By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
The third coming of Ian Moss could just be his most contented.
Known as the axeman for a decade in classic Aussie pub rock band Cold Chisel, even when he went solo, it was always behind his electric guitar.
Mossy is now captivating audiences with his voice. The guitar’s still there, but it’s unplugged.
“Only once in a blue moon would I try doing a solo show in the old days, and that was with an electric guitar,” Moss mused.
The thought of going on stage, still wearing the Ian Moss axeman persona and perception, gave him pause for thought, he admits.
“I thought it would be easy but it wasn’t. You have to reappraise the whole thing, play differently, change your solo style.
“You have to go back to the song, look at what the lyrics are about, find a new way to express them. It’s a real challenge, but a rewarding one.”
So rewarding in fact that it produced one of his finest albums, Six Strings, recorded with a Maton 808 acoustic guitar, three pick-ups, three microphones and an unveiling of Moss’s voice.
Cold Chisel greats, platinum solo singles, new songs and relics from Hendrix and Creedence were rendered with a warm timbre and bluesy lilt that was different yet instantly recognisable.
It was in 2008 when Moss was on the Australian television series It Takes Two, singing duets with celebrities, that he realised there was a side of his musical character that surprised many listeners. “When I put aside the guitar and sang a few soul ballads on that show, people were suddenly listening to me differently.
“They’d say ‘Yeah, we knew you sang, but we didn’t know you could really sing’. It was both flattering and frustrating. I kept wondering what they thought I’d been doing for past 30 years.
“It showed that there was a different side of my music that hadn’t really been heard by enough people before.”
Mossy is now allowing his guitar work to take a back seat while he concentrates on singing, the focus of his new album Soul on West 53rd featuring fresh takes on classic soul songs from the likes of Sam Cooke, Al Green, Otis Redding and Levi Stubbs.
This bold venture from Moss will certainly turn heads, reinforcing what Moss has to offer as a vocalist of repute.
Significantly, as Moss prepares to introduce material from his new album to live audiences, the move has inspired a new burst of songwriting for him.
“Working with such classic songs has brought a lot of ideas for original material as well.
“For the next album, featuring my own songs, I’d expect it to follow the same style. There’s something really great going on here.”
Chisel will never die, but perhaps the Ian Moss musical legacy will become as a vocalist rather than a guitarist.
Ian Moss’s Six Strings Classics Tour plays Geelong Performing Arts Centre’s Drama Theatre on 27 May.
