Ceinwen Brown interviewed DC for the recent SBS newsletter and somehow I musta wound up on the phone talking all sorts of crazy again, so I'm in there too..

Anyway, here it is.

On the Road - with D.C. Bellamy & Stormcellar

Last month we profiled Kansas City Blues, Gospel & Soul Legend ‘D.C.’ Bellamy
touring Australia throughout June with Australian band Stormcellar. Long
time Kansas City side-man-turned-front-man DC Bellamy has played, toured,
arranged and worked with some of the most influential blues, soul and gospel
artists of the 20th century – from Betty Everett of ‘Shoop Shoop song’ fame, to
Jimmy Reed, Donny Hathaway and Brook Benton.
In 2000, after 35 years in the business, D.C. released his debut solo record
‘Water to Wine’ to glowing reviews in America and he never looked back.
Billboard Magazine said of Bellamy that he had, ”logged about a million on stage
hours and you can believe all that experience has welded one tight blues album.
Bellamy shows genuine flair for penning a blues number”.
We are indeed fortunate to have D.C. performing at the Sydney Blues Society’s
Annual Birthday Bash at Lazy Bones on Saturday, June 27th and from the line up,
it looks sure to be a cracker.
“We have a few surprises in store as always” says D.C. chuckling down the
phone line, “We never play the same thing twice in the same way.” The ‘we’ he’s
referring to are local lads Stormcellar who are his backing band for the tour as
well as doing their own show, “Yes those guys are definitely my ‘Blues Brothers”
he laughs, “We are having a great time together on the tour. The people here are
just so receptive it’s unbelievable. We just played the Bull and Bush (Baulkham
Hills) to a sold out crowd and even in Dubbo, everybody just enjoyed the music
so much! What makes it extra special is when everybody stays all night long. It’s
my first tour here but it certainly won’t be my last that’s for sure!”
Another man, who was renowned for his improvisational skills, is the late, great
B.B. King who D.C. used to “kick it with”. “I used to work with a lady called Betty
Everett and her and B. B. King were from the same part of the South and they
grew up together (and actually I think they may have had a fling at one point)
-so every time we would get back to Chicago from being on the road, we would
go see B.B. King. B.B. would generally play a club called the ‘Burning Steer’ and
I was always there backstage kicking it with B. B., so yes, I was young then but
still, I knew who he was.”
“My memories of him was that he was always a humble man, he was always

polite, and he was full of joy. I never saw him being anything other than happy. He appreciated who he was and
where he came from and what he was accomplishing. He was the best of the best and in this business that is
sometimes hard to find. I have worked with a lot of different artists and some of them have the worst attitudes you
could imagine.”
I try to probe for more information on this front and we exchange a few laughs down the phone line together, but
ever the old school professional, D.C. refuses to dish the dirt. He’s clearly learned a few things over his long career
about the value of being positive and a gentleman, and growing up in close proximity to legends like B.B. King and his
half brother Curtis Mayfield (who he credits as being his songwriting inspiration) seems to have rubbed off on D.C.
There is no hint of ego about him, just a passion for the music and an enthusiasm to keep playing and growing as an
artist. “I never wanted to be famous or rich,” he says in a serious tone,” I really just always wanted to leave something
behind when I’m gone. I even turned down the chance to play for Aretha Franklin because I want to be a solo artist
and be recognised as D.C. Bellamy now.“
It’s clear from the laughs and exchanges I can hear in the background, not to mention the fact the two artists have
recently recorded a song together that D.C. and Stormcellar get along like a house on fire, “It’s all on the table
right now, but we’re just in negotiation for a full album as a matter of fact and are gonna release it in America first
followed by Australia. “ D.C. and Stormcellar met in the States one summer when Stormcellar were touring. In a rare
and dramatic turn of events, D.C. replaced guitar player Danny Cox at the eleventh hour, who unfortunately suffered
a heart attack just prior to their scheduled show. Serendipity at work..
Described as ‘Doris Day doing heavy metal’ and ‘James Taylor meets The Rolling Stones’, Stormcellar are carving
out a career for themselves as an underground original blues and roots band. Since forming in Sydney’s inner west
in 2007 they have consistently toured overseas building a solid reputation in territories such as France, The States
and Canada. Back at home, they have already achieved chart success on the independent Australian Blues and Roots
chart. Harp player Michael Barry laughs, “It’s a mystery to us how we managed it, but at one stage we had two of our
albums in the top ten simultaneously!” By the way, both those albums were produced by a little known Kiwi called
Tim Finn, and the band has already recorded seven albums to date, a pretty impressive start by anyone’s measure!
“Paul Reed (slide guitar player) wanted to form a blues band, but he didn’t want to do all the same old stuff. I used to
go to the jams at The Empire and Paul used to come along to those and he said to me, “do you wanna come and play
on this album and can you sing?” And I said, yeah..a bit! Our first gig was the Sydney Blues Society Challenge. We
formed to specifically play that gig.”
We chat about their eclectic sound, which is a hybrid with elements blues, folk and country, “We like to break all the
rules and I think it’s right to call us ‘roots’ as well. I mean, growing up in Australia how can you not have folk songs
and colonial folk songs as well! They are going bonkers for our stuff in the States, even though we’re not a standard
blues band, but it’s all related. Someone even said to us that they like how our music has Celtic elements to it? I
play blues harp, which means no matter what I do I’m going to eventually play a pure blues lick, but we didn’t have
a choice but to broaden our sound. We are a modern blues band and it’s about modern stories and we are not going
to limit what we are going to play for rules that seem arbitrary. I mean Chicago blues is not the only blues out there.a
mate of our called us a ‘boogie band’ the other day. We’re happy to be the mutants.” he laughs.
We also talk more broadly about the modest wave of resurgence that blues and roots music is experiencing globally
and what that means in the digital age, “Here’s the thing: it’s the age of the DIY musician. The internet has changed
everything.” Michael says, “We’ve been touring the world, popping out album after album and engaging with people
everywhere. This is with no radio support, a record company or media helping us.”
“I had a guy come up to me after the Bull and Bush and say that it was the best night of his life. Now that may not be
true, that’s not the point. The point is that for the rest of his week, he’s a little bit happier, a little more cheerful, gone
to work with a bigger smile...now THAT”S OUR JOB! And that’s never gonna change. We have yet to determine how
to make this work in a commercial sense, but the audience is there. The mechanisms to reach the audience may not
be as yet, but it’s up to us as musicians to make it worthwhile for people to go out on a cold night to see us. It’s not
enough just to be good, you have to be inspiring! That’s what’s going to get people out from behind Facebook, out
from behind the computer, you have to make it worth their while. They are not there for you, they are there for them.
There are some fantastic players in Sydney and there are so many guys out there doing it, they are starting to come
to the realisation, that it’s up to them to get out there and make it happen.”
Michael clearly has the gift of the gab and if the reports are correct, ‘do yourself a favour’ and come along and enjoy
the mayhem of both these fine acts have to offer at the Sydney Blues Society Annual Birthday Bash on the 27th of
June. - Ceinwen Brown