Holy smokes...here's somewhat of a weirdo whom has actually been playing music since the '60s, but waited until the new millennium to bring out a first album of original music!
(The following taken from the artists' page on Wikipedia) Born in 1941 (which makes him about 72 years old!) he learned to play the (Blues) guitar at the age of 8 from none less than K.C. Douglas (whom wrote the hit song “Mercury Blues”, used to play with Tommy Johnson, and worked at his grandfather's garage). He left home when he was 13 to avoid being mishandled by his stepfather, and lived rough and on the road in Tennessee, Mississippi and elsewhere, until 1973, looking for work a farm labourer or in seasonal jobs, often living as a hobo (in a later interview, he made the distinction between hobos, tramps and bums, stating that the first is someone whom moves around to find work, the second just moves around, and the third neither loos for work nor travels – he also claimed he'd been all of these at one time or other).
He started touring and performing with fellow Blues musicians in the '60s and has since, off and on, worked as a session musician and studio engineer. In the late '80s he lived in Olympia near Seattle, and worked with several Indie artists. Of his so-called friendships with well-known people in the music business, such as Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain, he has said that living in the same town and perhaps occasionally saying hello to someone does not make that person a friend! During the '90s, Steve (full name Steve Gene Wold – the surname Seasick Steve was given to him after a friend found him ill while traveling on a boat...the surname stuck, as does Steve's tendency to fall ill whenever he travels by boat!) continued working as a recording engineer and produced several albums by Modest Mouse. Later during the '90s, Steve was living in Paris (the French one in Europe) and made his living busking on the metro. In 2001, he moved to Norway, and eventually recorded an album's worth of material entitled Cheap with his backup band The Level Devils, then consisting of stand-up bassist Jo Husmo and drummer Kai Christoffersen (the latter was replaced by Dan Magnusson, apparently after the album' release). And here's where the Wikipedia story becomes confusing. You see, after talking about the release of the Cheap album they...hum, I'll make this a citation, so you'll understand better...because they state (literally), that Steve's “...debut album Dog House Music was released by Bronzerat Records on November 26, 2006, after he was championed by an old friend, Joe Cushley, DJ on the Ballin' The Jack Blues show on London radio station Resonance FM...”. And, you see, that statement is completely erroneous, as Cheap was already issued through that same label...in 2004!
Steve got his breakthrough after making his first UK television appearance in Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny show on BBC, playing the song “Dog House Boogie” on two of his wacky instruments (he's got a whole bunch of guitars made for him personally (in fact, the title of this album kinda relates to one of those instruments, which employs a hubcap as guitar body!). His popularity in Britain literally exploded, and saw him winning the Mojo Award for “Best Breakthrough Act” (the sophomore album climbing to #36 in the UK – good for a Gold certificate – and to positions #69 in the Irish and 99 in the Belgian charts!) as well as appearing on some of the major UK festivals, including Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury. In fact, for the year 2007 Steve holds the record of playing more festivals in the UK than any other artist! June 2007 also saw the release of the third and last album through Bronzerat with the live album It's All Good. In early 2008 more shows followed, as well as the recording of new studio album I Started Out With Nothin And I Still Got Most Of It Left, issued through major label Warner Records in September that same year.
Capitalizing on the artist's momentum (I Started Out... went up to a #9 position in the UK, earning it a Platinum certificate, and also went to #13 in Ireland and #38 in Belgium, and also charted in France, Sweden and Australia with #107, #30 and #17 positions respectively) the follow-up album Man From Another Time was released in October 2009 (did nót chart in Australia and Sweden, and only got to #191 in France and to #15 in Ireland, but did a little better elsewhere, with positions at #70, #15 and #4 in Holland, Belgium and the UK – where it still got a Gold certificate - respectively) a mere 13 months after its predecessor, and 5 months later saw the release of the compilation album Songs For Elisabeth through the label's subsidiaries Atlantic and Rykodisc (this one only made it to #33 in the UK charts, and to a Silver certificate).
Obviously, the major label wasn't getting out of the artist (money, money, and more money...!) what they'd wanted, and therefore dropped him. Not that Steve didn't put in his two bits of effort, as he's toured the UK extensively since 2007, finding his October 2008 and January 2009 shows to be sold out in every venue (and those including some really big venues too)! Steve was nominated for a Brit Award in 2009, in the category “International Solo Male Artist”. During that same year he made it to UK television twice, first in a show entitled Folk America: Hollerers, Stompers And Old Time Ramblers, then in a BBC4 documentary of Steve visiting the US South, entitled Seasick Steve: Bringing It All Back Home. He also participated to Australian TV show Spicks And Specks in April. In February 2010, Steve was nominated for a Brit Award in the category “International Solo Male Artist” for the second consecutive time.
Throughout 2010's summer, Steve played at several festivals, and went on to not only collaborate with Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall on the song “Golden Frames” for her 3rd album Tiger Suit, but was also gearing up for his 5th studio album, for which he signed a worldwide deal (except for the US) with Play It Again Sam (in the US distribution would be handled by Third Man Records) in February 2011, You Can't Teach On Old Dog New Tricks being released in May. It was then announced that formed Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones had played on the album, and that he was to get onto stage alongside Steve and Dan for the shows at the Isle Of Wight and Rock Wechter. Since then, Jones is in fact the full-fledged 3rd member of the band! For he band's show at Milton Keynes National Bowl in July, Steve entered the stage accompanied by Jones on the bass, and Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters and Them Crooked Vultures – both Jones and Grohl play in the latter) on drums. Further shows (both during August) with Jones were done at the Reading and Leeds Festival, and at the Fairport's Cropredy Convention.
In February 2013 it was unveiled that a an upcoming new album (the one we now have under scrutiny in the cd-player...for the upmtieth time) would feature collaborations of not only John Paul Jones (playing not only the bass, but also mandolin, ukelele, lap steel guitar Hammond organ, and fretless gourd banjo where applicable, and providing the song “Over You” with harmony vocals), but also of guitarists Jack White III and Luther Dickinson. And sure enough, White contributes a “stone cold solo guitar” on the track “The Way I Do”, and the latter plays some “slippery Southern sliding guitar” on the song “Home”. But there's more guests, with one Elizabeth Cook contributing to the heart-felt duet ballad “Purple Shadows”, and one Fats Kaplin playing “lonely lovely pedal steel” to that same song, as well as some “burnin' pedal steel & fiddle” on “Heavy Weight”.
For a list and explanations of Steve's personalized guitars (and some other instruments), I suggest you look up the above mentioned Wikipedia page, as right now I'd like to concentrate on the man's music. Generally speaking, what you get is The Blues, of course, but it comes in different sub-genres, really! From groovy Boogie Blues which is reminiscent of ZZTop, to calmer acoustic Blues which finds references in so many of Blues Music's greats, to indeed more energized Blues Rock...and of course an endearing ballad! Lyrically, Steve culls from things that happened to him when he was younger. Now in trying to find some internet sites which sport music by this artist, I found that his own (www.) seasicksteve.com is only helpful in that it provides links to his new label Fiction records (a subsidiary of Polydor, itself a subsidiary of major label Universal Music Group), Amazon and iTunes (where you should be able to listen to samples of all of the album's 11 songs – no idea whether that includes the outro, which sound like a tractor being turned on, and off), and facebook (where again samples of all album songs are made available). In addition, I found that at (www.) myspace.com/seasicksteve, you'll find no audio, but several videos for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!