Geoff Achison - Soul Digger - Jupiter II Records

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Posted : 2/1/2008 9:43:05 AM

Well, I don't know how many gigs we played in 2007 but I'm sure we must have clocked up about a million miles in travel.
A quick overview on the calendar reminds that we did indeed begin last year in Australia playing many of our favourite local gigs. The first gig for 07 was at the now defunct and much loved Rainbow Hotel in Fitzroy.
I also played a couple of bayside sumer shows in our home suburb of Frankston both solo and with the Oz Souldiggers. we managed to fit in a couple of mini-tours to Goulburn NSW and Tasmania before wrapping up the Oz experience with a 'sold out' show at the East Brunswick Club in Melbourne. That all seems like so long ago now ...
So, it's all been about living in the USA since then and what a huge adventure it's all been so far. My first gig was a Private Function for the great crew at Nuvo Technology in Ohio. The same folks who supplied me with the gutsy little Kustom amplifier I've been seen carting around to gigs here.
Then came the daunting task of putting together a good roster of sufficiently talented musicians from which I could form a US version of The Souldiggers when required. They were big shoes to fill having been used to the mighty A-team in Melbourne. (Mal Logan, Roger McLachlan & Gerry Pantazis)
After doing this for several months though I have gotten to know some bloody fantastic players in Atlanta. I can't mention every single one but some of the regular guys (ahem- when they're not busy working for someone else!) have been included top bassists Charlie Wooton , Jon Schwenke , the amazing Ted Pecchio, Steve Mays and Kris Dale
Drummers we've hired have included the great Yonrico Scott , Tyler 'The Falcon' Greenwell , Kevin Leahy , John McKnight , Ben Taylor and Chris Fryar
It's not a complete list by any means but it has certainly been wonderful getting to know all these dudes. Each brings their own particular style to the band and that keeps my ears 'open' to new ways of playing some of these old tunes that have been on the playlist for almost a decade now. If they were being played the same every night I'd be getting mighty tired of them by now. Happily though, I'm usually able to treat these songs I've written as sort of inter-stellar space vehicles that we can fly to different planets and back ... well, sometimes we come back!
I haven't stopped the acoustic side of things either. I nearly always open up Souldiggers shows with a few solo numbers and occasionally hit the road as a lonesome gittar picker hiring a band when the opportunity arises.
There's been so many top gigs I couldn't begin to start listing and describing them. All I will commit to this wee rave is that it has been an absolute joy at times to be performing this music, mostly devised and developed on the local scene in Melbourne, to enthusiastic, responsive crowds here in the USA. We've done all kinds of venues and events from big festivals to authentic blues dives to backyard bbq's. We finished off 2007 with a birthday party staged here in Atlanta for my wonderful wife Michelle. We invited all our muso buddies to come along and sit in and we enjoyed having an incredible line-up which included the fabulous Oliver Wood & Marcus Henderson of King Johnson + Tom Gray & Mark Johnson of Delta Moon two of my favourite Atlanta bands.
We're well into 2008 now ... let's see what musical mischief we can get up to out there this year.
Geoff

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