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Conjuring The Good Vibes - A Special Opening Night For St Kilda Blues Festival 2025For the first time in its history, St Kilda Blues Festival are having a special celebration for the opening night of its free blues festival weekend.
Blues Fest lovers will gather together to conjure the good vibes at St Kilda’s most Iconic live music venue, The Gershwin Room @ The Espy on Thursday the 27th of February, 2025 at 7pm.
Headlining the bill is Ashley Naylor, a renowned guitarist with Australian band Even, who has lent his talents to iconic Australian acts including The Church, Paul Kelly and Rockwiz and is set to bring his captivating sonic explorations and guitar mastery to our blues lovin’ audience.
With his fellow space truckers he will bring music reminiscent of the 60’s in all its technicolor and kaleidoscopic frequency with emphasis on the blues.
Accompanying Naylor, is Blues Music Hall Of Fame Victoria 2024 recipient Kerri Simpson making for a fantastically collaborative musical experience.
Supporting the two is Kathleen Halloran, a talented guitarist with irresistible spirit and electrifying fretboard flare that has the industry abuzz right now.
Don’t miss out, limited tickets available
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Background - A Letter From Ashley
The sound of electric blues rock guitar has been feature of my life since childhood. Raised on AM radio and staff discount records my Mum brought home from work, many of the rock groups I followed as a child into the present day have been steeped in the classic rock tradition which can be traced back to the Blues giants.
When I listened to Cream, Kiss, The Kinks, Rolling Stones, Free, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, I may not have known as a youngster, the source of the inspiration for these groups but I later grew to understand the origins of the sound these groups were based upon.
Invariably each guitarist from the aforementioned bands was a devotee of Blues, often citing the likes of Albert King, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and B.B. King among the artists that inspired these kids from the suburbs of the UK to keep this music alive and thriving.
Then, there’s Jimi. As a teenager I got hooked on Hendrix and I still listen in awe, like many of us do. All throughout my indie rock years I feel that the flavour of Hendrix is always there to be added to any musical soup one could wish to cook up, whatever the style of music you may be playing.
As time has passed and friends and colleagues shared music with me along the way, the search for guitar inspiration has directed me to the playing of Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic, Duane & Dickey from the Allman Brothers Band, Tommy Bolin, Peter Frampton, Paul Kossoff among other greats.
The feeling of electric Blues has infused many of my current instrumental tunes from my recent guitar instrumental albums ‘Soundtracks Volume 1’ and ‘Volume 2’.
My new instrumental rock outfit ‘Ashley Naylor Spaceship’ is the outlet for this side of my playing which often lies dormant but once stirred up, is unleashed with gusto.
I am very honoured to be sharing the stage with our special featured artist Kerri Simpson for the opening night of the St. Kilda Blues Festival. Having performed alongside Kerri in the past, I know Kerri will bring a special magic to the event with her authenticity and passion within the world of blues music.
See you at The Espy.
Ashley Naylor
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Espy, 11 The Esplanade, St Kilda,Melbourne,VIC,Australia
Tickets
