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Strummin Dog in NZed

ALASKAN singer/guitarist
Dave Galanin has only been
in Gisborne for just over a
year but has already made a
big impact on the local music
scene.

Galanin started off in
a low-key manner, with
performances at the Poverty
Bay Blues Club where, club
founder Darryn Clyne said,
he “blew everyone away
with low-down Delta Blues,
his deep vocals intertwining
magically with his awesome
slide guitar”.
He then went on to play
a major benefit gig and this
week fills the support slot for
fellow bluesman Paul Ubana
Jones.
A silver carver by
profession, Galanin has been
playing guitar for nearly four
decades, seriously for the last
20 years. And in the past seven
years his passion has been
for the Delta blues based music, which
originated in Mississippi in the
beginning of last century.
But it is not just the
introspective lyrics and slidestyle
guitar that attracts him.
“I love that there is a story to it
all,” he said. “There is so much
history to this style of music.”
Today, he often uses the
Strummin’ Dog alias and,
though he does play a 1994
Gibson, his favourite guitar
is the 1929 National Triolian
steel body, single cone
resonator he bought some
eight years ago.
In the early days of his
passion, Galanin played
mostly covers of Delta Blues
greats like Robert Johnson,
Son House and Charley Patton,
in 2005 releasing Northland
Blues, an album of both covers
and his own originals.
His latest album, however,
is all his own work. Recorded
at Andy Kirk’s Tranquility Base
Recording studio, at Te Karaka,
A Sign of Light features a
dozen of his original songs.