Mr. David Viner

This is not "garage blues", "nu blues", or even "contemporary blues" - it is just blues and folk music - as beautiful and simple and perfect as it can be played. It's Mr. David Viner - a gaunt young man in a cheap suit, possessor of a worldly knowledge beyond his years, and a heart of stone.

Mr. Viner plays his music with a passion and honesty long since forgotten in these unfortunate modern and mediocre times. He is not concerned with gimmicks, fuzz pedals, or pointless tuneless caterwauling. A single chord from his acoustic guitar could silence ten Craig Nichols. He reminds us what songwriting and melody is about. He shows us that traditional music need not be boring, and that energy and volume are not as closely related as we all sometimes think. He is a completely engaging live performer who's naturally adept at balancing haunting instrumentals, self-reproachful ballads, drinking songs, and a good dose of humor.

The record-simply titled "Mr. David Viner" is a well-rounded mix of songs - as influenced by 60s English folk, as it is by 30s black Americana. He equally channels Bert Jansch and John Hurt. Mr. Viner plays and sings with an understanding that belies his 23 years. He knows life is a rip off, but he doesn't play with an aversion to it, he plays, instead, with indifference.
b.s.s.b.

Dim Mak Releases:
DM051: Mr. David Viner "Mr. David Viner" CD (C0-released with Intheact Records)

Members on the David Viner record are also on these other Dim Mak releases:
DM036: The Kills "Black Rooster" 12"/CD
DM040: Soledad Brothers "Live" LP/CD
DM043: Pearlene "Murder Blues and Prayer" LP/CD
DM053: The Von Bondies "Raw and Rare" CD

Press

Updated 1/26/04/03

ROLLING STONES TOP TEN of 2003
8. Mr. David Viner, Mr. David Viner (Dim Mak): Viner plays Roy Harper or Bert Jansch to the Soledad Brothers' Led Zeppelin (if that don't translate, just forget it). - Denise Sullivan


VICE
S/T by Daphine Carr

Viner is the guy skwonking around on his geeter to a Robert Johnson poster in your college dorm-only he does it well. Super-trad blues a la pre-freakout Fahey with English elegance and Detroit-revival triple-A members ( the von Bondies, the Kills) for backup and ambience.

CONTRA COSTA TIMES
by Denise Sullivan
ANOTHER NEW FACE: Combine the lineaments of Hitchcock with those of Greene and throw in a heap of Bob Dylan and you'll get my new favorite guy with guitar, David Viner. He's from England and he's backed by the hard-bluesin' friends of the White Stripes, the Soledad Brothers (who knocked you out opening for Spiritualized this week, right?). Yeah, well, here's the deal: Viner is old-school English folk blues of the Bert Jansch variety. You know him, right? -- the guitarist whom Jimmy Page stole from and whom Neil Young idolizes? OK, well, now that that's straight, Viner doesn't sound too much like Jansch, but he's pickin' in that Jansch/Davey Graham style and he's in the tradition of English guys, like Hitchcock, who pick up the guitar and learn all this fancy doodly-do and then turn it into something their own. And let me tell you, it's somethin' else! Mississippi Delta country blues it's not. English folk blues it is (it seems to require a lot of beer to make it). He plays stuff like a totally solo "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and a bent slide version of "Corrina, Corrina" and he's got an "Ode to John Fahey." The record's called "Mr. David Viner" and it's available from Dim Mak Records. This is my Year of the Blues Pick of the Month (one month to go and this dang year will be over).


SKRATCHMAGAZINE
Slef-Titled

The debut release from England Delta blues guitarist David Viner is an appealing piece of Mississippi mud pie that seems as out of place as a Muslim in the Vatican. With a clean, traditional blues style that hearkens back to Jefferson Airplane-offshoot Hot Tuna and earlier legends like Robert Johnson, Viner has crafted a true piece of America that was born in an alien environment. It seems remarkable how well Viner captures the dark, brooding style of music the he's adopted. The 12 tunes on this release are all traditional blues numbers, such as "Corinna Corinna", "Beer Belly", and "Hobo Blues". This album is for those that like to kick back with a glass of jack, enjoy some pure guitar, and watch the world whirl on by. Find out more about this misplaced maestro at www.dimmak.com

THE CRUTCH
Whenever a group strikes strong on Billboards chart the dams are released for their friends and anyone similar to their sound. When Pearl Jam and Nirvana peaked in the 90s it punctured one of those plump Seattle clouds and it poured Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, et al. When the US government tested LSD on Ken Kessy, he hipped the pranksters who dosed the hippies, and the summer of love got hot and heavy (as well as weird); San Fran shimmered with vibrations from the Grateful Dead, who opened the doors (pardon the Huxley pun) for bands like Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin & Big Brother Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. When the Cohen Brothers, and more specifically T. Bone Burnet, scoured the archives of bluegrass and American heritage music for O Brother Where Are Thou, they made obscure 90 year old convicts millionaires through escrow accounts (In one instance, a granddaughter of one of the musicians on the soundtrack had recognized her grandfather, reported her finding, and before long the man was in a higher tax bracket and attending an Oscar party with new suit).
So it comes as little surprise that when the White Stripes hang on the charts for thirteen weeks with Elephant, that the Detroit sound of punk blues feeds back reverberations throughout the Motor City with the Soledad Brothers, Pearlene and the Von Bondies (which are closely tied to Jack White) and all the way to England, reaching a young tour van driver by the name of Mr. David Viner.
But the buzz of fuzz was there for a while. If you were to follow the Mississippi River from the Midwest to the Northern Hill country of Mississippi, you’d find that punk blues has been ripping chords for some time. Of course it was only until recently that most of that music made its way from the juke joint to the laser disc and onto the tour bus : an effort made by Matthew Johnson, the founder of Fat Possum Records, and not Jack White. For the past few years Johnson has been plundering old George Mitchell recordings from the sixties and humping the dirt roads of Mississippi looking for a dying breed of bluesmen to immortalize, and for the most part his search has been fruitful. Most of his artists are becoming underground legends while others, such as Solomon Burke and RL Burnside are experiencing a renaissance, getting to play sold out shows as well as private parties for celebrities. In fact, Epitaph Records : a respectably iconoclastic label--has been backing and distributing Fat Possum. So if you’re seriously digging the sounds of the White Stripes, Von Bondies, the Kills, the Soledad Brothers, or Pearlene, you’ll do yourself a tremendous favor by perusing the Fat Possum catalogue. Few recommendations: Solomon Burke, Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside, Mississippi Fred McDowell & Johnny Woods, and if you’re feeling like you want to get really dirty, T Model Ford. All of these bad asses were playing what is now called punk blues well before most of the Detroit kids, or their audience, could pick the color blue out of the rainbow.
Now this isn’t a piece about how old black music has been superseded by new white music of which it was based upon. Rather, it is about how vital both are to each other and how their similarities and their differences shouldn’t hold us back from experiencing them both. True fans of the blues shouldn’t be jaded when it comes to these things. When someone hits a chord, we can tell whether that person is doing it with honesty and natural ability, even if said ability is imperfect. In fact, it’s the slight imperfections that make it sound human and which makes it work. David Byrne once said that an out of tune voice is better because “it is more believable.” So music should be somewhat sloppy. It’s the funkiness that reminds us that we are naturally imperfect and that there is no perfect. To be raw is to be natural.
That said, below are a list of reasons why Mr. David Viner falls into the category of natural born bluesman, and hopefully for him the timing is right, because his music works euphonically, regardless of generation.
1. Obscurity is the blight of the bluesman, but it’s also what makes them great. Mississippi John Hurt was a farm hand for nearly sixty years after he started playing guitar and didn’t tour until the late 50’s/early 60’s when Tom Hoskins put him on the college circuit; most of the Fat Possum crowd spent their lives working on farms and fixing cars before ever seeing a signing deal with a label, much less a tour van. Viner was the tour van driver and merch man for the Von Bondies, the Kills, the Datsuns and the Soledad Brothers while they were in England. Of course picking a job as a tour van driver for musicians is comparable to Will Hunting’s janitorial work at MIT; but why criticize, he’s smart. After gigs Viner would play and the boys took a shine to him. In fact, Jason of the Von Bondies and Hotel of the Kills purchased Viners first axe and let him grace the stage as their opener.
2. His ability not only developed early it’s seemingly inherent. He just picked up the guitar and could play and sing. Mississippi John Hurt, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Junior Kimbrough and Muddy Waters were all born with the ability to play the blues. We would damn these people if their music weren’t so pleasantly distracting.
3. His sound both recalls the shoulders he stands on as well as defines him as original. This paradox has crushed many musicians, but Viner maintains it with an eerie coolness. On Nobodys Fault one can detect a slight tremor of JJ Cale’s laid-back cadence in his voice as well as the way Cale finger picks with silky precision live. Other songs on the album recall early Bob Dylan and McDowell with their rollicking tempos and rusty tones. In fact, Corrina, Corrina happens to be a Muddy Waters number Dylan covered. Like Dylan, Viner has a knack for taking traditional blues songs and making them his by not only adding personal style, but by delicately adding and subtracting lyrics.
4. He is cool. I mean, really fucking cool. Most blues men look cool. That is, they wear shades when they play and have this dark, mysterious stage presence that’s completely relaxed. Some, like JJ Cale, Coco Robicheaux, and John Lee Hooker are so loose they don’t even stand up when they play. Viner performs sitting down and he wears sunglasses and leather boots that look like they slide off like slippers. His music comes off the same way.   

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