Ash Wilson
ash Wilson’s breakthrough album, Broken Machine, proves that the blues is going from strength to strength in the uK
Blues guitarist and vocalist Ash Wilson’s first exposure to music was via his parents’ record collection, although his actual introduction to playing was on piano. “I think it was more my mum’s thing than mine,” he says. “Once I’d stopped doing that, I really got into Dire Straits.”
This was the 80s when it was impossible to avoid seeing the Money For Nothing video on MTV. After “dancing around with a tennis racket”, mesmerised by Mark Knopfler’s epic intro riff, Ash began badgering his parents for a guitar. On his 14th birthday his wish was granted. “I really wanted a Strat,” he continues. “By this point, I’d started going through my dad’s videos and found Pink Floyd’s Pulse with David Gilmour and a red Strat with a maple neck and we’d also got this Eric Clapton at Knebworth video as well. Again, with a Strat and a maple neck.”
Suitably equipped, Ash went for lessons with a teacher who focused on detailing Hank Marvin’s repertoire. “To be honest, I didn’t really ‘get’ the value that would have at the time…,” he admits. “But, I mean, I think Hank’s a genius now.”
A stint at a local music college exposed him to like-minded students who shared a common interest in the blues. “I met a guy at college who was a massive Stevie Ray Vaughan fan and I went through the obligatory Sunburst Strat with a Tube Screamer phase, and frustrating hours trying to get his massive tone and not understanding why it wasn’t happening!”
Eventually discovering an underground blues scene in his home town of Skegness – “they were a bunch of geeks, really” – Ash’s study of the blues began to intensify, discovering Albert King, Leadbelly and many other original voices along the way. Stints in various blues bands followed, including The Melt, which ended up opening for acts such as Walter Trout, Mountain and The Animals. “We came onto the British blues scene for a very short amount of time,” Ash recalls.
Now, with a new album in the wings, Ash takes to the stage armed with a ’55 reissue Strat and a ’58 reissue Les Paul, a 633 Engineering Groove King Head, and a raft of pedals. “I’ve got an Xotic wah going into two pedals by King Tone: a Duellist and a Vintage Fuzz. Then there’s a Fulltone Octafuzz, an Xotic EP Boost, an Ibanez Analog Delay, a Strymon El Capistan, a Strymon Flint and a Fulltone Deja Vibe – and the most important one, a Korg tuner!” [DM]