musical form based around a strict structure and call-and-response repetition, it can hamper creativity in unskilled hands. That's where "Guitar" succeeds. It's an incredibly creative blues record.

It shows lyrical panache, an ability to explore 12-bar style, musically, and has more that a few truly inspired guitar breaks.

It also manages to avoid the single greatest temptation faced by blues musicians - the extended jam. There are solos and breakdowns and all the expected accoutrements of blues tunes, but each is incorporated in a smart, succinct and tasteful way.

Take, for example, the title track. It's a great tune with not one but two really beautiful guitar breaks, and it clocks in at less than three minutes. None of the tunes lasts longer than six minutes.

It's a very good record by a very good band that I am quite happy to discover I had written off too soon.
- Augusta Chronicle


Discography

I Let My Guitar Do The Talkin

Photos

Bio

Yeah we got the blues, but we ain’t sad about it!
Shameless Dave & The Miracle Whips bring their own brand of blues-rock to the stage. With a mixture of blues-rock-R&B that will keep you on your feet all night long. Songs range from The Allman Brothers to Johnny Guitar Watson to Muddy Waters. With Shameless Dave originals mixed in you will be pleasantly surprised at the variety of this blues band.

Veterans of the club and party scene, Shameless Dave can call up a rousing blues show or blow out some dance tunes to keep the party going.

Previously the house band at Augusta’s premier live music club, The Blind Pig, the band has opened for many national acts such as Leon Russell, Tinsley Ellis, Colonel Bruce Hampton, Mothers Finest, and many more.

Voted Best of Augusta in 2003.

Shameless Dave & The Miracle Whips had the pleasure of opening the 2004 Blind Willie concert.

In 2005 Shameless Dave and Miracle Whips opened for A Day In The Country.

In 2007 they backed national artist Michael Stewart(Low Country, Dolphin, Please Jesus, Don't You Know How Much I Love You) at several local shows, local artist Chris Goss (Gone Country, Testosterone) and opened the Boots and Buckles Show for national artist Tracy Lawrence.

www.shamelessdave.com