A few months ago, Matthew Wright, a music critic, published an (unauthorized) biography of Seasick Steve, titled, 'Seasick Steve: Ramblin' Man'. In practice, the contents of the biography reconstruct the life of Seasick Steve, born Steven Gene Wold, somewhat overturning what we knew about him and telling the story that Wright claims to be 'original', true, and even documented. Among various things, for example, according to Wright, Steve was born in 1951 and not in 1941; before his marriage in 1982, he was known as 'Steve Leach' and had been the bassist of the fusion group Shanti, with whom he worked and lived together in a communal house in Orange County during the early seventies, etcetera, etcetera.
As far as I know, Steve has not released any statements regarding this biography, which in practice not only talks about Steve's current activity as a musician but also reconstructs his life, however dismantling everything Steve has said he has done over the course of his existence so far.
I wouldn't know exactly what to say about it. I haven't read the biography and I'm pretty sure I never will. It certainly sounds a little strange, and it must have been really difficult to achieve and publish a biography of someone who left home at the age of 13 and has since led a free and wild life along the roads of Tennessee and Mississippi and then across the United States, hopping from train to train, working the fields here and there to earn some money, or at fairs as a cowboy. Steve lived as a hobo from the age of thirteen until the eighties when in Olympia (near Seattle) he began to work as a musician and sound technician. He did this for about twenty years and then started to travel again, this time in Europe, where he lived playing under subway stations until reaching Norway in 2001 and releasing his first record, 'Cheap', with the band The Level Devils.
What is written in this biography practically tells a completely different story from the one that has been told by Steve so far, and when events might coincide, there's always a lot of confusion regarding dates or places. One might therefore wonder what the purpose of a biography of this type is. What were Matthew Wright's intentions? After all, he is a declared fan of Steve and his music. So I don't think he wanted to present him as a fraud, an impostor, or as someone who is simply accustomed to lying. Nor do I think he wanted to say that Steve is actually so old that he just doesn't remember how things really went during his life.
The fact is that I am convinced that Steve will never deny any of the contents of this biography in question. Why should he? I don't think he particularly cares about what's written in the book and whether it's different from what he previously recounted. Perhaps the contents of Matthew Wright's biography constitute what we might call 'fiction', fiction. Maybe instead it is Seasick Steve himself who is somehow a fictional character. I don't think he would disdain this definition or want to present it as something false or unbelievable. The fact is, he is Seasick Steve. I mean exactly that. He has traveled throughout his life across the entire USA, from California to Mississippi to Tennessee, and plays this country-blues music with his guitars built from what we might call scraps of consumer products and worn by time, instruments that he sometimes believes possess supernatural powers, but after all, will never ever save him from his seasickness. Fiction or not, all these things still make him a character worthy of interest and about whom, well, probably it is worth writing or trying to write a biography.
Then, this book came out a few months ago and practically right before the release of Steve's eighth studio album, so somehow maybe it also gave him a bit of publicity and that's fine. 'Keepin' the Horse Between Me And The Ground' is Steve's new album and was released in October under his label, There's a Dead Skunk Records, and is what we could define as a double album, divided into two parts, each composed of ten songs, and although they share what we can define as the hobo style that has made Steve famous, they also stand out for the different sounds proposed.
I think we could define the first part as an electric blues music album. Steve described his album as a tribute to the desire to live and always stay strong, a strength felt in this first part where electric, boogie, blues, rock, and Americana songs are contained in a style that could resemble that of his previous works from 'Dog House Music' to 'Sonic Soul Surfer' (released just last year on Caroline International and Bronze Rat Records). From the heavy, electric blues of 'Keepin' The Horse Between Me And The Ground', sung with a voice we could define as 'grated', to the talking blues of 'Bullseye' (which might remind some of Stan Ridgway's songs) and the 'Walkin' Blues' style of John Lee Hooker with the electric guitar resonating loudly in the amplifiers until breaking the ears; from more reflective moments like 'What A Thang', which pays homage to the immortal tradition of Mississippi, to the electric boogie of 'Don't Take It Away', to folk ballads with a jazzy flavor accompanied by the sound of violins, 'Grass Is Greener' and 'Lonely Road'. We could basically say that this first part of this new work shows nothing new regarding Seasick Steve's sound. On the contrary, if we want to be honest, overall the songs appear weaker than in the past. Maybe Steve is less inspired, maybe he wanted to try something different (see the folk ballads mentioned earlier), or maybe simply making a double album is, as always, an arduous task because, damn, I don't think it's that easy to put together twenty songs all of the same level.
However, there are interesting and partly surprising elements in the second part, which shows us an unprecedented Steve, different from everything this crazy hobo bluesman has made us listen to so far. Submerging himself in an even more 'bucolic' dimension, if you will, and delving into the tradition of American music, covering John Hartford ('Gentle On My Mind'), Fred Neil ('Everybody's Talking'), Arthur Lee ('Signed D.C.') and the super classic 'I'm So Lonesome' by Hank Williams, and with the addition of six original tracks of his own, Steve creates in this second part his personal revisitation of American folk music, in which the best episodes, 'Hard Knocks' and 'Ride', respectively recall the style of an acoustic Bruce Springsteen and one of the best contemporary songwriters, Bill Callahan.
I really like Steve. I mean, I find him simply fantastic: he’s a genuinely nice person with a surely unique and eccentric personality. I would never ever want to give a low rating to any of his works, but on the other hand, I can only consider this double album as just slightly better than average. Especially if we compare it to what have been the other episodes of his discography. I can, however, say that the second part of 'Keepin' The Horse Between Me And The Ground' opens up a possibly interesting future scenario for what at this point we might also define as a true songwriter. A hobo songwriter. In this sense, I wonder what sense it makes to write or try to write his biography. Steve himself has said about himself, 'Hobos are people who move around looking for work, bums are people who move around but aren’t looking for work, while tramps don’t move and don’t work. I think I’ve been all three things.' In short, if you want to write his biography, do this: follow his footprints along the dusty roads of the North American continent and you’re done.
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