Album Notes

AMERICAN PEASANT CONTAINS A LIVE RECORDING OF "TRAIL OF TEARS'--THE LOWEBOW (CIGAR-BOX GUITAR)INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMED BY MICROWAVE DAVE ON NPR'S "MICHAEL FELDMAN'S WHAD'YA KNOW?" ON NOVEMBER 18, 2006.

NOW AVAILABLE ON CD BABY: MICROWAVE DAVE & THE NUKES' LIVE ALBUM, DOWN SOUTH NUKIN'--FEATURING THE SECOND SELECTION PERFORMED ON THE PROGRAM, BODY AND FENDER MAN. TYPE DOWN SOUTH NUKIN' IN THE SEARCH BOX TO ACCESS THE ALBUM INFO.


The one-man-blues-band takes a twenty-first century step in Microwave Dave's December 2004 release, AMERICAN PEASANT. Combining venerable blues traditions with modern looping technology, Microwave Dave brings a celebratory audience with him on this disc, which was recorded at the Kaffeeklatsch Bar in downtown Huntsville, Alabama during June, 2003.

Dave's foot-operated loopstation allows instant self-recording and playback of lines and rhythms, creating a groove tapestry that olden bluesmen must have dreamed of when playing alone. Keeping it real are the low-fi tubes and single speaker that compact the sound like a 1954 table radio caressing King Biscuit Time.

Produced and recorded by Tom Gallaher, mastered by Brad Blackwood---the team that produced the award-winning ATOMIC ELECTRIC---AMERICAN PEASANT features audience favorites, a live recording of Microwave Dave's LoweBow classic, "Trail Of Tears", and two new Microwave Dave originals: "Unity", a slide guitar commentary on public dishonesty sonically endorsed by Hound Dog Taylor; and "Goin' To Brownsville", where jug band joyfully meets jam band.


"The LoweBow...uses an actual cigar box as the base and humble parts such as a mop handle and radiator clamps augmented by hand-made pickups and professional tuners. Not only is it a sight to see, but the sound it generates, especially at the hands of an artist like Dave, are worth the price of the CD alone." VALLEY PLANET, December 2004

"His set with the cigar-box slide guitar is guaranteed to raise chills. It's enough to make you wonder if Dave Gallaher didn't ink the same contract as Robert Johnson one dark night down at those Mississippi crossroads." VALLEY PLANET, November 2004

"2003 Best Southern Blues Guitarist/Modern: Microwave Dave." REAL BLUES (Canada), Spring/Summer 2004

"'Microwave Dave' Gallaher damn near vaporizes his strings... To quote Frank Barone, 'Holy crap!'" GUITAR ONE, January 2004

"A first-rate guitar individualist." BLUES REVUE, November 2003

"The kind of unwritten understanding of what the blues is meant to be." MISSISSIPPI VALLEY BLUES NEWS, November 2003

"Delivers like a freight train on fertility drugs." MOJO (UK), July 2003

"Dave brought out the cigar-box guitar for a thrilling set that left a packed Cotton Club awestruck." ALABAMA BLUES SOCIETY, May 2002

"The distorted guitar and foot stomping harkens back to the
Detroit sounds of a half century ago." LIVING BLUES, April 2001

"His slide, a fine mix of precision and grit, is the sound of a player who's payed dues aplenty." BLUES REVUE, February 2000