Photos Gary Sissons & Supplied
Not many guitarists can say they have had a Gibson guitar made especially for them, but when award-winning Frankston South blues guitarist Geoff Achison won the Blues Foundation (USA) Albert King Award in 1995, he impressed Gibson so much that they custom-made an instrument for him. That came on the back of the highly successful album Big Machine with his band The Souldiggers. They toured across the US, UK and Europe and have been touring ever since. Geoff was inducted into Blues Music Victoria Hall of Fame in 2020, and is the official patron of the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society.
But how did it all start?
“I always wanted to be a musician from as far back as I can remember, and my dad was a trumpet player. He played in the local brass band and was into jazz. But mum was a great music lover as well. She had a mixture of old ‘50s rock’n’roll records like Little Richard and Jean Vincent, mixed with classical music. I guess there were always instruments around. First, I wanted to be a drummer. Then I had a go at the trumpet. I played saxophone in the school band, but then I found my mum’s guitar hanging in the closet under the stairs. Once I got my hands on the guitar, it all made sense, and I started to advance on the guitar quicker than anything else.”
Once I got my hands on the guitar, it all made sense
Being a professional musician takes both talent and perseverance, but Geoff says that for him, it was desire. “I often say to people, ‘If you want it enough, then you can achieve anything; it is a matter of application and effort, but if you really, really want to do it, it’s not work, and you’ll learn something every time you pick it up whether it’s a new chord, a new melody or a new sound.’ I wanted to be a musician more than anything else.”
Geoff was fortunate to be mentored by legendary Victorian jazz musician Alan Watson, who introduced him to jazz and improvisation. Geoff was only sixteen when, in 1982, he was bitten by the blues bug. During a house-party gig with The Alan Watson Band, someone put on a 1966 recording by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton. Geoff says:
“From the opening three or four bars, I stopped whatever I was doing, or chatting to whoever I was talking to and said, ‘What is that!?’ I ran over to the record player, and I just had to know who it was. The sound of Clapton’s Gibson Les Paul cranked through the Marshall combo coming out of those speakers … it was magical for me. It changed my life instantly, and I knew right then, ‘That’s what I want to do! I want to sound like that. That’s the music I want to play.’”
Geoff’s playing has been compared to Clapton’s as well as other guitar greats.
“It’s always nice to be compared to the people that you really admire, but as a musician, particularly if you’re into blues or jazz, which is a very creative pursuit, you start by emulating those you admire, but ultimately you’re trying to figure out your own sound. I’m still working on it, and I get little glimpses here and there where I tap into that voice I’m always looking for. It’s not just what it sounds like; there’s a whole emotional ride that you go on. Many musicians will describe those moments when it all comes together, and it is extraordinary—and everybody in the band, everybody in the room feels it. But it’s quite elusive. We can’t quite put our finger on what it is, but it goes up into another level, into the stratosphere somewhere, and we’re all floating on it. It’s really powerful when it happens. It’s transcendental.”
We can’t quite put our finger on what it is, but it goes up into another level, into the stratosphere somewhere, and we’re all floating on it
There are many opinions on what constitutes the blues, from Delta Blues to Boogie-Woogie. So how does Geoff define the blues?
“We don’t really draw lines. There are no demarcation points where you can’t play beyond a certain sound … there are no boundaries. If you’re going to play beautiful unbound music, even if it’s in the basic 12-bar form, it allows you to fill that canvas with whatever colours you can possibly conceive.”
Blues music could be said to be one of the most popular exports from the US and Geoff says, “Nearly all Western pop music is in some way derivative of American music forms – jazz, rock and roll, country music, and bluegrass – and you could go back even further and find roots of that from other parts of the world as well. Rap and Hip-Hop music are the blues of their day. If you want to play any of these forms, you can still go back to the blues because if you understand the blues, you can tap into anything because that’s the foundation of nearly everything that you’re listening to. I got into the blues, and I never came out again. It’s the raw truth of music, and that’s what I’m after.”
Geoff’s musical career took off as lead guitarist for the legendary Dutch Tilders, before forming his own band, The Souldiggers, although the band was fluid. He had heard that Chuck Berry would perform with ‘pick up’ bands, where he would form a band from musicians in whatever state or country he was playing in, and this gave him the flexibility he needed as a solo performer.
He says, ‘Souldiggers’ has become more of a description of the music rather than who’s playing in it. “I toured internationally by hiring local musicians wherever the opportunities were. Now we’ve got Souldiggers all over the world.”
Does he have a favourite place or venue?
“There are so many, but one of them was the St Andrews Hotel in Melbourne, where we played for 16 or 17 years and, for whatever reason, we just connected with the audience in a way that allowed us to evolve. That was the Souldiggers’ spiritual home. As I’ve travelled all over the world, there’s the Bottleneck Blues Club in Kent in the UK; that became the launch pad for my entire UK career. Similarly, in the US, when I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, it was like two jigsaw puzzle pieces coming together, and that became the springboard for everything I did in the States.”
Of all the awards and accolades that Geoff has achieved, the Albert King Award at the Memphis Blues Challenge stands out for him as it resulted in Gibson designing his own acoustic guitar.
“That became my number one, and it still is. It’s almost my trademark.”
If you would like to learn from the blues master, Geoff runs blues guitar workshops. For information about his workshops, concerts, and gigs, visit Geoff’s website.