Knocking at The Stables door - the man who's hungry for success

He may not yet be eating at music’s top table. But determined Aussie songster Derrin Nauendorf, pictured, is an artist who has elbowed his way to the front of the queue and has an appetite for success.

The man who came to these shores just a few years ago and lived in a van while he struggled to make a living, moved a little closer to his goal when he played Stage 2 at The Stables in Milton Keynes last week and rapidly won over a musically-savvy audience.

Stage 2 holds around 100 at a pinch – and it can’t be too long before the likeable and talented Nauendorf wows The Stables main arena, which can seat about 300.

Derrin is performing his current UK tour with his band, consisting of Rick Foot on acoustic bass and Mike Hellier on drums. The trio performed many of Derrin’s excellent new album Skin Of The Earth (Ruf Records) in a two-hour set showcasing Nauendorf’s extraordinary guitar playing and poetic songwriting.

The hunk from Oz – who has been labelled the Australian Bob Dylan – does share much in common with America's folk-rock god.

Nauendorf's own songs are pithy, poetic and hard-hitting, usually themed around love and relationships, and with genuinely interesting lyrics. Derrin also has a tendency to drawl his words in a Dylanesque way, so sometimes they can't be appreciated as much as they might be.

But Nauendorf remains a performer who's hard to pigeonhole. There's shades of Springsteen in there, too, some dramatic spaghetti western flavoured instrumentals and even a few base riffs that bring to mind Duane Eddy or Hank Marvin.

But Derrin is essentially his own man and he would certainly play Dylan off the stage as a guitarist any day.

The tortured sounds he wrings from an acoustic Yamaha are totally unexpected, as is the blistering fingerpicking he occasionally launches into, or the blurred right hand rhythm blasts that wouldn't disgrace Pete Townshend.

I've seen Derrin live solo and with his band and believe a bit of musical company lends some welcome colour and interest to his stage act and music. Rick Foot is an innovative and sympathetic acoustic bass player of the old school, showing just why a number of today's bands are seeking the more authentic 'thwack' of a genuine hollow instrument rather than the louder and more one-dimensional, soulless solid electric bass.

Drummer Hellier is a stickman who can mix it up effectively, whether rattling out dramatic rolls or grooving along unobtrusively on quieter numbers. And as Derrin's music fuses elements of folk, rock and poignant ballads, there's plenty to stretch his talents.

Of the songs laid down on the night, the new album's title track Skin Of The Earth is an obvious stand-out, as is the ever-popular Better To Be Shipwrecked, from his last CD The Rattling Wheel.

Derrin gave his own twist to Tony Joe White's song As The Crow Flies, Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire and a Dylan number and wasn't afraid to tackle a sprinkling of effective and highly original instrumentals.

With his constantly-changing alternative guitar tunings and big variety of different musical styles, Nauendorf is a fascinating, multi-layered troubador who has climbed the ladder the hard way and literally deserves a bigger stage for his work.

But he's getting there and it's gratifying to see one of music's good guys making it.

Derrin Nauendorf at The Stables, Milton Keynes Review by Alan Candy

I'd been to lots of live music so wasn't really up for any more when movinmusic's Mike Hellier mentioned he was drumming for Derrin the following night in Leicester. Then I remembered Derrin's exceptional performing talents from his solo and duo gigs a few years back and decided to give it a whirl. What a good decision it turned out to be!

Derrin, Mike and double bass player Rick Foot gave us an electrifying set of new material (going by this, the new CD they are recording promises to be a cracker!) and some stunning cover versions. A jaw-dropping musical rapport was evident from the very first number, the swampy folk-infused 'Skin Of The Earth', followed by the subtle stop-time delights of 'Push The River' and a great duet between Rick and Derrin on 'Pride Before A Fall'. Some positively metronomic picking drove Derrin's solo performance of 'Everyone's Got A Plan', featuring a husky soul-drenched vocal that seems to have ripened with the years. The others returned for a powerful version of Dylan's 'Things Have Changed' and Derrin's own lyrically-strong 'Mystery Child'. His beautiful guitar work on the lullaby 'Sometime' showed how well he holds the stage on his own before the band returned for 'Not Alone', a storming rockabilly-style slab of excitement with a groovy 'injun' beat. The classy Americana of 'Crossroads' was followed by Tom Waits' 'Who Are You?', tailor-made it seemed for Derrin's gravelly vocal, and the last number, a mesmerising swamped up version of Tony Joe White's ' As The Crow Flies', was a fitting climax.

There was more, but everything they played had the same thrilling intensity, with Derrin clearly inspired to some extraordinary fretboard adventures by the accomplished and wholly sympathetic backing from Rick and Mike. Rick's expressive bass-playing, including some highly effective bowing, and Mike sensitive percussion, with superbly interactive cymbal work, provided Derrin with a great platform to demonstrate his artistry. He has matured as a performer, with real vocal authority and a confident and wide-ranging deployment of guitar stylings from amazing quick-fire staccato runs to the most beautiful sustain and a masterly control of feedback, added to which he has developed a powerful band-leader ability.

All said, this was an evening of real music played with rare fire and passion which held the audience in rapt attention throughout. Derrin has made the move to another level and my advice is to catch these guys as soon as you can!

Dave Kingsbury Musician, Leicester 25.7.08

FOR all its loveliness, the acoustic guitar has sometimes suffered from its association with quaveringly introspective singer-songwriters: in the wrong hands, it can be a pretty bloodless experience.

Happily, Derrin Nauendorf's gig at the Centenary Centre last Saturday was a reminder of what can happen when a guitar gets into the right hands.

It was a solo return trip for the young Australian artist, who first came to the Island with his band for a barnstorming performance at last year's Blues Festival. As someone who has built his name on the force of his live shows, it was never going to be less than compelling.

The standard for the night was set by support act Christy D and Rob Cross, who deserve more than a small mention for riveting people to their seats (not normally the province of the support act).

Christy, who has previously shared the Centenary stage with Northern Irish songwriter Juliet Turner, combines a breezy stage presence with self-penned songs which mine a rich vein of lyricism and emotional eloquence.

There is a wistful strength in her voice which is reminiscent of Chrissie Hynde; the last time I checked, this was a very good thing indeed.

Twice, the stripped-down set – which includes a beautifully unadorned Guillemots cover ('Made Up Love Song No. 43') – is given a twist by Christy's use of a loop station, allowing her and Rob to play against building layers of vocals and licks. It's an experiment which pays off.

Successful risks are something Derrin Nauendorf knows all about.

Usually classified for convenience sake as roots, what really defines his music is a vigorous intensity: it's the sound of someone going for broke, throwing everything they have behind what they do, and loving it. Melbourne-raised Nauendorf toured hard for years before his first commercial release, The Rattling Wheel, won him rave reviews. While the last year has hit him with tough personal times (he lost his father in 2007) his creative star is most definitely in the ascendant.

Opening the show with the title track from his forthcoming album, Skin of the Earth, is a typically uncompromising move – it's a brooding, downbeat number from under a cloud – but during the rest of the set, Nauendorf moves through a spectrum of moods like a changing sky.

Whether making tender pledges – the soulful I Won't Turn My Back – or issuing a barbed kiss-off – the magnificent Queensland – the sense of his conviction never falters. Such is his intensity, it's hard to imagine that he moonlights with soul singer Paul Young's light-hearted band of compadres, Los Pacaminos.

Much has been made of Nauendorf's playing and rightly so. He can switch effortlessly from a scuffed, low-slung groove to a fiendish-looking baroque climax without breaking sweat and marries deft precision with the ferocious playing of a man possessed. In interview, Nauendorf commented that 'the guitar picked him' and there are times when it seems less an instrument than a wild force being wrestled into submission.

In harnessing it, he commands the whole body of the guitar – knocking on its sides to create a death rattle for Ghost Town or gripping it to bend and distort the last ringing notes of a song.

It's such powerful stuff that it would be easy to neglect his voice – a distinctive, gutsy instrument which inhabits every note. While his guitar drives forward, his voice turns up the earth of the past.

When he covers Dylan's Things Have Changed, he takes the bible-black, thin-lipped cynicism of a much older man and makes it uncannily his own. Dylan's song, in fact, sounds like a Nauendorf song. It's one of many high points in a night of consistent altitude which showed that the radar of the Blues Festival organisers is one to be trusted.

All credit to JonnoPromotions for bringing Nauendorf back for more.

Derrin Nauendorf at the Centenary Centre, by Liz Corlett

Derrin Nauendorf was clearly the stand out of the three shows I was lucky enough to attend. I was impressed by the relatively young age (too often Blues shows are made up exclusively of the over 50's) who were treated to a simply spell-binding performance from Derrin. Disappointingly short in length (I could have sat there all night), Derrin's vocals instantly set the hairs on the back of my neck on end and he proceeded to 'somehow' create sounds, with both his guitar and feedback, that I have never heard before (and would not have even the slightest clue how they were being fashioned). STUNNING! I was simply in awe from start to finish as Derrin played us spine-tingling songs from his recent live album (including my personal favourite 'Queensland'), songs from previous albums I'd not even heard (certainly have now) and a few well thought out and brilliantly performed covers (his version of Tom Waits 'Get Behind The Mule') simply has to be experienced to be believed. A really friendly, intimate atmosphere throughout (Chris' idea to bring all the chairs closer to the stage was a stroke of genius) saw Derrin banter with the crowd and acquaint us with a few amusing anecdotes between songs which were warmly received - to be honest even if he had hurled abuse at us he would have been applauding all night as his songs, and his performance of those songs, were just so ineffably good. I'm certainly now a fan for life after this performance... if any of you get the chance to see Derrin live do not pass it up; your life will be all the fuller because of it.

Darren Howells

Following a successful stint in the United Kingdom, acoustic roots genius Derrin Nauendorf returns home, performing alongside gifted percussionist David downing at the Barwon club as part of their inaugural Australian tour.

It is a welcome return for Nauendorf who has evolved into one the nation’s most revered musicians. His music, a melting pot of roots ingredients ranging from country blues to folk, while incorporating several original compositions. It is an impeccable amalgamation of commanding acoustic guitar, and powerful yet articulate vocals, the addition of the moody synergy of Downing’s percussion making for an eclectic delight, that only those in the United Kingdom have yet had the chance to saviour.

It would be a misconception to believe that Nauendorf has always had it there for the taking, for rather such achievements are solely a result of persistence and belief.

A sheer musical genius, Nauendorf should not be missed: he exudes talent, passion, and a raw natural ability that rivals the world’s finest.

Cameron Nation, Forte, Australia

Major hit of the night was Australian-born Derrin Nauendorf, who gives a whole new meaning to the word acoustic. Augmented by highly original percussion from David Downing's cut-down drum kit (seemingly made from 1950s aluminium kitchen pots), his dynamic, restless performance was stunning. Every note counted, from full-on vocals and sonic percussive pulls and slaps to tiny acoustic guitar accents and bendy harmonics. Delegates were spotted moshing to a crashing, driving, ear-bleeding acoustic/drums version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile with extraordinary pregnant pauses and freefalling syncopation which segued into Are You Experienced (cue appreciative laughter from the more venerable audience members). The set culminated with a sneakily quiet riff-introduced powerhouse end and a standing ovation. Folkies ... illiberal tankard-swilling fossils? I think not!

Mel McClellan, BBC Radio 2 Website

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