15 Aug Dobro-Volvo duet

Posted at 12:24h in That's life by

In the annals of musical eccentricity, one of the unlikeliest characters has to be Johan “Bottleneck John” Eliasson, 43, a blues musician from Lit, Sweden, pop. 1040.

I’ve been following Eliasson for years, because he shares my fondness for blues music and antique mechanical contrivances—old tractors, make-n-breaks, hot bulb engines, and hydraulic rams. He’s a sucker for vintage instruments, and he loves turning old machines into impromptu rhythm sections.

Here, in a clip he released yesterday, Eliasson plays a steel-bodied, 12-string Dobro and a ~50-year-old Volvo tractor. (Note how, at the 1:50 mark, he brings the tempo down by means of the tractor’s steering-shaft-mounted throttle.)

In this clip, from December 2010, in Arvesund, Sweden, Eliasson is joined by Patrik Idell on 5-string banjo and Lars Åstrand on steel-bodied Mandolin. Eliasson plays a second 5-string, while a hydraulic ram water pump hammers out the beat:

Eliasson is clearly having fun with these oddball contraptions, but I don’t dismiss him as a novelty act. The rough hewn workings of early engines and pumps made them accessible to backyard mechanics, but also lent them an aura of elegant simplicity that still inspires admiration and fondness. Can’t something similar be said of Delta blues: that its brilliance as a musical form arises in part from its deceptive simplicity?

There’s more info on Bottleneck John at his YouTube channel, website, Facebook page, and a review or two.