Shake a Bone

"If you like your blues gut-bucket raw, Son of Dave's your man."
- Uncut

"Terrific fun... coming across like a crazy amalgam of Little Walter, Seasick Steve and Captain Beefheart."
- Q

"Chicago is famous for its dark, dangerous out-of-the-way blues dungeons, where the music invokes a hologram of funky despair and the air is hot with excitement and the scent of Japanese businessmen. It was in just such a dive, a little hole-in-the-wall called Electrical Audio Studio B where I first encountered Son of Dave, blowing a hot electric harp and keeping time with a back porch digital looping delay..."
- Steve Albini

Following on from Son of Dave's critically acclaimed 2008 album, '3', the notorious genre-alchemist returns with his latest offering, 'Shake a Bone', recorded and mixed by the legendary Steve Albini in Chicago.

The celebrated fusion of funk vocal-patterns with divergent rhythm & blues riffs and New Orleans atmosphere are relit for a 4th time under Benjamin Darvill's moniker Son of Dave.

The conspicuous songs of Darvill stem from a genuine ache to conquer a guitar-dominated world of music with his raucous harmonica playing. Fuelled by vocal beat-boxing, foot stomping & improvised percussion, the Son of Dave imagination concocts a wholly modern yet timeless sound reminiscent only of Son of Dave.

Like any album made from passion it's as rough only as much as Son of Dave wants it to be, with moments of sonic disorder, verbosely outrageous uses of the harmonica, and others of pure, rhythmically controlled homages to big-band swing.

Self-produced by Son of Dave himself, 'Shake a Bone' is, like all of his material, written to be devoured by its listener; not dissected or deliberated on. It's a classic piece of pop made with a strict agenda to be a piece of dusty blues you can gladly dance to in downstairs jazz bar or sunny Hyde Park gatherings.