Nothing Can Stop The Blues, Not Even Disco

Heavily based in the style of his hero, BB King, American blues guitar maestro Chris Cain has built a career that today sees him as one of the best. Cain's run extends from before the age of 18 to some 45 years, although it wasn't until the late '80s, as a 32-year-old, that he began a recording career under his own name.

His debut, 1987's Late Night City Blues, earned him four Blues Music Award nominations, including Guitarist Of The Year, and set in motion a run that today sees him with 11 records under his belt, and a reputation as one of the more subtle, emotive players on the international blues circuit. Come late October, Cain will travel once more to Australia to headline the Sydney Blues Festival, giving this country another chance to see the man in action.

"I'm gonna come and play some blues," he says with a smile, "and try to do everything I can to make it enjoyable for all the folks that have decided they'd like to come and see what I'm doing. I just plan on playing my heart out."

"Not to blame a genre or anything, but the disco era, when it became popular here in the States, to have a DJ rather than a live band... that was a big change."

This is what the 60-year-old does on a regular basis, and what he's tried to do since he picked up a guitar as a teenager. "I just always try to play with feeling," he says. "The only way I approach playing is with my heart open. I approach the guitar, pick it up and start to play, and that's what happens."

This is advice he was given as a young player, to play with feeling, and it's one piece of advice that he's kept close over the years, even as he's seen the blues industry (and the music industry in general), change around him. "Well, not to blame a genre or anything, but the disco era, when it became popular here in the States, to have a DJ rather than a live band... that was a big change," he says when asked what he sees as some of the bigger fluctuations in the industry.

He goes on to say that this change, among others, affected how players like him were able to operate, but it seems the last laugh is his - as they say, the blues will never die, evidenced in this instance by the fact Cain is currently working on yet another album. "Yeah, it's the most stone, straight blues thing I've ever recorded," he says of the current project. "It's kinda 1954 Ray Charles sounding, as bluesy as I can go. I think if my father were still here he'd love this record."

It was Cain's father that got him into blues in the first place (often sitting atop his father's shoulders at gigs as a youngster), and is one of the reasons you'll not see the man stopping any time soon. "The only way I would stop is if I got a massive chest pain," he smiles. "I just can't imagine the world without being able to pick up a guitar."