Son of Dave will test out songs on Inverness audience
GROWING up in the Canadian city of Winnipeg, young Benjamin Darvill looked south for his musical inspiration – all the way to the Mississippi delta.
It was watched harmonica-playing blues giants James Cotton and Sonny Terry at the Winnipeg Folk Festival that would set him on the path to becoming the harmonica and beat box playing one man band Son of Dave.
"James Cotton made a big impact on me because he had a field of people hypnotised and boogying," Darvill recalled.
"This was in the ’70s, so he would have had some of the Stax Records musicians playing with him. It was a big thing – it wasn’t just the Mississippi blues."
Darvill’s musical career has not always been about the blues. He was also a long-time time member of Grammy-winning cult Canadian band Crash Test Dummies, best known for their 1993 hit Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.
"It was good solid work and we toured a lot. It was 10 years and four albums. It went on a little longer than I would have wished, but I was really happy to fulfil my commitment to the group," Darvill said.
"Then the record industry was crumbling and there wasn’t a hit that was satisfactory to the great powers of MTV and the playlist people at radio stations, so it seemed a natural point to take a pause and I just returned to what I did in the first place, making R & B and four-bar blues."
Darvill, who has been based in the UK for the past 18 years, misses Canada far more than he misses being part of a band.
"I love to find a project now and again and chip in with it, but it’s not something I really want to do," he said.
"I’ve had a few families already in this life. I don’t need seven more years in bands with musicians.
"But that said, I’m working with producers who have become great pals and on tour there are other musicians to get to know and the sound technicians, the promoters... and God forbid I should mingle with the fans! There’s no shortage of good company."
Darvill became well known to British music lovers as a solo artist with his appearance on Later...with Jools Holland a decade ago, but more recently Highland music fans will have seen him in person at this year’s Belladrum Festival.
However, for his return to the Highlands and his set at Mad Hatters on Saturday, fans can hear something that is brand new - even to Son of Dave himself.
"I’m going to be trying some songs I haven’t finished writing the lyrics to. I have to take some chances in order to keep my adrenalin up," he laughed.
"But people will recognise five or six of the tunes I did at Belladrum as well. I did a lot of cover songs there. In fact, I did only cover songs for a year or so, but I’ve been creeping in some originals because I’m working towards a new album.
"I amassed so many covers that it made sense for a while to specialise and become this sort of anti-cruise ship entertainer destroying all the classics. But people are starting to call out at shows for stuff I’ve actually written. Which is nice, because I think they are just as good."
Darvill might be busy creating lyrics at the moment, but while much of the world’s attention is focussed on North American politics, he does not find it a fruitful source of inspiration for his music.
"I don’t do well with political writing. I can’t seem to make it swing," he admitted.
"Which is a shame, because I’m quite politically motivated, but the language of politics doesn’t translate into some kinds of music. You can’t have the word ‘megalomaniac’ in a blues song. It just wrecks the trance.
"I’m still in the business of selling booze and entertaining on a Saturday night, so the language of love and the language of the weekend is my business."
Son of Dave, aka Benjamin Darvill, will be at Hootananny’s Mad Hatters bar, Church Street, Inverness, at 8pm on Saturday November 26.
