How does a musician, who happens to be pretty handy on the guitar, but lives in the most isolated capital city in the world, get some of the finest Blues guitarists on the international music scene to take part in his latest project? Simple. He asks them.
Australian blues-rock barnstormer, Matty T Wall has been on a rapidly rising career trajectory since his 2016 debut release Blue Skies was nominated as Best Blues Album (International) at the 15th Annual Independent Music Awards.
Wall’s 2018 follow-up Sidewinder proved the success was no one-off - the album subsequently reaching the upper echelons of blues airplay charts in Australia, the US and Europe, and opening plenty of doors all around for this firebrand singer-songwriter and fearsomely talented guitarist.
While Wall’s latest release may be a tad unexpected, it’s sure to be very welcome for blues lovers. With a roll call of guests including Eric Gales, Walter Trout, Kirk Fletcher, Kid Ramos and fellow West Australian Dave Hole featured, the aptly titled Transpacific Blues Vol. 1 will be a must-have for lovers of classic blues numbers and amazing guitar skills.
With his abiding love of blues traditions combined with a thirst for new and different approaches to the genre, not to mention an adventurous and enthusiastic approach to his craft, Wall reached across the oceans to invite some of the greatest blues players to trade licks for him – resulting in an album of classic blues songs with plenty of creative twists.
“I’ve wanted to do a collaborative release for quite a while, but my initial idea was to do something with Australian artists,” Wall says of the project’s origins. “However, I’d always been inspired by what Gary Moore did with Still Got The Blues, he had Albert King, Albert Collins and even George Harrison playing on it.
The seeds of inspiration sown – Wall’s initial idea became more ambitious. As he explains “I just thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to see if I can interest some of my absolute idols - some of the very best guitarists in the world - to participate in this project – they can only say no right? So, I just thought – well, why not ask them? ”
Why not indeed. While Wall was focussed on the album being an internationally angled release, the first cab off the rank enabled Wall to think act local and think global. “Dave Hole is a huge blues name at home as well as in the US and Europe,” he states. “He ticked all the boxes right from the start, plus he’s just a wonderful guy – so generous and wise -.he was actually the inspiration for me taking my version of blues & music to the rest of the world! I wouldn’t have thought that possible to do were it not for Dave’s breakthrough success.”
“From there I wanted to see if I could get some gun guitar players from the US. So Kid Ramos was the next guy. He’s an incredible guitarist who is very much like Brian Setzer (Stray Cats), he’s got that sort of vibe going on, and he’s a former Fabulous Thunderbirds guitar-slinger. I was then talking to a friend in the States about Eric Gales, who is absolutely my favourite guitar player at the moment and probably will be one of them forever. He’s like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrix, the solos just flow out of him. Virtuosic, incredible solos. He listened to some of my stuff and he really liked it and wanted to go ahead, so it was really great to get that approval.”
Next up on Wall’s blues hitlist was one Walter Trout. The great blues master and former Bluesbreaker is very much in demand, headlining major festivals and dominating international blues charts. But, Wall’s call was answered, and then some...

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