THE DYNAMITES FEAT. CHARLES WALKER

SERIOUSLY OLD SCHOOL SOUL FUNK AND PROUD OF IT, THE DYNAMITES FEATURING CHARLES WALKER ARE EXACTLY WHERE THE MAN THAT PUT THE BAND TOGETHER WANT TO BE, AS MICHAEL SMITH DISCOVERS.

“Well, at the very beginning of it, I just had this concept of putting together this soul revue to kind of pay tribute to the music that I was going towards and spoke to me the most,” explains principal songwriter, guitarist Leo Black, who is actually also producer Bill Elder, his real name, in which guise he is on the line from Nashville, Tennessee.

“I was working as an in-house producer in a Nashville recording studio at the time and I kinda just got some friends together that were likeminded on the same kinda trip and put this soul revue together and as it was it was really only just for fun and no real big hurry.

“Then Charles came to our attention through an exhibition at the Country Music Hall Of Fame – they were doing a series of shows called The Night Train To Nashville, which highlighted all the classic R&B era in Nashville in the ‘60s – and a guy who’s now a partner in my record label and good friend called out Charles, we went out and had a beer and [laughs] here we are.”

The Charles of the piece is singer Charles Walker, a veteran of that late ‘60s early ‘70s scene who has recorded for everyone from Chess to Decca Records and opened for and toured with many of the originators of that R&B/soul, James Brown and Wilson Pickett among them.

Where the seven-piece soul revue that tours as The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker is at right now is two albums – 2007’s Kaboom! and 2009’s Burn It Down – strong and with an international presence that sees them return to Australia for a second time this year, having played Sydney Festival back in January. Walker is, as they say, the real deal.

“Absolutely the real deal,” Elder agrees. “There were so many record labels he had been on. Really the greatest thing about the golden era of soul was it was popular music at that time and so there were just tons and tons of labels all over the place. So good artists had a lot of options open to them and Charles had a lot of really beneficial things happen to him early on in his career, which brought him up to New York and ended up opening for James Brown and Etta James and Wilson Pickett and Jackie Wilson… just some amazing acts.

“After he got up to New York at the behest of Jason Davis, who was James Brown’s bandleader for a while, he had Charles put his own group together called Little Charles & The Sidewinders, which he formed in Columbus, Ohio and just started boppin’ around openin’ for these giant mega-soul artists.”

The other “secret” weapon the Dynamites have is a crack songwriter in Elder, who has managed to really capture the essence of that classic ‘60s soul style with a real authenticity.

“It’s the kind of music that moves me and [laughs] it’s the only kind of music I listen to – I’m an absolute soul music junkie – and when I talk about that it’s mostly early ‘60s through… I guess the whole ‘60s era that I’m just constantly listening to and mainlinin’ so, if you do that, if that’s what you put in that’s what’s gonna come out.

“I absolutely concentrate heavily on, you know, all of the things that made those sounds feel the way they felt, as far as instrumentation and arrangements and recording techniques and subject matter – just all that. So yeah, it’s all there. Not so much trying to go back and relive yesteryear as much as I just love the way that music sounds.”

Playing at Mullum Music Festival

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