Ross Ward: Doc And Roll.

Doc Span & Ross Ward and Ward’s Xpress play Summertime Blues VI at the Waterloo Hotel on April 20. 

It seems that Ross Ward has paid his dues with over 30 years of touring and performing with some of the biggest names around. Starting as a fill in bassist with Flying Circus, he also performed with Tim Gaze, Ronnie Burns, Stevie Wright, Blackfeather and Cinnamon. Swapping the bustle of Sydney for the idyllic locale of Byron Bay in ‘95, Ross is still playing kick-ass blues solo, with his band Ward’s Xpress and now teaming up with harp player, Doc Span 

Ross explains his music: “It’s bluesy swing and I try to keep the band contemporary in it’s approach, but as a soloist, I’m a lot more rootsy in style. Others have picked up on a certain rock element in some of the band’s stuff and I sorta understand where that came from, although I’m hearing much less of that in what we’re doing these days.” 

Ward’s Xpress came together as a result of providing the backing for The Blues Revue featuring Wiley Reed and David Bentley, at the annual East Coast Blues and Roots Festival. The band went on to release two independent CDs, collected a Dolphin Award for Best Blues Band and managed to garner national radio airplay.

“I must thank David Bentley and Wiley Reed for providing the inspiration for me to push on with Ward’s Xpress as a project. They were my introduction to the area via three consecutive years playing with them at the Blues Festival. There were two very memorable nights in ‘97 that gave me an inkling of what could be, so I put the band together out of the best local players from this area that were sympathetic and available, that was almost six years ago now, and the line-up has definitely been a floater at times.”

For his upcoming South East Queensland tour, including an appearance at the 6th Annual Summertime Blues Festival, Ross will be teaming up with Sunshine Coast-based, harp player, Doc Span.

“I’ve followed Doc’s career in Oz since he first hit the Sydney scene in the early-mid eighties (I think).The only other guy I’d seen play the blues on the chromatic harmonica was Ron King from ‘the Foreday Riders. I’ve just always loved the clarity of that sound for some reason, plus Doc can blow the reed straight outta the back of a blues harp. Even though Ward’s Xpress doesn’t have a regular harp player, it’s always been a feature of our recorded sound, plus I loved what he was doing with Ross Williams and Andy Cowan, so I just rang him up, y’ know? I drove on up to his farm on the Sunshine Coast, and for two glorious days, we sat on the verandah and just communicated through the music. At the end of it all we’d written a bit of stuff, and people are gonna be really surprised at what we’ve cooked-up space-wise as s duo. I won’t say any more except you gotta make it to at least one of these shows!”