American delta blues guitarist Kent DuChaine has been playing authentic solo blues since 1968, with earthy, guttural vocals and superb crunchy guitar playing on his battered old 1934 National Steel guitar he calls Leadbessie which he has lovingly restored. A true raconteur, with tales of playing and travelling with some of the great blues masters, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Bukka White.
Kent was born in Wyzata, a town in Minnesota and was taught to play ukulele, guitar and clarinet by his father. He later learned to play piano and electric guitar at school, but it was reading the sleevenotes of an Eric Clapton album that introduced him to the Blues. He decided to move down South to be nearer to the roots of the music he now embraced and lived the ‘blues life’ riding the rails and running the roads, living in an old Cadillac then a tent and a motorhome playing venues all across the USA playing nearly every night, opening up for and performing with many of the greatest Bluesmen and women, including Johnny Shines, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Bukka White, John Lee Hooker and Margie Evans.
In the early 1990’s Kent decided to spread the Blues he loved over to the UK and Europe, and to date he has completed well over 100 overseas tours. Now living in Georgia his time is split between touring and his other love, fishing near his lake-side home. There are few musicians who can captivate an audience with nothing but a guitar and the Blues to the level that DuChaine does.
