Review Summary: Though this was Hole's debut, his lengthy time on the touring circuit pays off here with a fun, suitably explosive and jubilant set of electric-charged blues tracks.
Sometimes, you gotta give it up for your local heroes. It always helps to know that no matter where you're from, you can make it in your chosen background with enough spit, elbow grease and talent. Dave Hole not only resides in Perth, by all accounts he isn't even very far from where I live, and yet he's managed a sizeable following and consistently toured all around the world, both as a supporting act and solo. Even Metallica's own Kirk Hammett shouted him out once, and getting the props of the guitarist of the biggest metal band in the world is no small feat. With his tenth (and honestly likely final) studio album out, there may be no better time to analyze the discography of Western Australia's most reputable name in Chicago blues.
For the most basic of backgrounds, Dave Hole was born in 1948 in England before moving to Perth at age four. His childhood would see him listening to early rock and roll like Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers before picking up the guitar at eleven and developing his taste for the blues a little bit later. A standard background so far, but the event that best demonstrates his differences as a performer is a 1976 Australian Rules Football accident where Hole broke his pinky finger, forcing him, or perhaps simply inspiring him, to play guitar overhand, a slide over his left ring finger whose hand sits atop the fretboard. With that sort of enforced playstyle, one would be forgiven for thinking this would have forced the challenge upon him of having to play his ass off to compensate. But he must have turned some heads, as it was after a few chance encounters with producers and record execs that he was able to turn in a studio album very quickly in the early 90s without much in the way of negotiation. Though he had been touring for years, and these tracks are alleged to be derived from what he was playing at the time, one of the universal truths of music is that you have to try pretty hard to impress record labels to that level.
And indeed, if the recordings on Short Fuse Blues are any reflection of his live performances, he must have been a sight to behold. Even though his attitude feels safe and reverent to the accepted blues templates, his playing style cribs more from his earlier influences of rugged 50s rock. His solos are very choppy, loud, driving and biting, and his guitar's voice has an incredible sense of command. Though edged out by the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who made very memorable melodic passages, Hole's energy on the guitar is infectious, which does make him stand out among his peers.
Short Fuse Blues' biggest drawback is its raw songwriting. There aren't a lot of egalitarian arrangements or daring compositions, and though this is less loaded with 12 bar blues as some of his later work, it's easy to spot which songs are covers, which are reappropriated standard blues frameworks, and which compositions are truly inspired. Keep Your Motor Running is probably the best introduction to the man's work in this respect, as a run through his discography will see you listening to songs like this a lot. Something Fine, Travelling Riverside Blues and Torn Down are likely too standard to hold up to repeated listens, but other songs with standard frameworks such as Take A Swing and the title track have grooves more than good enough to make up for it.
Yet other songs showcase that there is an original songwriting core that can augment Hole's playstyle. The Bottle and Business Man hold lyrics derived from literate modern day stories of employment troubles but have very driving rock backbones, The Bottle's four-to-the-floor drum beat commanding a certain kind of attention that makes the blazing solo and the little bridge digressions that much more interesting. Nightcat is probably the record's best song, starting with a lengthy guitar solo backed by a slippery, even funky, groove. Some very punctuating post-choruses eventually lead into a full-on bass solo/breakdown, which then moves into one of Hole's most tense yet playful solos. More boisterous moments like the extended solo on Every Girl I See further aid to his image as more confident and fiery competitor in the blues scene, even as the song itself is a cover and shows that Hole knows and respects his roots.
The album's recording turnaround has been disputed, but even if I hadn't been told it was all done in about three days, you can tell by the production. The Plumber besides, it is likely his most dated sounding album, with too much verb and room on everything and not always enough focus on the rhythm section. And yet, the flubs do give it a bit of quaint charm, and further demonstrate the effort to bring the live energy into the studio. Nightcat features a notable part where Hole could not switch his guitar's tone in time, something that would usually warrant another take, but it doesn't drag the song down any. The synth horns on Truckload Of Lovin' are pretty cheesy, but Hole would soon graduate to a real horn section, so this remains a fun digression and a showcase of the early days of his career. Most of all, however, Hole knew not to skimp on the production or songwriting where it counted. He did use tracking and multiple takes, with a lot of songs featuring a proper rhythm guitar track, and even some harmonies, to give the tracks the body they needed to stand up. This seems like small praise, but not only is it a boon given the quick recording time, it's also something a lot of electric blues artists at the time seemed too proud to do, so it's refreshing to see Hole focus on the songs first where it counted.
Short Fuse Blues is definitely a bit patchy as an album. With sixteen tracks at about seventy minutes on the original Australian release, it was clearly geared more as a casual listen where the blues experience and atmosphere married with the hot-headed temperament of the guitar playing is more important than the details along the way to carry you through the album. Songs that might have otherwise been not worth the time are elevated by some surprising performances, especially The Sun Is Shining, whose incredible vocal performances saves the slowest song on the album. Others unfortunately feel wholly tedious in the context of the album. Take A Swing and I'm Your Man were both excluded from international releases, and while the former features one of the better grooves on display, both test listener patience, as do so some superfluous and arguably indulgent versions of Albatross and Dark Was The Night.
Still, for as much as was working against it given the circumstances and given Hole's general propensity to put his performances over his songwriting, Short Fuse Blues remains a surprisingly cracking listen. There's a nice spread of accepted frameworks, full-on covers, original compositions that spiral into fun jams and some more focused songwriting spells, making the album a more gripping listen than the duration and genre suggest. Definitely not his sharpest set of songs, occasionally wearing too much of his live career on his sleeve, but most importantly, never truly boring. It is the sort of album that shows obvious room for growth but also some incredible foundations for a fruitful recording career, and for a low-budget debut, you really can't ask for more than that.
