Blues NAKED
Debi Candlish- Monsoon Mal- Deanne Fowke
Blues Naked
@ The Townsville Folk Festival 2023
book online
1234 Divi St. #1000,
San Francisco, CA 94220
Blues Naked is Deb Candlish’s latest project singing and playing the Blues on her Bottleneck Beast
Deb Candlish grew up in Greensboro in the foothills of North Carolina, USA, surrounded by delta and piedmont folk blues, old-time country and gospel music.
Debi Candlish came to Melbourne in the late 80’s and discovered that Blues was alive and well in this great city and ended up living there from the ’90s till 2009.
She became manager of Melbourne blues bar Muddy Waters which introduced her to a brilliant bunch of blues players including James Bridges from Collard Greens and Gravy, Skip Sail, Steve Plater, Alex Burns, Jeff Lang and CW Stoneking, who would all become her friends, teachers and musical mentors.
She joined blues outfit, Dirty Rivers, focusing on her passion for slide guitar and toured all over Victoria and were the darlings of the Phillip Island Motorcycle Grand Prix for some years. As a solo artist, she played at many major festivals including Port Fairy, Queenscliff, Apollo Bay and the Frankston Guitar Festival. She formed a 40-piece choir called “South of the River” which showcased original African American Gospel.
This last year Deb has Been playing all over North Queensland and is known as the Queen of the Blues. She is also touring Melbourne regularly and is a featured artist of The Melbourne Blues Society. In July 2022 she returned to North Carolina to play some shows and catch up with her roots.
Her CD “Ain’t Got the Blues” which would win her three Victorian/Tas Folk Blues Awards for Best Debut CD, Best female vocalist and with her blues icons, Collard Greens and Gravy, she tied for Best CD. By the time she left Melbourne for North Queensland, she was a singer/songwriter/storyteller and slide player with serious chops.
Moonsoon Mal blues harps and gear, you can follow Mal on YouTube for some pretty sweet harmonica tutorials
Mal Stainkey was born in Charters Towers North Queensland. His first instrument was harmonica, taught by his grandfather who played in the 4KQ mouth organ band – “I played trumpet in primary school. My dad had played saxophone in local dance bands. He helped me learn songs by playing them on sax. Sounded so cool, as soon as I could hold it, I started playing his tenor sax and switched to playing that in the local youth orchestra.”
Mal loves Jazz, but as more life was experienced, he kept coming back to the blues. “I always had a harp with me. For 10 years we rode motorbikes, can’t fit a sax on them easily! Everywhere I’d go I’d try and sneak off and play some harp.” In 2016 Mal became friends with Jason Ricci Grammy award winning harmonica artist and decided to really pursue harmonica. Playing with Old Salty and the Catfish Blues Band at Blues and Roots 2020 Blues Naked at Palm Creek Folk Festival 2021 as well as playing with The Pocket Onions and The Firelight Collective at Palm Creek Folk Festival 2022
Deanne Fowke grew up in Tully North Queensland and has sung with the Innisfail Choral Society. Singing traditional folk Blues with Deb and Mal combined to take their Blues to a new level. Their show encompasses the history of folk blues from the 1920’s to the present with traditional and original songs.
Their experiences and passion enhance their skills at playing the blues… NAKED
Blues Naked @ The Townsville Folk Festival
