Interviews and words kindly supplied by Dennis Atkins, photos by Rod Fletcher Photography.

Midnight Sound Machine

If enthusiasm for the blues was the key to an entry in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, Brisbane’s bundle of energetic ambition, the Midnight Sound Machine, should be well on their way.

They may be there later this month when the band appears with our other five leading South East Queensland blues acts at Lefty’s, where they’ll compete for the right to play in Memphis, Tennessee early next year.

Band spokesman Andrew Coleman told the BASEQ his band came as five friends who sensed a sizeable gap in the Brisbane music scene. “While the city continues to have a healthy rock, metal, punk, hip hop and alternative scene, very few young bands were performing soul, Motown, Stax or Rhythm & Blues,” says Andrew

“We were keen to really do it justice. After seeking out the finest young musicians and vocalists in the city, the Midnight Sound Machine was born.”

The Midnight Sound Machine’s five members have been parlaying that sense of opportunity and nostalgia for the music they grew up with and love into a pastime they hope will become a full-time occupation.

”Some of our most memorable moments (as a band) include watching young audiences dance and sing along to every song in our repertoire,” says Andrew. “Whether they knew them from their own collection or from their parents, it was clear that soul and R’n’B was deeply embedded within the publics collective conscience.”

Initially, the group wanted to fill the niche they saw in Brisbane’s live music scene for this music, but they came to realise there was a deeper yearning for this kind of blues in the community.

“As we’ve continued, we realised there was a need to authentically represent and celebrate the genre and educate audiences to the origins and far reach of the style and its creators,” says Andrew.

There is a blunt reply when asked to define their music beyond the simple name, the blues. “Quite simply, the blues is everything, and everything is the blues,” says Andrew. “It is the genesis of all popular music today, and its shadow and spirit touch everything. When we play the blues, we try to encapsulate all elements of the style – because we believe the blues isn’t so much a genre as it is a feeling. Everyone knows the blues.”

Andrew sings and plays guitar and harmonica, alongside Saro Roro, also a vocalist, who accompanies on flute and tambourine, Stuart Baines on keys, Matthew Rodrigues on bass, and Nick Keough Peel on the drums.

As Buddy Guy once stated, “they wanted pure blues when there ain’t such a thing. Blues always been a gumbo where you throw everything in the pot.”

Asked to recall when the blues light bulb first went off for him, Andrew gives the obvious reply: it’s hard to hit on a moment, pinpointing something he and his fellow band members knew had always been.

“I was brought up on country music of the 50’s and 60’s, which still holds a place in my heart,” says Andrew. “Artists of that generation and genre were playing their blues. As a teen, I was entranced by the power of AC/DC, who played their blues like no other. Once I figured out the 12-bar structure on guitar, it became impossible to ignore the reach of the blues.”

Andrew has one vivid memory of finding the 1960 B.B. King album King of the Blues in a $5 bin in a South Carolina record store. “That album has spent more time on my turntable than on the shelf,” he quips.

The Midnight Sound Machine, collectively and through its spokesman Andrew, represent new champions of advocating for the blues, a quest in which they’re joined by their five musical compadres who will join them at Lefty’s at the end of this month.

“There are many champions in the region who host jams and keep the scene healthy,” says Andrew. “(Promoting) the Memphis Blues Challenge itself is doing wonders for celebrating the talent of South East Queensland. Bands like Shade Hadie are doing absolute wonders for reaching younger audiences; supporting and celebrating them will do nothing but good for the community.”

Andrew says he’d like to see more local competitions, which could help blues artists and bands step up at local festivals and events in communities that might otherwise have little or no contact with the blues. “All of this would elevate and promote the more prestigious Memphis Blues Challenge,” says Andrew.

“What is the largest hurdle today for live performers is overcoming the devaluation of music in the culture. As streaming has become the norm, live music is no longer the focal point of nightlife; venues, booking agents and the general public have developed a warped view of the value of performing artists. Live musicians are selling a service in a buyers market.”

Andrew sees the Blues Challenge in Memphis as an opportunity to fulfil the dream of every working musician: to perform at an international level.

“More so than that, it offers the chance for blues performers to make a pilgrimage to the mecca of the blues and to become immersed in the culture,” says Andrew.

“I’ve visited Memphis only once in the winter of 2018. (and), other than the weather, it was exactly what I was hoping for. Beale Street, Sun Studios, the Stax Museum, Peabody Hotel, the Gibson Guitar Factory and every smoky pool house and juke joint was exactly the way I imagined it.”

Andrew Coleman has a narrow view of who he likes in Australian blues – hello Melbourne “blues-a-billy” band the Brothers Grim and the Blue Murders – and an encyclopaedic list of international names. There are too many to name them all but suffice to say it covers the Kings (B.B., Albert, Marcus, and Freddie), the founders like Robert Johnson, the giants, female and male, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Muddy Waters, white guys playing the blues, like the Rolling Stones and Stevie Ray Vaughan and everyone else you’ll find in the blues bins at any decent record store.

Sugarbag Blonde

Sugarbag Blonde say they thank the weather gods for finding a real magic spot playing live a few years ago at the renowned Agnes Waters Blues and Roots Festival.

On the Saturday night, they were down the list from the headliners and the crowd was “absolutely pumping” when the pouring rain intervened, and no one was going anywhere.
“It turned out to be one of our favourite and best performances we have been a part of,” says band spokesman Shaun Spooner. “We won over lots of new fans even if they didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

That was in 2024, eight years after founding member of SBB – as they refer to themselves – Scott Mathison went on the hunt to find some other committed and experienced musicians on the Sunshine Coast who, like him, lived and breathed the blues. He put together a band that lasted for about six years before the current line-up was settled in 2023: Scott Mathison on vocals, guitar, and main songwriter; Brett Newman on drums; Shaun Spooner on drums; and Andrew Szumowski tickling the keys.

Asked about their dreams as musicians, Shaun says SBB has realistic goals (“as much as we would like to take over the blues world”, he quips), and the band would love nothing more to play our music week in and week out to blues lovers here in Australia but hopefully building so they could travel to the Americas, south and north, as well as Europe.

They set their primary goal right now as being able to fund their dream by making enough money to perform, write and record full-time.

“Most of our Spotify streams are from these continents, and we are finding more and more fans from these parts of the world since our last two releases, Don’t Blame It On Me and 12 Days Cold.
Scrolling through the band’s Instagram pages, you soon see why they don’t want to be pigeon-holed into one particular stream of the blues, when asked about where they see their strongest influences.

In these pages, scattered among the multitude of band shots playing live and in the studio, you find a disparate group of musical influences: the iconic Chuck Berry, the nineteen-sixties superstar, Jimi Hendrix, American southern white bluesmen, Gregg Allman and Tom Petty, as well as more modern US musicians, the late Chris Cornell and the multi-talented wunderkind, Ryan Adams, as well as the late Malcolm Young from Australia’s AC/DC.

Shaun says his fellow bandmate and SBB founder Scott Mathison spent years searching for like-minded musical souls who shared his passion for “groove and riff-based music” with soulful stories. They put it in plain, from-the-heart terms: “The band is Red Dirt Blues Rock!”

They do, however, give a nod to the pair of 1960s brilliant blues guitarists, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. “These two artists have been a foundation in the forming of SBB’s passion for the blues genre,” says Shaun.

Looking at the local blues scene, Shaun and his colleagues advocate for musicians throughout South East Queensland to band together to organise shows, write, and perform.
“We believe building on the networks within the blues scene creates punter enthusiasm and support and in turn gets venues enthused,” says Shaun.

“We have connected with many artists in the BASEQ community, many of whom we are sharing stages with now. “We have also collaborated with artists in the studio. Saro (Urusaro Rwagaju) from Midnight Sound Machine featured on our two most recent Spotify releases.

At the same time, SBB cite what they say is a failure on the part of some venues to appreciate original music and recall that well-known hit songs were once original bands just doing gigs week in/week out, like they are. SBB approach the afternoon’s International Blues Challenge playoff at Lefty’s with some experience under their belts, having competed last year, something they look back on as an awesome time, giving them a keen eye as to what’s required at this tightly controlled, time-governed performance.

“We believe we are ready to this year take our brand to the world stage; the recent releases are being received well overseas, but also the band is ready to explore outside Australia to find our market, which we believe is in cities like Memphis,” says Shaun. Talking to Shaun about influences in Australia and beyond, he says SBB has enormous respect for local acts such as 19-twenty, Bondi Cigars, 8 Ball Aitken and Kingswood, while their global playlist is as varied as those names found on their Instagram pages.

“Gary Clarke Jnr and Joe Bonamassa ( who added Don’t Blame It On Me to his Spotify playlist) are the kings, “ says Shaun. “(At the same time), recently discovered artists we have connected with socially are bands like the Commoners, Artur Menedes, Eric Johanson and Larkin Poe. “Given the opportunity to get to Memphis, we would love to connect with some of these bands in their home country.”

Shotgun Sam and his World Famous Blues Band

With an infectious, take-the-Micky sense of humour, a genuine knowledge and love of the historical roots of their beloved music and an unswerving attention to their audience, Shotgun Sam is such an established part of the blues music scene you can’t imagine things without them.

Like the clientele described in George Orwell’s brilliant 1946 essay on British pubs, Moon Under Water, Shotgun Sam are like the band that’s always playing at your local.
This observation makes more sense when you discover the quartet came together after all being on the same stage at the Home of the Blues in South East Queensland, the Royal Mail at Goodna.
“We seem to have been intrinsically linked in the blues nether-realm where, over a series of lifetimes of varying talent and hardship, we ultimately forged Shotgun Sam and his World Famous Blues Band,” says Sam Wylie.

“We hit the stage running when, by pure happenstance, I found myself alongside Johnny Harpo and Ramblin Ryan in the same jam lineup one mild Sunday afternoon at the Royal Mail Hotel.
“The effortless flow and thrilling dynamics of the music that followed sealed the deal. I said, ‘You’re in my band now. Get in the Cadillac’.

“It all gets a bit blurry from there. We found drummer Danny Sharkz somewhere along the line, chucked him some sticks and beer, and the rest was history.”

The band that emerged – Shotgun Sam and his World Famous Blues Band – has Sam Wylie on vocal and guitar, Johnny Oh on blues harp, Ryan Keepence on bass and Danny Sharkz on the sticks.
This backstory is made clearer when Sam talks about his own introduction to the blues, which involves the classic 1980 movie, The Blues Brothers, starring John Belushi as “Joliet” Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as his brother Elwood.

His first memory of the blues was from that film – particularly the Maxwell Street Market scene where John Lee Hooker plays that kick-out-the-jams tune, Boom Boom. “Between the ages of about four to 15, I wore out that scene on my Nan’s and Pop’s VHS copy of the film (taped from TV with ads and all),” says Sam.

“Then I wore out the film soundtrack cassette tape playing one side to the other over and over – I literally couldn’t get enough. “The first tape I bought as a 7-year-old, with my own pocket money, was Ray Charles’s Greatest Hits on tape because it included Shake A Tail Feather”.

After taking his education from The Blues Brothers, picking up the skills and enthusiasm of the guys he met at the Royal Mail, Sam and his colleagues had basic goals: be a really good band, play lots of shows, release good music, and get on festival bills.

“Further than that, we wanted to be the kind of band that stops you in your tracks, wrenches you out of your reality and holds you close to the action from start to finish,” says Sam.
“We wanted to be the band that everyone talks about, the band we would want to see; and we’re incredibly fortunate that our fans, followers, friends and family have been so energetically supportive.”

Sam reckons the strength gained from bonding with the audiences, giving people the kind of music they are willing to go out to see, has been a motivation that grows the more they play.
Sam and his colleagues see the blues as “an almost involuntary behaviour”, playing a musical style they see as tribally intuitive and incredibly fun – drawing on legendary songs from equally essential artists operating across styles and subgenres, all open to experimentation leading to simple enjoyment.

Like many bands and acts playing the blues, Shotgun Sam has seen the impact of the shock collapse of this year’s Byron Bay Blues Festival (where the band had a slot) – leading to a gun-shy approach with some other festivals and rejection responses dropping in their inbox – although a good showing at the Broadbeach Blues Festival and the chance to play at Lefty’s for an opportunity to play at the Memphis International Blues Challenge makes them think they were back “fully in the game”.

Asked about their favourites at home and abroad, Sam starts with these Australian acts – their “mates” LR Marsh, Shade Hadie and The Hipshooters, along with Phil Coyne and the Wayward Aces and Bill Barber & The Holding Cell (a band who doesn’t mind a band fight according to our Shotgun friends).

Internationally, they admire Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram (who they met backstage at The Trffid gig this year), the relentless New York band Daddy Long Legs (“always happy to drain our bar tab”) – and the legendary Charlie Musselwhite.

This year at Lefty’s will be the second straight for Shotgun Sam, having put up a strong showing last August.
“We treated last year as a masterclass, challenging ourselves to tap deeper into our blues roots, refine our sound, and deliver our best possible blues performance,” says Sam.
Their 2026 chance comes around again on August 23.

Lecia Louise

When Lecia Louise nominates times and places that point to when and where the blues grabbed her and shaped her aspirations as a musician, there’s one name that recurs: the shooting star of the late sixties, guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix. He was the one who made her eyes widen reflexively, not just his sound but the whole package.

Lecia, who has been playing, recording, and touring for more than a decade, discovered the music she loves as a younger sister. Her elder sibling scored an electric guitar from sisters’ step-dad Alan. It might have just been a cheap copy of a bigger brand, but young Lecia loved the sound and the tone, a bit thin maybe, but it was all she knew, and she was quickly hooked.
After the guitar was passed to Lecia, she explored it and discovered what guitar music sounded like.

“When Alan introduced me to music such as Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, I was hooked! That’s when I decided music would be my life,” says Lecia.

She was full of excitement and ambition, wanting to perform at school but unable to get past the absence of the music she loved in the world around her. “I wanted to do gigs in high school, but I had no way of doing it, and none of my friends was into it, and I didn’t know anyone in the music world,” she recalls. “The closest I could get to getting a gig was playing a talent quest, which the group of young girls dancing in leotards won.”

Lecia was not deterred, and the more she listened to the music from her parents’ record collection, the more determined she became, especially as she heard more and more of that Hendrix guy.
“My first exposure to blues was through my mum’s and stepdad’s collection as a kid – Eric Clapton and B.B. King were in the mix alongside The Beatles, Dire Straits, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin,” Lecia told us.

This homeschooling in music was important, but something that happened at school is remembered now as “the moment”. Her music teacher at school, Mark Hope, clearly saw Lecia’s potential as a performer, particularly as a guitarist.

“(Mark Hope) taught me the Jimi Hendrix song Red House from the record Are You Experienced,” says Lecia. It stopped her in her tracks but opened her mind to what remains her essential musical love, the blues.

As blues lovers know, Red House is a quintessential Hendrix song with a simple blues story about searching, love, loss, and finding solace in the music itself. For Lecia, it’s been a driving force, reflected in the choice of the verb “found” when she harks back to the time she came across the music she loves. “Blues chose me through Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin in high school, and it’s been a gradual, deepening journey ever since,” says Lecia.

“I define blues as music rooted in the 1800s, generally built around the 1-4-5 chord structure with flat thirds and sevenths, born out of people expressing hard times through song.

“I don’t lean into one style because I love too many different elements of the genre to pick just one. If anything, I’d call my own sound blues rock, shaped by everything from prog and jazz to groove and country.”

Lecia is clearly a determined musician – echoed in her choice of the blues as her musical medium – as seen in her earning her chops by putting herself forward as a solo act.
“One of the biggest hurdles for live blues performers is that it takes a team to get in front of new audiences, and that team and the resources behind it are hard to come by,” she says.

“Touring solo also takes a toll – big miles, often driving alone, staying healthy on the road.

“But the biggest (hurdle) is the huge financial cost of building your profile through marketing, promotion, and touring.

“It costs a fortune, and the arts are severely underfunded – the industry is struggling. Support and funding is needed for more events, particularly daytime events that families can attend.”
Lecia has been drawn to the Memphis International Blues Challenge by watching acts she has seen perform, especially from Melbourne, a city which has had a strong commitment to this musical showcase over the years.

She says she was delighted when the Blues Association of South East Queensland rekindled its support for the IBC last year, so “I thought I would do it to see what it is like and see what happens”.
As Lecia talks about her favourite blues artists – a collection of stylistically different US stars, Marcus King, Eric Gales (“just rippin’”), Larry Carlton, Keb’ Mo’ (both “smooth”) and guitar heroine Susan Tedeschi and veteran local artists, Jeff Lang and Mia Dyson – she mentions her new record Strike to Ignite just casually.

For those who might want to find out more about this hard-working lady of the blues, that new record can be found at Bandcamp (https://lecia.bandcamp.com/album/strike-to-ignite )

Charles Camilleri Connection

For Barry Charles and Paul Camilleri, the lightbulb moment wasn’t a song or some musical sound they heard or produced. It was a moment of silence in a crowded room. In 2023, the pair decided to strike out as a duo act, playing the blues and early on in that adventure, they noticed something after a song they’d performed.

There was a silence in the room as they finished their song. People had stopped chatting away, as many do in live music venues, and they were listening. As Paul remarked this week, it was a memorable moment that showed people were connecting with the musical honesty they were striving to project.

“We discovered a shared passion for authentic, live blues music and the joy of musical conversation,” the pair told the Blues Association. “Between us, weve spent decades performing in Australia and overseas, but there was something special about stripping everything back to a duo.

“Rather than trying to sound like a full band, we embraced the space, allowing every note, vocal phrase and improvised moment to breathe.”

The pair can quickly identify why it’s the blues they’ve adopted as their musical passion and the essence of the songs they perform. “The blues is where honesty lives,” they say. “ It allows you to celebrate, tell stories, laugh, grieve and celebrate – all within the same performance.”

This origin story is recognisable to blues fans everywhere, but within this broad space, they don’t confine themselves to any one of the tributaries of blues that flow into the river as long and as wide as the Mississippi that rages through the country where it all began. “We draw inspiration from Delta blues, Chicago blues, blues-rock, roots music, soul and even touches of jazz,” say Paul and Barry. “If we had to describe our sound, wed call it contemporary Australian blues and roots with plenty of groove, soulful vocals, expressive guitar work and a healthy dose of improvisation.”

The songs and songwriters that provided the spark to light the flames for the love of the blues shared by Paul and Barry are familiar to all followers of the blues, especially in more contemporary times.

Early on, they listened to some of the British and American artists who had their own inspiration come from those racks in the back corner of the record shop.

They listened to the modern music of Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival, but they too gravitated to that record rack in the corner, home to magical names like Muddy Waters, B.B. King (and the other Kings, Freddie and Albert), Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, white guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan and so many more.

“Once we discovered those artists, it became a lifelong journey of tracing the roots of the music back to where it all began,” say Paul and Barry.

This has all led to not just a life of gigging but placing themselves on the frontlines of promoting the blues and working on growing the audience for this vital form of music.

The Charles Camilleri Connection host a blues night every second month at Nambour’s Presynct – Sunshine Coast Venue of the Year four years ago – with the twin goals of building their audience and seeking to establish viable outlets for the blues. ”The biggest opportunity is simply getting more people into venues to experience live blues,” say Paul and Barry.

“Once people hear great blues performed well, they usually come back. “Supporting local venues, festivals and blues clubs is vital, as is encouraging younger audiences to discover the music. ” Social media helps spread the word, but nothing replaces the experience of hearing live musicians in the same room.”

All of this, say the pair of Sunny Coast musicians, is “why organisations like BASEQ are so important – they help build community and keep the music alive”.

Like most people playing live music, this pair of musicians is critically aware of the competition for the time and dollars of potential audiences. As they say, venues are under pressure, the money performers have in their pockets at the end of the night is next to meagre and, perhaps hardest of all, places that host regular blues nights are few and far between.

The duo see the International Blues Challenge as one of the greatest opportunities for blues acts in Australia to find a key to the gateways of the global blues stage, connecting with other acts from many countries as well as all kinds of industry figures, from record executives to promoters and talent spotters.

“For us, it’s about challenging ourselves, representing Australian blues and continuing to grow as performers,” say Paul and Barry.

“Wed love the opportunity to share our music with an internationalv audience, while learning from musicians from every corner of the globe.”

Neither Paul nor Barry has been to Memphis, a city they regard as the spiritual home of the blues, in many ways. “It’s a place where every street has a story, every venue has history, and the music is part of the citys heartbeat,” the pair offer. “To stand on Beale Street and perform there would be something very special.”

Asked to nominate their favourite musicians, Paul and Barry are quick to step forward with a list of Australians and global stars. ”Australia has produced some outstanding blues musicians over the years,” they say. “Artists like Fiona Boyes, Lloyd Spiegel, Geoff Achison and Chris Wilson have all made enormous contributions to Australian blues, each with their own distinctive voice.

Juhl Atkinson Blues Band

For young Juhl Atkinson, growing up in the fast growing suburb of Loganlea in the 1980s and 90s, life wasn’t that different from the experiences of other young kids. That is, except for one marked difference. When he was just six years old, Juhl started playing guitar and soon began exploring the musical avenues that took him further and further into the world of the blues.

A gift sent home from a travelling father when he was just eight years old and still in primary school, turned Juhl’s life around – a blues record that featured cover tunes from musicians like Leroy Carr, Willie Dixon, Lowell Fulson and Charles Brown.
It was a veritable Wikipedia page of the history of the blues: Leroy Carr lived in the first decades of the last century, a crooner and pianist whose guitar playing accompanist Scrapper Blackwell no doubt caught Juhl’s ear, especially on his well known standard, How Long – How Long Blues.

Willie Dixon is still regarded as a poet laureate of the blues, responsible for iconic tunes like Hoochie Coochie Man, My Babe, Wang Dang Doodle, Little Red Rooster, and a song covered by thousands of artists, Spoonful.

Lowell Fulson was a travelling bluesman who moved from Oklahoma to Texas to California making hits like Everyday I Have the Blues, and getting covered by Elvis Presley, Otis Redding and Eric Clapton. Charles Brown, born in Texas but made famous in California, was a singer-songwriter and pianist known for an intoxicating, smooth West Coast blues and R&B sound.

These artists who helped make Juhl Atkinson a blues musician grew out of different times and American styles within blues, Carr’s urban crooning, Dixon’s heroic standing as a songwriter in Chicago, and, finally, the Californian elegance of Fulson and Brown. Perhaps not as well known as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf or Buddy Guy, the collective contribution of these artists shaped the music we now call blues, soul, R&B, and, to some ears, rock’n’roll.
It’s no wonder Juhl was playing on stage at the Auchenflower bowlo by the year 2000, aged just 14. The bug was the blues and Juhl had it bad – and good.
He played live with friends and acquaintances for another six or so years, until he formed his first serious band, the Rhythm Express, an outfit that morphed over time into the Juhl’s Blues Band with a line up that changes with time, friendship and opportunity. As he grew as a performer, deepening his skills with songcraft and guitar playing, Juhl has followed his favourite Australian and American musicians – the multi-talented Jeff Lang from Geelong, Victoria, Derek Trucks from Florida and Elmore James from the hill country in Mississippi.

They all have a common recognisable skill, the mastery of the slide guitar, a style Juhl loves and lets fly at every opportunity. With this background and a head full of dreams, Juhl has never strayed from the quest to live for
and from music. “My goal was to make a living doing what I love, but I soon found out, music is the easy part, getting paid can be a problem,” says Juhl.

”When they pay you, they often think they paid you too much.”

Juhl reckons the blues resonated with his background growing up in some of the tougher parts of Brisbane and, at the same time, his love of the rhythm’n’blues beat and guitar sound was a natural fit. Asked about how he sees his place in the South East Queensland music scene, Juhl says he wants to help build a community based around music, keep within the confines of the volume limits for venues and, as a cheeky aside, “blow up the db meters and pokies”.

Juhl says he has thought about the Memphis Blues Challenge for some time but living, as he was, in Far North Queensland and Western Australia, it felt as if it was, out of reach. Now he is able to put his name and talent forward to get on the pathway to the IBC in Memphis, he has taken the chance and is going to put his heart, head and soul into using this chance that has come along.

Like many blues players with an eye on making it as a full time musician – he’s been on the tools as a qualified fitter and machinist since just before the COVID times (a twist he counts as a stroke of luck) – Juhl dreams of playing on Beale Street, a chance he thinks could open doors to a whole new phase of his life.