Interview with Ray Beadle: ‘We set out to do straight blues rock, tough Texas style’

Sydney-based blues singer and guitarist Ray Beadle has released his 15th album Bound To Get The Blues, a gritty blues rock album featuring seven new original songs.

His band comprises Adam Pringle (guitar), George Brugmans (drums), Ben Edwards (bass) and Oliver Thorpe (pedal steel guitar), who have been playing together for around 20 years.

Bound To Get The Blues is a pivotal album for Beadle, bringing together the influences he has collected over the past 30 years when he first started playing live, with a harmonic and emotional depth that is often hard to capture: ‘We set out to do straight blues rock, tough Texas style,’ he said. ‘I’ve done albums in the past that were more soul/funk but we’ve done this one for the guitar players!’

The 10 track album opens with ‘Charlene’, which grabs you with a hypnotic, sludgy riff and I ask him to tell me about ‘Charlene’: ‘That’s what my wife said (laughs). That hypnotic vamp (playing a short chord pattern over and over) on the chord is what I was going for, like the ‘Running Shoes’ song on the Thunderbirds album. I thought it would be great to have something like that, something tough, with one chord. We hang on the ‘E’ note for ages and build and build and go to the ‘G’ for release. There’s just a bit of tremolo on there, I use a Tubescreamer pedal most of the time.’ I tell him that it makes me think of Charlene from Neighbours and he laughs: ‘Yes! My dad was into 50’s rock ‘n’ roll. He loved a song called ‘Charlena’, it’s in the movie ‘La Bamba’. it’s a pretty old-fashioned name. I thought it was a name that had to come back (laughs). A friend told me: “You’ve made Charlene sexy again!”‘

‘I’m like a kid in a candy store, I get carried away when I play!’

He has. It’s stompy, infectious, dirty blues and Beadle’s gritty vocals offset it perfectly, building to the first drawn out guitar solo that goes on for about 1.30 minutes. Such solos feature on all of the tracks on the album and, incredibly, are largely improvised: ‘The solo in ‘Charlene’ was improvised,’ he said. ‘For me, with songs and lyrics, I wouldn’t consider myself a great songwriter. My favourite songs are pretty simple. Some of my favourite songs as a kid were people like Sam Cooke. For me, to make music is to be honest about who you are and to be genuine. Adam Pringle, he plays guitar on the album, he’s a tasty player, minimal and nice. I’m the opposite of him (laughs). I’m like a kid in a candy store, I get carried away when I play!’

As ‘Charlene’ kicks off: “How can I tell ya, how many times, baby, you cross my mind, I want to take you away…”

Beadle got into music at a young age and comes from a musical family: ‘My dad, cousins and uncles all played guitar, it was an environment of love and fun, it should always be like that. I started playing guitar when I was about 9. The first song I learned to play was ‘Guitar Boogie Shuffle’. My dad played country music like Merle Haggard. My uncle showed me Stevie Ray Vaughan. Any kid who loves guitar loves Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was a lightbulb moment for me in terms of listening but the real lightbulb moment came when I was about 14 and I realised I could improvise on the guitar.’

It’s something that still defines how he plays today and influences how he chooses the musicians he works with: ‘The one thing I look for with everyone I use is to have musicians who are fearless and free,’ he said. ‘If you have to talk about what to do, it kills the spontaneity of it. Whether you play a verse or a chorus next, you have to open your ears (laughs). A song will sound different every time we play it live. Playing live now is so good! I just bought a new amp about three weeks ago. I bought an American Magnatone, this week was the first time I got to give it a whirl – it’s the bees knees!’

‘The whole album was recorded in four or five hours, that’s a lot of energy to have in a short time!’

The title track ‘Bound To Get The Blues’ sums up how he feels about music and work getting in the way: ‘I’m a truck driver, I just finished a 15 hour shift – I did 750 km today. I work all week and every time I pick up my guitar, it makes me happy. The whole album was recorded in four or five hours, that’s a lot of energy to have in a short time! This song is about when I’m working Monday to Friday and all I want to do is get to the weekend and play some blues. I didn’t want to be afraid to talk about the ‘b’ word, blues (laughs).’

As the track kicks off: ‘I knew I was in trouble, for a pretty thing like you. My friends tried to tell me, she’s too good to be true.”

It’s a theme that carries over onto the next track on the album ‘Guitar And A Reason’, which chronicles the ups and downs of being a musician. ‘It was very easy to write. I stopped drinking about four years ago when I was 41. I felt like I took a lot for granted being able to do what I do. Now I’m more grateful and really enjoying what I do.’

It’s been a tough road to get where he is today, with his life taking a difficult turn when he lost his mum to cancer when he was 16: ‘Everything happened at once,’ he said. ‘My mum passed, I got kicked out of school, my dad disappeared. I was on my own. I started gigging in Sydney, I didn’t have anything else to do. If I did one gig a week, I could pay for the place I was staying in. My mum and dad never told me you could do this for a living. My mum was so amazing, I felt she gave me everything I needed to be strong. I’ve since reconnected with my dad, it’s part of my story and I got through it. I’m lucky I had the guitar and music, it gave me a sense of community.’

Understandably, his songwriting has changed over the years: ‘There are differences when you write albums so far apart,’ he said. ‘The guitar is always the vocal point. My workhorse guitar for the last 10 years has been a Squier Classic Vibe, it’s based on a 50’s Strat. It was an A$800 guitar, I haven’t changed anything.’ I ask him what his dream guitar would be. ‘That’s a really hard one! I once played on my friend’s guitar, it felt like it was playing itself. It was a custom shop Strat. I’m not that gearey (laughs). I’m 45 now and just started to buy a few pedals! The Strymon Lex is my new favourite, it’s a Leslie speaker simulator. I love it because the Vaughan brothers both used actual Leslie speakers at one time or another.’

I tell him that a guitarist once told me that that the guitar chooses you, much like the wand chooses you in the Harry Potter books and he nods enthusiastically: ‘Oh, 100%,’ he said. ‘When I got the Squier, the guy in the shop put five guitars in front of me, some were a lot more expensive but this A$800 guitar just felt the best.’ I say that I know exactly what he means and that was how I felt playing a Flying V in a guitar shop recently, whereas the Les Paul Gold Top that I expected to love felt clunky in my hands: ‘I’ve got a Gold Top and a Gold Top Junior, that’s what I use in a jazz organ trio I play with,’ he said. ‘The feel of the Junior is completely different to the Gold Top, the neck is smaller radius, it’s also much lighter, you might dig that instead.’

‘Anyone who can play jazz like them has an expressive side with a lot of soul‘

Beadle’s musical influences are vast: ‘Albert King (an American blues guitarist) is the man for me,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘His singing and his songwriting, he was a special guy. I love jazz as well, so Pat Martino (an American jazz guitarist and composer), George Benson. Anyone who can play jazz like them has an expressive side with a lot of soul. That’s what appeals to me, the timing and phrasing. I’d love to write a song with Willie Dixon. I’ve always loved the crossover of jazz and blues, like Eric Gales and Chris Cain. Chris Cain is one of my biggest influences, crossing jazz and blues, and I would call him a friend. He gave me a guest pass to get into the Memphis festival (laughs). He’s amazing.’ He has also had the pleasure of meeting one of the all time greats, B.B. King: ‘I played at his club (B.B. King’s Blues Club in Memphis), B.B. came in for two nights while I was there. He did two shows a night, so four shows. I was 23, I was very lucky.’ 

If he could hang out for a night with any musician, he picks American blues legend Robert Johnson: ‘I would probably ask him to take me to the crossroads! (Johnson’s famous song is called ‘Cross Road Blues’.) Just to be in a room with him in the 30’s to watch his playing and have a jam. Back in those days, it was so cutthroat (Johnson died in 1938, aged just 27. No cause of death was officially given, although syphilis was suspected.) When everything happened when I was 16, it felt like I couldn’t feel sorry for myself because I just had to think of the hard lives of the original bluesmen to see that I would still have opportunities that others would not have. I’ve read so much about those guys, I’d pick blues records out of crates at fairs and look for books about them and their life stories as a kid. There was so much entertainment in that.’