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Fifteen-plus years of performances in the U.S and Europe and five
albums—with more on the way—have helped Microwave Dave & The Nukes establish
a wide multinational audience. Venues vary from French soccer stadiums to Bike
Week in Daytona Beach, from blues cruises on the Big Red Boat to neighborhood
saloons, but the thousands of shows delivered by the band all reflect one core
element: the heritage blues music enjoys as a lifter of spirits. As Microwave
Dave puts it: “Blues is America’s first—and still best—self-help program.
While major-label stars gauge success by sales figures and chart positions,
the predominate barometer for traditional blues artists is simpler: repeat
bookings. Microwave Dave & The Nukes’ annual itinerary features music
festivals and holiday engagements that have billed the act for fifteen
consecutive years; motorcycle events for more than a dozen; and a considerable
list of major hotels, international deep water fishing tournaments, schools and
social organizations that re-acquire the group’s services year after year.
Formed in 1989, Microwave Dave & the Nukes’ blues apprenticeship included
a three-year stint as Jerry ‘Boogie’ McCain’s back-up band, interspersed with
shows backing Bo Diddley, whose styles are integral flavors in the band’s
recipe. Microwave Dave produced Gotta Get A Cadillac as a cassette
release in 1991; the album was re-released and promoted world-wide on compact
disc by Australia’s Full Moon Records in 1999.
Producer Johnny Sandlin, legendary in his
work with the Allman Brothers Band, Delbert McClinton, and Widespread Panic
among others, recorded the group’s next release, Goodnight, Dear, for Ice
House (BluesWorks) Records. The 1995 release  propelled the band to Europe when
their cover of Bo Diddley’s “Road Runner” became a soccer stadium smash in Paris
and subsequently a solid dance hit across America. Goodnight, Dear was
re-released in Europe as Nothin’ But The Blues on the Dixie Frog label.
Two other selections from the album appeared in the film soundtrack of The
Poor & Hungry, broadcast on the Independent Film Channel, but “Road
Runner” has remained the top seller and most-leased record in the Icehouse
catalog to date.
Johnny Sandlin returned to produce 2000’s Wouldn’t Lay My Guitar Down
for Duck Tape Records, on which Microwave Dave fronted an all-star band of
veteran players from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, The Amazing Rhythm Aces,
Cowboy, and Little Richard’s band. The title cut and a swampy cover of Roosevelt
Syke’s “Don’t Care Blues” became staples on XM Satellite Radio’s ‘Bluesville’
channel, and “Hat” was later covered by Little Milton.
Atomic Electric was released on the Distant Farmer label in 2003.
Producer/engineer Tom Gallaher returned to the band’s own players and, utilizing
vintage analog methodology and gear, garnered the best critical responses for
the band’s music to date and Atomic Electric found a home on many blues
program playlists. The album scored well at Canada’s REAL BLUES Awards,
gathering wins in the 2003 Southern blues releases and Southern blues band
categories, and naming Microwave Dave “2003 Southern Blues Guitarist Of The
Year/Modern.” “Trail Of Tears”, the LoweBow instrumental composed by Dave for
the album, received a nomination in the “Best Other Instrument” category from
Nashville’s Music City Blues Society in the fall of 2004.
American Peasant is Microwave Dave’s fifth cd, a live solo recording
documenting the groundbreaking electric blues style Dave has developed utilizing
real-time loop accompaniment. The Distant Farmer release, also produced by Tom
Gallaher, is being distributed to reviewers and programmers as of this writing
in December, 2004, but offstage sales and return buyers are making the outlook
appear promising for this album, believed to be the premier release showcasing
live looping in the traditional blues idiom.
MICROWAVE DAVE (Dave Gallaher) was born in Chicago,
raised in Texas and has lived most of his life in the Deep South. His first
performances were in the children’s choir at First Presbyterian Church in
Amarillo, Texas, and he heard his first blues songs there on late-night radio.
After moving to Dallas, then Houston, Dave took up ukulele, followed by his
father’s old Stella guitar when the uke broke. After a few accordion lessons, he
began studying trumpet in the 7th grade, continuing on several brass instruments
in school while picking guitar at home and listening to the all-night blues dj’s
on KYOK. During his sophomore year in high school, he was switched from French
horn into the drum section for football season, and began playing a drumkit as
well, landing a job in the Houston Oilers’ dixieland band, called the Supersonic
Philharmonic during the AFL’s inaugural season.
When Dave’s family relocated to Atlanta, his exposure to soul music and
r&b began to supplement his blues and dixie background, and a Fender bass got him jobs in several area bands.
After high school graduation (during which he produced and participated in a
Beatles act), he enrolled as a journalism major at Georgia State College and
formed the Majestics to play horn-driven r&b, and the band worked the
college circuit initially before finding employment at Atlanta’s top chitlin
circuit venue, the Royal Peacock. There, the Majestics backed Carla Thomas,
William Bell, The Tams, Billy Stewart and appeared with a young Aretha Franklin
and began to secure occasional session work. However, before the band could hit
full stride, the Viet Nam draft began pulling members, and soon Dave was in the
Air Force as an intelligence specialist and on his way to Saigon.
During his tour in Viet Nam, Dave found solace in a GI soul band called the
Rotations, with members coming and going as their tours completed. During this
period, he made the decision to become a full-time musician after the service,
and following his reassignment to Langley AFB, Virginia (where he played at
rough backwoods jukes in a band called the Empacts), he mustered out and
enrolled as an arranging and composition major at Berklee College Of Music in
Boston with guitar as his instrument.
In Boston, Dave joined the Cameron Company and moved to Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida for a twelve-year run. Eventually renamed Cameron, the band recorded
three albums and played 300+ dates a year, including many concert appearances
with name attractions of the period. During this period, Dave met and studied
blues guitar with Johnny Shines in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The last Cameron
recordings, accomplished in Muscle Shoals, Alabama under producer Barry Beckett,
fostered connections that led Dave into the Thrasher Brothers, a Grammy-winning
gospel group that was courting mainstream country audiences. During three years
of Nashville-based touring, Dave began to long for music that was closer to his
blues/r&b foundation, and he moved to Huntsville, Alabama in the mid 1980s
and took up woodworking, and the Nukes were formed in 1989. Concurrently, an
opportunity to produce a local blues radio program began Microwave Dave’s
sideline as a dj and host. His programs were nominated for a WC Handy award in
1995. Around 1993, Dave began playing regular weeknight solo blues performances
in Huntsville when the Nukes were not on tour. Both radio and solo work are
ongoing.
RICK GODFREY plays bass, neck-rack harmonica and sings backup vocals in
the band.  A Huntsville native, Rick worked
for twenty years as a visual artist in stained glass and woodworks in his own
shops. His lifelong desire perform music was first exercised when he was drafted
to play bass in a 7th grade talent show, and he took up acoustic guitar during
high school, writing songs and occasionally performing in public. Dave began
working for Rick in 1987 and the band was born during lunch-hour jams in the
woodshop, Rick returning to the bass. When the group suddenly found itself
booked on a public radio fundraiser, his on-the-job training in professional
musicianship began in front of audiences hungry for blues. Since no formal
instruction was involved, Rick developed a unique thumb-and-fingers style that
is conceptually his own. This style was further individualized by his altering
the tuning on his Fender Telecaster bass to match the lower four strings of a
five-stringed instrument, and the deeper tones add to the large sonic footprint
of the Nukes.
Rick continues to write songs, some of which are in the band’s recordings and
live playlists, and his domestic and overseas performances have continued
without missing a single gig since the band was launched. Recently, Rick has
begun a series of acoustic guitar solo performances in the Tennessee Valley on
the band’s nights off, featuring an entire repertoire of his original
compositions.
JAMES IRVIN has taken over the drum-chair in the Nukes, beginning with
performances at the Trail of Tears Ride on
September, 2004, replacing Skip Skipworth after his departure from the band
following six and one-half years of fine performances. James was born into a
musical family in Decatur, Alabama, and his first performances were at home jam
sessions, where he played snare drum from age 4 onward. His eighth birthday got
him his first drum kit, but by 10 he was learning to play bass and guitar as
well on a diet of classic rockers such as Buddy Holly and His Crickets,
Creedence Clearwater Revival and Dire Straits. This experience allowed him to
secure his first professional performances at the young age of 15, working local
dances, parties and VFW clubs with more experienced musicians. James’ solid
groove and creative accompaniment led to offers with a number of country bands
around his hometown of Arab, Alabama.
Two years later, James recorded demos featuring his singing and a
twelve-string guitar for the purpose of working solo gigs. While he was
successful in landing his first solo at the Kaffeeklatsch in Huntsville in 1999,
little work availability in this mode at that moment influenced him to accept
slots in larger local acts on guitar and bass that eventually appeared at area
festivals and provided James experience with larger audiences, and these
associations led to his becoming the ‘house drummer’ at Sunday blues jams and
Monday open mics.
It was at the Kaffeeklatsch Sunday night blues jam that Microwave Dave first
encountered James’ drumming, and he was invited to join the Nukes on the spot.
His work has garnered him consistent praise from long-time Nukes devotees who
are happily surprised to see a young man play the blues so well.
Contact: Microwave Dave / PO Box 18622 / Huntsville, AL 35804 / 256-829-0482
/ www.microwavedave.com
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