By Dennis Atkins
On a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Gold Coast’s Blues on Broadbeach Festival in 2016, an emerging blues keyboard player, Lachy Doley, took to the main stage in Surf Parade. With his bandmates, Jackie Barnes on drums and Joe Bangma on bass, Doley set the afternoon on fire with soulful music, exciting, adventurous swirls, and percussive runs.
Being on the main stage meant Doley’s gig was filmed. It was a real lucky break – getting his music noticed around the world, including by some big names in the United Kingdom and the USA.
One fan was America’s biggest touring blues guitarist, Joe Bonamassa, who asked Lachy to play with him last year on a series of dates honouring the late Irish guitar virtuoso Rory Gallagher. From there, things kept getting better, culminating in an invitation from Bonamassa to join his band as the regular keyboardist.
Speaking from the US West Coast before returning home to Sydney, Lachy reflected on his “pinch-me-is-this-real” few months.
“I’ve just come to the end of the US leg part of the tour with Joe, essentially the very first chapter, and it has been really wonderful,” said Lachy.
“I feel so blessed to be a part of this incredible team, and I’m really, really enjoying playing these shows, touring around, getting to play the kind of music that I love the most.
“Anything based in the blues is always gonna be my favourite kind of music to play, and I feel very lucky that I get to do that night after night, playing with such amazing musicians and at such incredible venues. (Just this past weekend) here in Miramar Beach, we had a couple of shows for a new festival that Joe and his team have put together, the Sound Wave Beach Weekend, at an incredible venue – the Seascape Resort – down here at the beach.”
That festival was quite something, featuring big US festival names including Gov’t Mule, Larkin Poe, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Samantha Fish, the remnants of Little Feat (Bill Payne, Fred Tackett and Ken Gradey – these four aged 76 to 80) with Bonamassa headlining.
Jumping back to where it began for Lachy in 2016, those electrifying performances at Broadbeach went viral – logging more than 20 million views across the world.
The Adelaide-born Doley, who learned to play the keyboard on an old upright in his humble suburban home, was naturally drawn to blues music, traditional US black players, and British blues-rockers. He shared a home and a love of music with his brother Clayton, also a keen musician, and their mother. Regular visitors to the family home included musicians who schooled the teenager in music, modern and traditional styles, including the blues.
The exposure that followed his viral YouTube moment gave Doley recognition and a reputation, something fueled by his individual style, throwing everything into his performances.
Lachy Doley from Adelaide was soon dubbed the Jimi Hendrix of the Hammond Organ.
Doley is also renowned for his use of vintage instruments – his 1960s Hammond, a Moog, and a Rhodes keyboard – as well as his own trademark piece of musical technology, the Whammy Clavinet.
He used a very rare Hohner D6 Clavinet, modified with a whammy bar attached to modified strings and little hammers, allowing him to bend the sound in a way that produces an effect similar to a wah-wah pedal. To say it’s electrifying is like saying the sun rises in the east.
There’s a mix of underlying blues rhythms, chugging stretches of up-beats and an elliptical sound wave. The impact is fans shouting “Yeah!” and “Wow!”.
While these skills were making Doley known overseas, the young piano man was seeking opportunities to play abroad, work that led to appearances at clubs and festivals, mostly in the US.
During Lachy’s first tour of the US, his achievements were enough to satisfy an artist with many more years of performing on their books.
In that first tour in 2024, Lachy managed to sell out the iconic Troubadour in Los Angeles, do the same at Nashville’s City Winery and another “Sold Out” notice for an appearance at New York’s Music Hall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Lachy also toured Europe and Canada more than 10 times, playing some of the world’s biggest festivals as the Lachy Doley Trio, including the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2018 and 2024, the first time with saxophonist Jake Clemons taking a guest spot.
In 2017 and 2019, Lachy played one of the Netherlands’ most popular festivals Bospop and also graced the stages at many other major festivals and sold out the iconic 100 Club in London.
After running into Lachy at one festival, Deep Purple’s bass player and sometimes vocalist, Glenn Hughes, said he was blown away, calling Doley “the greatest living keyboard player in the world today”.
The blues music press has also sung the praises of Lachy Doley, particularly Heidi Leigh Axton of Rhythms Magazine.
“If music storms existed on this planet, it might as well be Lachy Doley’s vocals and fiery instrumental performances you hear pulsating from cloud to cloud amidst flashes of lightning and claps of thunder,” she said.
These rolling musical adventures will come full circle in May this year when Lachy returns to both main stages at Broadbeach Blues – playing with his trio at Kurrawa Park on Friday the 15th, and at Victoria Park the next night.
“That time in 2016 was pretty much the start of it all … I had a couple of little viral moments, but those videos really propelled me to be able to (make a mark) overseas.
“So it’s gonna be a good little celebration … 10 years later, same place, same awesome festival.”
These achievements, in the early 2020s, were great in themselves, but as we’ve noted, the best was yet to come: earlier this year, Doley was invited to join one of the world’s greatest touring, big-name blues bands.
Three months ago, Bonamassa announced the departure of his keyboardist since 2015, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist Reese Wynans, who, at almost 80, has opted to stay home rather than keep touring the world.
Now Doley has had his first taste of touring with Bonamassa, playing around the US from February into early this month.
He’s been back in Sydney right now for a short rest before flying to Europe for more dates with Bonamassa, a stretch that finishes with two nights at what’s certainly going to be the biggest and best gig of the keyboard player’s already action-packed life.
In the first week of May, Doley and his new bandleader will walk onto the storied stage of the Royal Albert Hall – following in the footsteps of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Kylie Minogue and Elton John, as well as blues giants from Muddy Waters, through Buddy Guy. Howlin’ Wolf to those Blues Kings, B.B., Albert and Freddie.
When Lachy plays in London, his father will be there too, making his first trip to Great Britain to see his son at the Royal Albert Hall. Lachy then heads home and back to Broadbeach, where it all began.
As they sing in the music halls in New Orleans, “Laissez les bons temps roller.”
