Biography Stomping Nick Jackman

Punk Blues One Man Band, the debut album from Stomping Nick and His Blues Grenade rewrites the rule book on how much ass one person can kick singlehanded. Stomping Nick Jackman is a stylist from Christchurch, New Zealand who has created his own version of the one-man blues band, a tradition that dates back to the shadowy beginnings of the blues itself. Taking as his inspiration the Memphis one-man-bands Joe Hill Louis and Dr. Ross, as well as punk-blues artists like the White Stripes, Jackman unleashes a powder keg of distorted guitar, wailing harmonica and pounding drums, all played live and unaided with nothing but his hands, feet and mouth. At no time does he resort to overdubs, backing tracks, loop pedals, or any of those other fancy tricks. Until you have seen Stomping Nick in action you will struggle to believe it is only one man grinding out this raw trash-boogie.

Harmonica is Stomping Nick's weapon of choice and he wields it like a blues ninja. A number of influences shape his harmonica style. As well as harp masters like Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson and Sonny Terry, other influences as diverse as Jimi Hendrix and Appalachian fiddle music can be heard when he gets his jaw swinging. Underpinning the harmonica, Jackman'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 of trains, loose parties, wild women, mythical alcoholic beverages, crimes executed badly, and bastards he has met.

Jackman has been hustling gigs and making party music around the Canterbury region for the last decade and a half. During this time he has been something of a multi-instrumental journeyman, teaming up with numerous local musicians to perform professionally and semi-professionally, mostly in bands playing high-energy fusions of folk, blues, country, rock and skiffle. Much of the energy and attitude of these bands, as well as some of the repertoire, has made its way into the Blues Grenade.

It was while playing in one such combo in 2003 that his one-man-band act began to take shape, after Jackman was recruited as the drummer, although he had never played a drum kit in his life. During this period, he literally learnt drums while performing on stage, as the band quickly began to pick up bookings. He had been playing harmonica and guitar together for a number of years. The drums now completed the sound he wanted and Stomping Nick Jackman played his debut one-man-band show in 2004, at the now defunct Mainstreet Cafe. However, although Jackman continued to work at it, his one-man-band act remained a side project to other work until 2009, when he decided to give it the attention he believed it deserved. The Blues Grenade became the band he had always wanted to play in but could never find the right musicians to join without a fight inevitably breaking out.

2010 has been an eventful up and down year for Jackman with its fair share of good times and blues. On the one hand, he produced his album, toured the North Island with fellow one-man-band Boss Christ and his family, and built up his fan base. On the other hand, he has seen his marriage break up under the strain of the musician's lifestyle, and he was further shaken up two weeks after leaving his wife, when the Canterbury earthquake struck and he was told he had an hour and a half to pack his belongings and evacuate his new home.

Through the good times and the bad, the band plays on. This is not one that is going to break up very soon, although it might get meaner.

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