Dave Diprose

Having moved around rural Victoria and Tasmania in his early years Dave Diprose is well acquainted with the stories and struggles of those on the land (he attended six separate primary schools). His parents were both from the farming tradition and had moved to the city to pursue other interests, where in his teens Dave found himself living in the industrial suburbs of Melbourne. It was here Dave became interested in music and like many of his peers took up guitar learning the music of The Rolling Stones; The Beatles; Creedence Clearwater Revival and other popular and blues artists of the time. 

In the early ‘70s Dave was exposed by chance to the Blues of Robert Johnson and Bluegrass through the seminal Will The Circle Be Unbroken album. From here he immersed himself in acoustic music drawing on the rich traditions of southern USA, working hard to become an accomplished guitarist in bottleneck blues and bluegrass flatpicking styles. In the early 80s Dave cut his teeth performing as a solo artist in Melbourne’s legendry cafe scene, earning a reputation for his unassuming but professional attitude and as a fine guitarist. Things don’t last forever however and with changing liquor laws the café scene disappeared overnight. With gigs having dried up Dave taught himself IT and focused on other interests and raising a family. 

Through the years Dave increasingly delved into songwriting and in 1995 released a CD of original tunes titled Journey Along The Road, supported by band mates he was involved with. At the time he had a rich stream of quality original tunes – enough for two albums, however failing to gain traction for the album he took another short hiatus to focus on family. In the early 2000s Dave hooked up with Doc White, another traditional blues enthusiast with whom he played as a duo for a time. The regained enthusiasm inspired Dave to woodshed the bottleneck blues style, shortly becoming known as one of Australia’s finest exponents of old school or pre-war blues, specialising in Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Willie Johnson and Charley Patton styles. 

Dave continued to write and with songs in the styles of the music he was performing at the time he released and album titled Train Don’t Run in 2009, a country blues album with half the tunes being original. Melbourne PBS FM’s Matthew Fredericks said of the album "Dave stands out from the pack by finding the right balance. He creates freely while remaining true to his sources." This proved to be one of the busiest times of his life as he performed over 1,000 gigs in pubs clubs and festivals over the decade, all while working full time in IT. In 2015 he recorded a follow-up blues album titled Old School Blues again with a split of 50% originals, 50% covers. The album was well received and spent five months in the Australian Blues Airplay Charts (read the review here).  

A chance meeting with mandolin player Mark Pottenger in 2013 lead to a rekindled interest in bluegrass, leading to becoming a founding member of Nine Mile Creek bluegrass band which had many performances in bluegrass festivals and events. Inspired by friend and Scottish musician Alex Legg Dave found another rich stream of original tunes leading to the recording of an album of all-original bluegrass/Texas songwriter-styled material titled Hillbilly Radio. The title track was awarded Bluegrass Song of the Year by the Tamworth Songwriters Salute, indicating the quality of the material on the album. COVID put a dampener on the launch of the album and the local industry continues to be constrained. However, Dave has used the time productively and continues to write, record and perform and he has had a number of original tunes as finalists in song writing competitions. He is well-advanced on another songwriter album and has a raft of blues tunes underway for a future release. Dave has emerged from COVID in fine form with enhanced guitar skills and a raft of fresh material.