Dave Kelly at the Crawdaddy

Alan Lloyd reports on a show by UK blues stalwart Dave Kelly.

THE DAVE KELLY BLUES BAND AT THE CRAWDADDY, RICHMOND MARCH 22, 2024

Dave Kelly is a veteran of the British blues scene, having started out as a teenager in the 1960s playing acoustic guitar in the folk clubs. He played his first professional gig at the Half Moon in Putney in 1964 and went on to perform in different settings – including as a duo with his late sister Jo Ann Kelly and in the John Dummer Blues Band, before becoming a founder member of The Blues Band with Paul Jones, Hughie Flint & Tom McGuinness in 1979.

Now, just 9 days after his 77th birthday, he appeared at the revived Crawdaddy Club in Richmond with his own band of Pete Emery on lead guitar, Kelly’s sons Sam Kelly and Homer Kelly-Tarrant on drums and bass guitar respectively, Rob Millis on keyboards, and Dave himself on vocals and slide guitar.

The band is promoting a new album “Sun On My Face”, and several of the songs were from that release. Most of their repertoire consists of covers of other artists songs interpreted in their own style and selected from a wider spectrum than just the standard blues fare. We got country (Hank Williams’ “I Can’t Help It” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Lovin Arms”), soul (Otis Redding’s “Dock Of The Bay” and Al Green’s “Tired Of Being Alone”), Motown (Smokey Robinson’s “My Girl”), rock’n’roll (Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” and Chuck Berry’s “Nadine”) and pop (John Fogerty’s “110 In The Shade”). Ray Charles was represented by “Georgia On My Mind” and “Hallelujah I Just Love Her So”.

There was more traditional blues/R&B from the catalogues of Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Guy, Memphis Minnie, Titus Turner and Sonny Boy Williamson II. Original songs included “I Am The Blues”, a tribute to the early blues singers, first recorded with The Blues Band, and “Them Old Crossroads Blues” where Kelly contrasts Robert Johnson’s trip to the crossroads to be taught to play the blues by the devil to his own journey to Tooting Bec to learn from T.S. McPhee.

It was a night of excellent musicianship and an interesting choice of songs. Top class entertainment.