Sydney-based Shane Pacey is described as one of Australia’s finest “blues triple threats” – he’s a singer, guitarist and songwriter. 

And he’s headlining the Canberra Blues Society’s celebration of the 12th International Blues Music Day at the Harmonie German Club from 3pm on Saturday, August 3, featuring nine acts on two stages performing across seven hours. 

Pacey’s other bands, The Bondi Cigars and the Foreday Riders, are still going strong, but with his namesake band – the Shane Pacey Trio – he revisits the music that inspired him when he first started playing and singing as a teen, such as the guitar playing of Peter Green and the short sharp style coming out of Chess Records in the ’50s and ’60s.

One reviewer wrote: “No-one throws down the blues gauntlet more robustly than this trio, which, next to its own, make songs of old live all over again. 

“Of course, it takes more than company to make a trio: it takes the pistol-like rhythm section of bassist Paul Blasi and drummer Dave Fester, which ensures these tunes to land right in your solar plexus.”.

The inaugural International Blues Music Day was in 2013 to bring blues music forward in culture. The mission for the day is to “celebrate, promote and preserve” the offerings that blues music brings, including its traditions, its legacy and its future.

The origins of blues music can be traced back to the 1860s in the deep south of the US as a way for African slaves to communicate with songs and chants while working in the field. 

Between the late 1800s and early 1920s, blues took a new shape in mainstream America. Spreading across the entire south, blues music was heard in dance halls and speakeasies. It was also a time when black musicians were recording their music, opening doors for music to enter into households across the world.

Other acts performing at the Harmonie German Club Blues Day celebration include fellow headliners The McNamarr Project, The Marvellous Hearts, star guitarist Aaron Pollock, Canberra’s The Stage Invaderz, and Big Mama and the Medicine Man.

More at canberrabluessociety.com.au/CBS-events