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Local musician Jim Duff has the blues

June 17, 2010|Michael Broihier

(L-R) Waylon Duff, Jim Duff, Seth Thomas and Ryan Latham onstage at Joe’s 4th Street Deli in Danville last Saturday night to debut his new album, Jim Duff and the Necesseties. Not pictured is Duff’s drummer Troy Jones. (Picture by Michael Broihier)

Last Saturday night, Waynesburg native and Stanford business owner Jim Duff showed another side of his musical interests to fans gathered at Joe’s 4th Street Deli in Danville to play songs from his eponymous new album, “Jim Duff and the Necessities.”

The Necessities joined Duff onstage at Joe’s and, with the exception of Duff’s son Waylon, were all Nashville natives who made the three hour trip to Danville for one show. Seth Thomas (bass, harmonica and back up vocals) and Troy Jones (drums) are Duff’s longtime collaborators, but Duff laughingly called sax-man Ryan Latham a “hired gun.” Latham doesn’t appear on the new album, but you couldn’t tell by the niche he’s found in Duff’s lineup. The only giveaway was a music stand holding sheet music; Duff said Latham listened to the album and scored the saxophone part in no time.

The remaining band member in the Necessities’ lineup is Waylon Duff, 16, who proud father Jim calls “an incredibly talented guitarist.” Duff said the Pulaski High School student “picked up guitar faster than anyone I know. I try to show him things, but he’s so smart; he has taught me a lot about being a blues guitar player.”

Duff, who owns Hometown Wireless in Stanford, said that his business supports his music habit, but wouldn’t move to Nashville or any other music hub because technology allows him to collaborate and record at a distance while staying close to his family. “I go to Nashville to meet musicians, but I don’t need to live there like I have in the past,” Duff said. “Technology has gotten very cheap and the cost of recording has gone down. Technology has evolved so much that it only requires one person to be in the studio at any one time,” he said. Half of his new album was recorded in Duff’s Danville studio, the other half in Nashville.

The show at Joe’s was probably a little shock for longtime Duff fans who hadn’t heard the new album; it was more early-Eric Clapton than the Outlaw Country that influenced most of Duff’s other music. Duff said his roots still lie in Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and David Allan Coe but added that he has always played blues and rock. “Some of the songs on this album are ten or twelve years old,” Duff said, remarking that he has also been influenced by jam bands, Jimi Hendricks, Eric Clapton and the Black Crows.

The tight, ten songs on his new album surely reflect more Clapton and Black Crows, though. Duff and the Necessities don’t dither endlessly in long jams. “It’s tough to get a complete thought across in three minutes,” Duff said, but all of the cuts on the album deliver the goods quickly.

Duff and his band have a few gigs scattered throughout the summer, mostly festivals, but he hopes they can get in another show at the 4th Street Deli sometime over the summer, “It’s really the only venue for live music in the area,” Duff said. The new album is available at http://www.jimduff.com.

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