Americana Alt.Country CD Reviews

Dave Fields
'All In'
(FMI Records, 2014)
www.davefieldsmusic.com

A fellow DJ gave me a promo copy of 'Detonation' (2012), the previous album by Dave Fields. That was a very pleasant first meeting with Dave's blues rock, it even featured a duet with Joe Louis Walker. Here he is again, with his fourth CD: carrying the same good-looking electric guitar (I bet she has a pretty name...), wearing a similar black leather outfit and biker boots. He just went from a back alley behind a boring office building to the basement entrance of a Chinese restaurant. And we're ready to listen to eleven new tracks!

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Dave's BIO:

Dave Fields ~ Electrifying Rock With a Blues Soul.

Dave was raised in New York City, the son of a noted and gifted composer / arranger / producer: Sammy 'Forever' Fields. From the time Dave was a young child he grew up in his father’s recording studio being exposed to the likes of Sammy Kahn, Rupert Holmes and Stevie Wonder. By a nanny who was from Waycross (Georgia), an eclectic dash of Southern culture was mixed into Dave’s persona. In a strange twist of fate, his sister Launa, a gifted musician in her own right, lost her hearing by the time she was fourteen. Witnessing his sister’s struggles in a hearing world profoundly affected Dave. “After seeing my sister’s agony from being discriminated against for her condition, I was determined to never let that kind of injustice happen again in my presence. I always felt that one of my missions in life was to be able to communicate with people and to listen to them. It’s one of the beautiful things about being a human being. We all want to connect with one another”. Nowhere is that feeling more evident than in Dave’s music. His gift of making his guitar talk combined with his uncanny way of weaving many different styles of music together is an example of how we as humans are a fabric of many different cultures and walks of life. Dave says: “Growing up in New York City I was exposed to so many different foods, music, cultures… It was truly a melting pot of humanity. I believe I am the kind of artist that reflects what I see and what I’m exposed to. As a musician I was put on this this Earth to spread joy, love and life to everyone. I try to do that with every note I play, with every lyric I write and sing. If I do anything less than that I feel like I’m letting the listener down”.

Dave’s musical path has been quite a journey, after attending Berklee College of music, Dave was immersed in the New York City music scene as a 'first call' guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Dave explains: “My Father made sure that I could play a lot of different instruments and styles so I could make a living. Unlike many blues musicians, I was raised to be a musical 'hit man'. I got to do sessions with many famous musicians and producers like Tommy James & Ahmet Ertegün (to name a few) and even was on staff of one of the top five jingle companies in New York, Look Music”. But Dave was more than just a craftsman, his passion for music could not be satisfied with just being a writer for hire. Dave: “I made the decision in 2006 that I was going to make a stand in my life. That I was going to do what was really important to me. Honestly… I was too scared in my younger days! LOL! So I set out on my new career path, being Dave Fields the artist. Another thing was I had backed up and produced so many other artists and one day it dawned on me, why am I doing this for everyone else? Why can’t I do it FOR ME!”.

Dave has performed with the likes of Hubert Sumlin, U2 and opened for Blues Traveler. On May 20th, 2012 he was inducted into NY Blues Hall Of Fame along with John Hammond and Gary US Bonds. Lastly you can hear Dave’s song “Train To My Heart” on legendary bluesman John Mayall’s most recent CD 'Tough'.

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