Cover photo © 2025 Peter Hurley

“I’m a firm believer in letting the music speak for itself.”

Dave Specter has spent over 40 years growing and developing his artistry. A Chicago native, fresh out of college, Dave immersed himself in the vibrant 1980’s Chicago Blues scene. This was a heady time when legends like Jimmy Johnson, Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin, and Sam Lay were available to young up and comers. Out of his studious and humble indoctrination, Dave emerged in 1990 as a major instrumental voice in the explosion of post SRV Blues popularity.

What sets Dave Specter apart is his true artist nature. His inquisitive and open-souled exploration of the beauty of Blues and Jazz music has led him to uncover the tense bond between simplicity of form and complexity of emotion entwined in the Blues. This is never more evident than on Dave’s newest album Live at SPACE.

Dave’s 4th live album of his career, he explains “I’m just a big fan and believer in live albums especially in the Blues and Jazz world. I think that’s the way the music is meant to be played and represented. That’s when we musicians are in our element.”

It’s no easy task to record live and have it be the final album. Dave enthuses:

“One of the things I’m really proud about is that Live at SPACE was just recorded in one set, one night. Fortunately the band had just gotten back from a little tour of Spain so we were really tight. I hired Freddie Breitburg, who worked for Chess and did a ton of the early Alligator recordings, to come out and record us live. I think that’s one of the reasons it sounds so good because of Freddie.”

This document of one special night in the club north of Chicago was an opportunity.

“I wanted to revisit some songs that I had recorded before. Sometimes when you record new songs in the studio they’re often still new to the band, still maybe a work in progress. So a number of the tunes on the Live album are tunes that were on the Message in Blue record or the Blues From the Inside Out record. But, we’ve been playing live together for so long that they’ve really matured and developed. I think they play much better now then back when we first recorded them in the studio.”

Evanston SPACE is a special place and home turf for Dave who is a partial partner in the venue. In 2008 when his college buddy Craig Golden was ready to realize life long dreams of opening a club he brought Dave in as one of the partners. They had looked all over Chicago, but settled in Evanston, a northern suburb with a long history of art and creativity.

“Evanston, which is just north of Chicago, is a great town, it’s where Northwestern University is. There used to be a very famous eclectic all ages club there called Amazing Grace where you could hear Charles Mingus, Luther Allison, Howlin’ Wolf, Bill Evens, John Prine, just amazing music. So Evanston always had an audience for eclectic American and World music.”

As you might imagine, Dave reports, “I’ve helped curate a lot of the music there. Specifically I love booking Blues there. I’ve also booked a lot of New Orleans music there, you know a little bit of everything.” He proudly boasts “It’s possibly the most eclectic music venue in Chicago.”o.”

Live from SPACE and Dave’s previous album 2019’s Blues from the Inside Out are the first forays he has taken into singing. Up until 2019, Dave’s voice has been his unique and immediately identifiable guitar tone and technique. But Dave needed to develop, he is a searcher, he is the forever student. He is also a man with conviction and morals. When he looked at the shape of the world around him he was compelled to respond and to respond with a new facet of his art. Dave explains:

“One of the roles of music and art in our society is to represent, reflect and speak out against injustice. I respect musicians and artists that do that. I was taught by my dad who was a community organizer in Chicago, who was a pretty tough street-wise guy. He said ‘David, if you ever are confronted by a bully and they bother you and they say stupid things don’t back off, get right in his face. And if you have to, punch him in the nose and knock him out.”

These ideals and lessons, compounded by a love of politically minded artists like Bob Dylan and the Staples Singers, led Dave to literally speak out.

“During Trump’s first term I was pretty upset about what was happening. I’m not a fan of his to say the least. So I wrote a song called ‘How Long Can One Man Go?’ I had John Kattke over, thinking he was gonna sing it, this was in like 2018 before we recorded the record Blues From the Inside Out. I started kind of rapping the lyrics more or less with my guitar. And he said ‘Dave, I appreciate that you want me to sing this, but you should sing this, you should sing this.’ I thought about it and I went for it. That was the first song that really inspired me to sing. That’s how it started.”

For a practitioner like Dave, who has spent his life exploring how to manipulate and wring emotion out of six metal strings, adding singing expands his expression. This is so evident on Live from SPACE. With John Kattke singing some songs, Dave singing songs (especially the exceptional rendition of “Bluebird Blues” one of his signature tunes), and captivating instrumentals; Dave is able to further his journey, but humbly and with gratitude.

“It’s been an interesting journey of growth and development that’s definitely still happening. Being a guitarist is a lifelong pursuit. I’ve been playing professionally for just over 40 years on guitar and I still feel like I’m learning and growing and developing. So singing for the last 6 years or so, it’s still relatively new to me. The more I do it, just like my guitar playing, the more time you put in the more you get out of it. I think the better I’m getting. I still don’t have a huge amount of range. Tad Robinson is an example of just a phenomenal singer that I have worked with for decades. I hear somebody like Tad and I can’t touch anything he does vocally. He’s a trained vocalist, he went to music school and he has such incredible range and power.”

Dave Spector is a remarkable guitarist. As his singing begins to develop, it only further emphasizes the power and straight forward emotion of his playing. Although a master soloist, Dave says, “economical tasteful rhythm playing is something I’ve always been in love with.” He continues to expound on the importance of rhythm guitar in his music and the masters he learned from:

“I started out learning how to play by listening to records and playing along to records. One of the first records I spent a lot of time with was the Otis Rush Live in Japan on Delmark. Jimmy Johnson is on rhythm guitar. Jimmy and I became friends and bandmates and we toured together and he was one of my first teachers. Before I met Jimmy, it just fascinated me on that album because it’s a great mix and you can really hear what Jimmy is doing behind Otis. There’s no way when I started playing that I could do anything that Otis Rush did on lead, (chuckles). So I was focusing on learning what Jimmy did. I would listen to his rhythm guitar and try to cop that. I always tell my students to learn to play along with records and the foundation should be rhythm guitar before you even begin thinking about solos.”

“So much of the Chess stuff has amazing guitar on it as well. Robert Jr. Lockwood, Louis Myers, Luther Tucker. And there’s rarely, if ever, a guitar solo on those records. Most Blues guitar players who are into Chicago Blues study that stuff. That’s a great place to really learn about the intricacies and importance of rhythm guitar and comping.”

It wasn’t just records though. The Chicago Blues scene was flush with great talent in the 1980’s:

“Magic Slim and the Teardrops were a really influential band on my career. I used to see them all the time. John Primer was playing rhythm with Magic Slim. And John Primer is one of the great rhythm guitar players. I learned a lot from watching him. That was one of the best guitar bands I ever saw.”

Dave really began to play and one of his main teachers and influences was the genius Blues guitarist Steve Freund. Dave fondly remembers, “He was kind of like a big brother to me. I remember I used to work at a video store. I’d bring him videos and bottles of wine in exchange for guitar lessons.” Dave continues to describe his friend:

“Steve is one of the best Blues guitar players in the world. He is underappreciated. I first heard Steve with Sunnyland Slim every Sunday night at the B.L.U.E.S. on Halstead bar in Chicago. I watched Steve a lot. He was just masterful in the way he soloed, very tastefully. Great tone, great phrasing. And you know backing up a piano is not easy but he did it so well. He played with Koko (Taylor) and Otis Rush. He got me into Freddie King. He’s also a huge Peter Green fan. Steve plays just about the best Peter Green style that I’ve ever heard, other than Peter.”

Dave put a lot of work into his guitar playing. He paid his dues, working throughout Chicago in the mid to late 80’s and he got some amazing opportunities. One tour of Canada with the master vocalist and drummer Sam Lay turned out to be even more impactful.

“Sam Lay took me on the road when I was in my early 20’s. He called me a couple weeks before the tour and said ‘Dave, I’m really looking forward to having you in the band. I just wanted to let you know I decided to add another guitar player on the tour. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, I just hope you don’t mind.’ I was like Sam, I’m thrilled to be playing with you. I have no problem with you adding any other musicians. Who will be playing guitar with us? He said’ Hubert Sumlin.’ (laughing) I dropped the phone. I started to get really nervous and excited. So I got to back up Hubert for 3 weeks on the road in Canada.”

The short stints in bands like Sam Lay’s lead to a 2 year tour with the incendiary Son Seals. This further ingrained Dave’s sense of rhythm and began to lead him to new directions, and solos.

“I got the gig with Son Seals and that was pretty much strictly a rhythm guitar gig. I really didn’t have a problem with that. I got to back Son Seals. One of the things I always loved about him is he always had horn players. He would double horn lines which I always loved. T-Bone Walker does that a lot. Son Seals, of course, had a much more aggressive grittier style, but he would comp the horn lines. Something I love doing.”

“I remember after about a year with Son I finally got the nerve up to ask him, but, you know he was a pretty intimidating guy, a very nice guy but a very tough dude.” Dave asked his boss, “Hey Son, I don’t know if this would be cool, but is there any way I could get like 1 solo a night on a slow Blues?” Dave, with a loud energized voice, recounts Son Seals laughing back at him yelling “yeah you can, of course you can!”

Around 1989, it was time for Dave to strike out on his own. By then Dave was a known guy on the scene. He also had the initial spark of a relationship with Bob Koester and Delmark Records that would last his full career. In 1985, after graduating from college, Dave worked at Delmark and Bob Koester’s legendary Jazz Record Mart, which was a historic repository for legendary artists to work and live:

“I worked there 1 day a week. Charlie Musselwhite used to work there, Big Joe Williams used to live in the basement of the store. Guys like Bloomfield and Butterfield and Elvin Bishop and a long list of musicians and record label people like Bruce Iglauer worked for Bob. I was pretty excited to be working for such a historic label and historic record store.”

After he left Koester’s employ, he never left touch. So when he had put together a hot band, it was time to use his connections.

“In 1989 after a short stint with Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith and Calvin Jones in The Legendary Blues Band, I decided it was time for me to start my own band. I really couldn’t express myself the way I wanted to as a sideman. I found this great singer Barkin’ Bill Smith who could sing Jimmy Witherspoon and Joe Williams and Cleanhead Vinson. He had that kind of Jazz sensibility as well. We started gigging around town and I went back to Bob Koester and I said ‘Hey Bob, I started this band and heard you’re a big fan of Barkin’ Bill.’ He said ‘yeah, I love his singing.’ I said ‘why don’t cha come out and see us?’ He came out to hear us and signed us to a 2 record deal. This was in 1990.”

The resulting album was his debut Bluebird Blues. With Barkin’ Bill singing and the New England iconoclast guitarist Ronnie Earl backing him up, Dave created a definitive statement of purpose. He was a young man and this was his very first recording. This launched his recording career which would stay at home at Delmark to this day. Dave is clearly proud to have continued on Delmark all these years. He has very kind words for the direction the label is going.

“The new owners of Delmark Julia Miller and Elbio Barilari have taken over the label and modernized it. This year especially they are putting out some really good stuff. But I think a lot of things at Delmark are kind of still the same. They still put out music that they really believe in and not necessarily because it’s commercially viable. They’ve always been kind of a label that documents working Chicago Jazz bands and Blues bands. And they’re still kind of doing that which I respect.”

Dave Specter is a guitarist first and foremost. From the beginning he has had a unique sound, bigger and more rounded than many of his contemporaries.

“I was a Strat player early on, just loved the sound. I always kind of went for a darker Strat tone than other people do. Almost always on the neck pick up with a fair amount of bass and mids. Kinda wanted to fatten up the sound a bit.”

Dave’s pursuit of that darker, fatter sound led him to larger guitars with either semi-hollow or fully hollow body cavities. He took cues from the masters, from the sounds of his mentors.

“Then I started getting into semi-hollow bodies and hollow-bodies. One of the first hollow-bodies I had was a 1955 Gibson ES-175 with a P-90, which I used on a couple tracks on my first album Bluebird Blues. I saw Steve Freund playing Epiphone Rivieras with mini-humbuckers. I was, and still am, a huge fan of Magic Sam and Otis Rush and they also played the Rivieras with mini-humbuckers. So I started playing those for quite a while.”

But, Dave missed the Fender feel and the Fender sound. In 2009, Dave picked up a Fender Jazzmaster. First introduced in 1959 to court Jazz guitarists, the Jazzmaster became the guitar of choice for surf guitarists. For Dave, it was a natural next step and physical upgrade from the workhorse Stratocaster.

“I would go back to my Strats after playing the bigger boxes and I’m 6’4”, so the Starts would feel small. So I picked up a Jazzmaster kind of by accident. It’s bigger than a Strat. It still has the Fender contoured body and the Fender feel that I love. Just very comfortable. But, the Jazzmaster pick ups are almost like P-90’s. They’re still single coil but they’re definitely fatter than a Strat or a Tele pick up. Which kind of helped me transition from the semi-hollows. The Jazzmaster pick ups just felt warm and fat, kind of thick. You know I grew up in Chicago and used to see Magic Slim all the time. He’s one of my guitar heroes. He played a Jazzmaster through a Super Reverb, it’s one of the best guitar tones I had ever heard. And being a fan of the Staples Singers, Pops played a Jazzmaster often. So that inspired me as well. I just got hooked on ‘em. They are my main guitars these days.”

Artists often need to find artistic hobbies outside their medium to help refresh. For many musicians this is often a visual medium like painting. For Dave it is photography, a passion he has had since childhood but one he has recently begun to take more seriously.

“I grew up with a brother and father who were hobbyist photographers. My dad had a lot of photography books in the house by people like Ansel Adams, Archie Lieberman, and Diane Arbus. I was exposed to great photographers at a pretty young age. I took photography in high school.”

Understandably live music performances were often Dave’s subjects:

I think the first live concert experience that I can remember that I photographed, that I still have a photo of, was going to see the Grateful Dead when I was in high school. Bringing my Olympus OM-1 I think I was sitting in the 5th row and I took a lot of photos there.”

The guitar’s sweet siren call was too much for Dave to pursue the camera more seriously as a young man but it was always there.

“I didn’t really pursue it too much when I started playing guitar when I was 18. But, I always had a small point and shoot camera around. I befriended a lot of professional musical photographers in the Chicago area over the years. Guys like Paul Natkin, Harvey Tillis and Marc PoKempner.”

“I decided that my iPhone wasn’t really cuttin’ it. About 4 years ago I went out and bought a Nikon and started getting seriously into it. I shoot a lot of the shows at SPACE. I have great access to a wide variety of artists from Blues legends to, you know, we’ve had Allan Toussaint and Dr. John to the Sun Ra Arkestra. I always try to document the shows. Up until about 4 years ago it was just with my phone. Getting serious with a real camera again, I just love it. It’s just a form of artistry that is, again, a life long pursuit and I’m relatively new to it. But, I think I maybe have a different perspective being a musician. Where I’m able to maybe capture certain moments that might be a little different than other photographers would capture.”

To fully disconnect, Dave has found other non-music related subjects.

“I discovered bald eagles in Illinois not long ago. We have a huge migratory bald eagle population. I fell in love with seeing them and photographing them. So that’s been really exciting too. It’s such a release. A mind clearing moment to get out into a forest preserve or on a river and spend a few hours capturing bald eagle shots. It’s a great hobby.”

Dave Specter is an artist. He has spent a lifetime studying music and fine tuning, expanding/contracting, and evolving his expression of the Blues. The Blues is a universal truth and artists like Dave Specter work within it to define and represent the human condition and the recesses of our souls. His voices – guitar and vocal; his songwriting – steeped in tradition but fully modern and individual; and, his artistry – both within the confines of music and outside of it; are real and present. It resonates for audiences and brings us all a little closer together, healing rifts and divisions.

“What I try to do is just tell the story of the song. Somebody the other night just said ‘Dave, your singing is so honest.’ You’re not trying to sound like anybody else. You’re not trying to sound like an old Black dude. You’re not screaming and screeching like some of these Blues Rock singers do. So that’s what I’m kind of going for, trying to be myself. Play music with attitude and feel and style.”

Check out Dave Specter’s music and photography at www.davespecter.com