One of Australia’s finest ever blues exponents comes to Geelong this week for a special, intimate show.
Hailed as one of the world’s best fingerpicking blues guitarists, Fiona Boyes brings her inimitable blend of soul, authenticity, storytelling and humour to Fyansford’s Door Galley Cafe for a solo show featuring guitars, cigar-box instruments and a whole lot of blues.
Over a career spanning nearly four decades, Boyes has toured across the world, winning acclaim and awards as she goes.
She became both the first woman and the first non-American to win the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2003 and remains the only Australian to be nominated for the USA Blues Music Awards.
But Boyes had never explored the blues, or even picked up a guitar, until she encountered the folk and blues club while studying at Swinburne.
“When I discovered the blues it was like, oh, this is what’s been missing from my life; I had this visceral reaction to it,” she said.
“And I was a fan for many, many years before I actually tried to become a player. I worked as a commercial artist and travelled and did various things until my mid-twenties, and then I had my midlife crisis early.
“I borrowed a guitar – couldn’t play – and started being a musician.”
Now, with 13 albums released and another – a live album from a 2004 Byron Bay Bluesfest performance with Chris Wilson and Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin – soon to be launched, Boyes is still always searching for new ways of playing and writing music.
“When I’ve had opportunities to play with different people, it’s led me to explore different areas… it was a tour with Watermelon Slim that got me started on cigar boxes, for example,” she said.
“Part of the joy of those instruments is their limitations; the most traditional one is three strings.
“There’s certain licks and phrases that fall onto your fingers on your instrument, and when you take away those underpinnings, you can’t play those. You have to find a fresh way of doing something simple, which is great.”
Fiona Boyes is at the Door Gallery Cafe on Saturday, October 4. Visit fionaboyes.com for tickets and more information.
