David Gallaher
"Microwave Dave" Gallaher (Webpage) |
Bluesman
Notes:
• "Since 1989, Microwave Dave has been producing and hosting radio shows in the Tennessee Valley that feature a wide spectrum of blues styles, eras and artists. Talkin' the Blues with Microwave Dave is heard in two weekly editions, each in a distinct format.
In 1995, Talkin' the Blues was nominated for the Blues Foundation's W.C. Handy Award for Keeping the Blues Alive in Radio.
On Tuesdays from 6 to 8pm central time, Talkin' the Blues airs on WJAB 90.9 FM from the campus of Alabama A&M University in Normal, Alabama. This broadcast is always live with Dave in the studio doing interviews and occasionally picking alongside music from his collection of blues recordings and the WJAB library. Traditional DJ formatting is used here, with non-stop music sets averaging 25 minutes with breaks for NPR News, local weather and public service announcements. During college basketball season, the first hour of Talkin' the Blues is pre-empted by Bulldog Talk, a sports talk program featuring the A&M coaching staff.
On Saturdays from 8-9pm central time, a one-hour 'magazine' edition of Talkin' the Blues airs on WLRH 89.3 FM from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Featured segments cover individual artists, labels or single albums. Each segment normally runs from twenty minutes to a half hour, offering the listening audience depth and range as several complete selections by each subject or artist is featured. Due to Microwave Dave's performance schedule, the Saturday program is pre-recorded several days prior to the broadcast.
Numerous artists have performed live on Talkin' the Blues with Microwave Dave, including Jerry "Boogie" McCain, James Harman, Guitar Gabriel, Macavine Hayes, Sarasota Slim, Dave MacKenzie, Billy C. Farlow, and Fiona Boyes. Interview guests include Alligator Records' president Bruce Iglauer, jazz guitarist Pat Martino, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, Joe Louis Walker, Tinsley Ellis, the Nighthawks, Debbie Davies, Colonel Bruce Hampton, Marcia Ball, producers Johnny Sandlin and Bob Porter, Denise LaSalle, Koko Taylor, the Radio Kings and others.
Both WJAB and WLRH are full-service 100,000-watt public radio stations with dedicated listeners throughout the Tennessee Valley from south of Nashville, TN to north of Birmingham, AL and to both the Georgia and Mississippi state lines. Additional listeners access the programs online from various locales in the U.S. and overseas. Both stations are public-supported, and donations made during fund-raising drives by distant and online listeners are greatly appreciated." - Talkin'
• This is his bio on the band's website: "MICROWAVE DAVE (Dave Gallaher) was born in Chicago, raised in Texas and has lived most of his life in the Deep South. His first performances were in the children's choir at First Presbyterian Church in Amarillo, Texas, and he heard his first blues songs there on late-night radio. After moving to Dallas, then Houston, Dave took up ukulele, followed by his father's old Stella guitar when the uke broke. After a few accordion lessons, he began studying trumpet in the 7th grade, continuing on several brass instruments in school while picking guitar at home and listening to the all-night blues dj's on KYOK. During his sophomore year in high school, he was switched from French horn into the drum section for football season, and began playing a drumkit as well, landing a job in the Houston Oilers' Dixieland band, called the Supersonic Philharmonic during the AFL's inaugural season.
When Dave's family relocated to Atlanta, his exposure to soul music and rib began to supplement his blues and Dixie background, and a Fender bass got him jobs in several area bands. After high school graduation (during which he produced and participated in a Beatles act), he enrolled as a journalism major at Georgia State College and formed the Majestics to play horn-driven rib, and the band worked the college circuit initially before finding employment at Atlanta's top chitlin circuit venue, the Royal Peacock. There, the Majestics backed Carla Thomas, William Bell, The Tams, Billy Stewart and appeared with a young Aretha Franklin and began to secure occasional session work. However, before the band could hit full stride, the Viet Nam draft began pulling members, and soon Dave was in the Air Force as an intelligence specialist and on his way to Saigon.
During his tour in Viet Nam, Dave found solace in a GI soul band called the Rotations, with members coming and going as their tours completed. During this period, he made the decision to become a full-time musician after the service, and following his reassignment to Langley AFB, Virginia (where he played at rough backwoods jukes in a band called the Empacts), he mustered out and enrolled as an arranging and composition major at Berklee College Of Music in Boston with guitar as his instrument.
In Boston, Dave joined the Cameron Company and moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a twelve-year run. Eventually renamed Cameron, the band recorded three albums and played 300+ dates a year, including many concert appearances with name attractions of the period. During this period, Dave met and studied blues guitar with Johnny Shines in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The last Cameron recordings, accomplished in Muscle Shoals, Alabama under producer Barry Beckett, fostered connections that led Dave into the Thrasher Brothers, a Grammy-winning gospel group that was courting mainstream country audiences. During three years of Nashville-based touring, Dave began to long for music that was closer to his blues/rib foundation, and he moved to Huntsville, Alabama in the mid 1980s and took up woodworking, and the Nukes were formed in 1989. Concurrently, an opportunity to produce a local blues radio program began Microwave Dave's sideline as a dj and host. His programs were nominated for a WC Handy award in 1995. Around 1993, Dave began playing regular weeknight solo blues performances in Huntsville when the Nukes were not on tour. Both radio and solo work are ongoing. " - Webpage
Related Links:
| Born: | Chicago, Illinois |
Notes:
• "Since 1989, Microwave Dave has been producing and hosting radio shows in the Tennessee Valley that feature a wide spectrum of blues styles, eras and artists. Talkin' the Blues with Microwave Dave is heard in two weekly editions, each in a distinct format.
In 1995, Talkin' the Blues was nominated for the Blues Foundation's W.C. Handy Award for Keeping the Blues Alive in Radio.
On Tuesdays from 6 to 8pm central time, Talkin' the Blues airs on WJAB 90.9 FM from the campus of Alabama A&M University in Normal, Alabama. This broadcast is always live with Dave in the studio doing interviews and occasionally picking alongside music from his collection of blues recordings and the WJAB library. Traditional DJ formatting is used here, with non-stop music sets averaging 25 minutes with breaks for NPR News, local weather and public service announcements. During college basketball season, the first hour of Talkin' the Blues is pre-empted by Bulldog Talk, a sports talk program featuring the A&M coaching staff.
On Saturdays from 8-9pm central time, a one-hour 'magazine' edition of Talkin' the Blues airs on WLRH 89.3 FM from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Featured segments cover individual artists, labels or single albums. Each segment normally runs from twenty minutes to a half hour, offering the listening audience depth and range as several complete selections by each subject or artist is featured. Due to Microwave Dave's performance schedule, the Saturday program is pre-recorded several days prior to the broadcast.
Numerous artists have performed live on Talkin' the Blues with Microwave Dave, including Jerry "Boogie" McCain, James Harman, Guitar Gabriel, Macavine Hayes, Sarasota Slim, Dave MacKenzie, Billy C. Farlow, and Fiona Boyes. Interview guests include Alligator Records' president Bruce Iglauer, jazz guitarist Pat Martino, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, Joe Louis Walker, Tinsley Ellis, the Nighthawks, Debbie Davies, Colonel Bruce Hampton, Marcia Ball, producers Johnny Sandlin and Bob Porter, Denise LaSalle, Koko Taylor, the Radio Kings and others.
Both WJAB and WLRH are full-service 100,000-watt public radio stations with dedicated listeners throughout the Tennessee Valley from south of Nashville, TN to north of Birmingham, AL and to both the Georgia and Mississippi state lines. Additional listeners access the programs online from various locales in the U.S. and overseas. Both stations are public-supported, and donations made during fund-raising drives by distant and online listeners are greatly appreciated." - Talkin'
• This is his bio on the band's website: "MICROWAVE DAVE (Dave Gallaher) was born in Chicago, raised in Texas and has lived most of his life in the Deep South. His first performances were in the children's choir at First Presbyterian Church in Amarillo, Texas, and he heard his first blues songs there on late-night radio. After moving to Dallas, then Houston, Dave took up ukulele, followed by his father's old Stella guitar when the uke broke. After a few accordion lessons, he began studying trumpet in the 7th grade, continuing on several brass instruments in school while picking guitar at home and listening to the all-night blues dj's on KYOK. During his sophomore year in high school, he was switched from French horn into the drum section for football season, and began playing a drumkit as well, landing a job in the Houston Oilers' Dixieland band, called the Supersonic Philharmonic during the AFL's inaugural season.
When Dave's family relocated to Atlanta, his exposure to soul music and rib began to supplement his blues and Dixie background, and a Fender bass got him jobs in several area bands. After high school graduation (during which he produced and participated in a Beatles act), he enrolled as a journalism major at Georgia State College and formed the Majestics to play horn-driven rib, and the band worked the college circuit initially before finding employment at Atlanta's top chitlin circuit venue, the Royal Peacock. There, the Majestics backed Carla Thomas, William Bell, The Tams, Billy Stewart and appeared with a young Aretha Franklin and began to secure occasional session work. However, before the band could hit full stride, the Viet Nam draft began pulling members, and soon Dave was in the Air Force as an intelligence specialist and on his way to Saigon.
During his tour in Viet Nam, Dave found solace in a GI soul band called the Rotations, with members coming and going as their tours completed. During this period, he made the decision to become a full-time musician after the service, and following his reassignment to Langley AFB, Virginia (where he played at rough backwoods jukes in a band called the Empacts), he mustered out and enrolled as an arranging and composition major at Berklee College Of Music in Boston with guitar as his instrument.
In Boston, Dave joined the Cameron Company and moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a twelve-year run. Eventually renamed Cameron, the band recorded three albums and played 300+ dates a year, including many concert appearances with name attractions of the period. During this period, Dave met and studied blues guitar with Johnny Shines in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The last Cameron recordings, accomplished in Muscle Shoals, Alabama under producer Barry Beckett, fostered connections that led Dave into the Thrasher Brothers, a Grammy-winning gospel group that was courting mainstream country audiences. During three years of Nashville-based touring, Dave began to long for music that was closer to his blues/rib foundation, and he moved to Huntsville, Alabama in the mid 1980s and took up woodworking, and the Nukes were formed in 1989. Concurrently, an opportunity to produce a local blues radio program began Microwave Dave's sideline as a dj and host. His programs were nominated for a WC Handy award in 1995. Around 1993, Dave began playing regular weeknight solo blues performances in Huntsville when the Nukes were not on tour. Both radio and solo work are ongoing. " - Webpage
Related Links:
• 2008 Cigar Box Extravaganza - Microwave Dave performing Mean Old Twister live at the 2008 Cigar Box Extravaganza (live June 21 in Huntsville Alabama). Dave is playing a custom stereo guitar made by Ted Crocker. Filmed by Ted Crocker.
• Facebook - Microwave Dave Facebook page
• Stephen King praises - Article titled "Stephen King praises Huntsville band "Microwave Dave & the Nukes" by Lee Roop for AL.com
• Talkin' - Regular radio shows.
• Webpage - Microwave Dave and The Nukes Webpage
• Wildflower - Microwave Dave Rocks the Wildflower Café: "Just playing around while having dinner at the Wildflower I recorded this with the HD function of my Nikon D90 Digital Camera so the sound is what it is but you'll get the idea."
• You Tube - You Tube micdave47's channel