Chris Wilson - Interview with a Bluesman
Chris Wilson is an Australian blues institution. He’s been an essential part of the Australian music industry for over 20 years. So what’s been happening in this bluesman’s life of late and what has compelled him to get out of bed to talk to me, despite nursing a bad case of the flu?
I begin by asking Wilson what he is up to at the moment?
“Just playing,” he says, “mostly local stuff” he adds.
I feel sorry for the man who is obviously sick as a dog but I press on and ask how Chris got started in music.
“I was fascinated by it, it was a big mystery,” Wilson says when asked about what it was that first called him to play the blues.
It emerges that he took up music as a boy when a friend bought a guitar. Wilson didn’t want to miss out on the fun, so took up harmonica himself.
“I just learnt off records, I never had any lessons to speak of,” he says.
What drives him on to keep playing and creating these days?
“Still the same guys,” he laughs. “Chicago Blues of the 50’s, that was a defining period that hasn’t been bettered.”
Given the chance to create his ultimate blues concert line-up, he lists some legendary players:
“I would love to have seen Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson, The Stones during the 70’s, Hank Williams… oh and Muddy (Waters). And I would have loved to see the original Saints line-up. I never got to see that…”
That is not to say that Chris Wilson isn’t on the way to carving out his own legend into the Australian (and international) blues landscape. Indeed, 2005 saw Chris Wilson inducted into Goulburn’s Blues Hall of Fame. The occasion has been commemorated by local artist Bill Dorman with a sculpture of the bluesman titled “Ma Baby Gone ‘n’ Left Me”.
Who better to offer a perspective on how the industry has changed in recent years then someone of Chris’s vintage and calibre? Surprisingly, it’s not the arrival of the Internet or the saturation of the market by reality TV stars that has made the biggest impact according to Wilson.
“It’s CDs. Before CDs we couldn’t take our music on the road to sell at gigs, the records would just warp,” he says, “Yeah CDs made a huge impact”.
However, he does acknowledge that the Internet has its uses.
“It’s good for people to find out when you’re playing,” he concedes.
After collaborating with some of this country’s biggest names, including Hunters and Collectors, Archie Roach, Deb Conway and James Reyne, Wilson has settled in with his current line up of Shannon Bourne on guitar, Chris Rodgers on bass and Dave Folley on drums. Collectively known as The Spidermen, the group has been together now for over four years.
So what’s on the horizon? “Just playing,” he says repeating his opening statement to me, whilst coughing and laughing.
2006 also will mark the re-release of Chris Wilson’s superb solo album from the early 90s Live at the Continental. Twelve years on, the album should be out in September.
