Celebrate the release of Stomping Nick's new album Shake For Your Cake with special guests Jess Shanks (The Eastern), L'il Chuck (One Man Skiffle Machine) and The Blues Professor (Boogie Wizard).
“Shake For Your Cake” is the new album by one-man-band Stomping Nick Jackman. It is a smorgasbord of mostly self-penned garage punk blues, primitive boogie and electro-country stomp. All but one of the tracks have been recorded live in the studio, featuring Stomping Nick singing and playing harmonica, guitar and drums all at the same time. The album cover features a woodcut of Nick and his guitar by Tony de Lautour.
Nick Jackman, hailing from Lyttelton, is an unashamed “blues impurist”. His love of old blues is profound yet he sees no point in trying to faithfully preserve the sounds and styles of yesteryear. He has a punk soul that finds expression in fusing primitive garage punk with the musical roots that gave birth to it. Jackman’s blues has been described by Blues Matters as having a “completely irreverent tone”. You will not find him paying tribute to guitar heroes such as BB King or Stevie Ray Vaughn. Instead he takes his inspiration from bands like the Stooges and the Gun Club, or the dirty guitars of old Sun Studio recordings, or the primeval distortion of early John Lee Hooker. Stomping Nick’s harmonica style is strongly influenced by the Chicago sound pioneered by Little Walter but influences as diverse as bluegrass fiddle and Jimi Hendrix also make their presence felt when his jaw starts to swing. Underpinning the harmonica, Nick’s feet and hands provide a solid rumble of drums and growling guitar to get the people in the groove, while he sings, amongst other things, songs about trains and trainwrecks, magic whiskey, getting high, sinking low, and dancing with the devil.
“Shake For Your Cake” has been several years in the making. Stomping Nick began recording it in 2011, soon after the release of his debut album, in a condemned, red-stickered house as the Christchurch earthquakes shook the city to the ground. As with many people in Christchurch, the earthquakes had an effect on Nick’s mind, which resulted in him delaying the release of his recordings. For a long time, he had a strange feeling of being physically and mentally unsettled with little connection to anything. Part of this time included a period when he drifted around New Zealand, playing shows and living in his van. By the end of 2015 Nick felt the time was right to release the recordings he had been sitting on for so long. This band sometimes breaks down but it never breaks up.
...a one man band that plays Blues with a punk heart and completely irreverent tone, I love it...This is so much the way that Blues should be played - solo and with huge heart and total integrity. Blues Matters
The blues won't go away, and New Zealand has had its share of aspiring practitioners, but Stomping Nick really does stand out. There's nothing worse than a polite blues, and Jackman's are suitably rude and raw – no effete displays of technique, the cardinal sin often committed in the name of the blues. And yet, rawness doesn't equate with monotony – quite an achievement when you're in a band of one. Perhaps because beneath this music's raw exterior there's no shortage of finesse. -Nick Bollinger, Radio New Zealand
“…a signature sound that is tight, energetic, marked by solid grooves, and as big and loud as a few pipe bombs strapped to a petrol can.” - No Depression
“..pounding rhythms, searing blasts of harmonica, and a gutsy roar that reach back decades beyond the last fad.” - Leicester Bangs
