LIFE has a funny way of coming full circle.

In the late Sixties the likes of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton took the traditional music of the Delta blues, turned it around and sold it back to the USA in large quantities.

At the Lord Nelson pub in Hythe tonight, the Delta blues duo of Ruben Dobbs and Joey Mitchell, from the USA, return the favour with their aggressive, stomping Mississippi Delta blues music.

Exactly how to describe Swampcandy’s honest and downright dirty Mississippi sound is best left up to Dobbs himself.

“It’s old school style with a boogie kind of feel, it takes the Delta blues and brings it a little more up to a four in the floor kind of thing. You just can’t stop yourself from clapping, stomping and getting down on it.

Energy “It’s a heady mix of Americana, a little bit of a gypsy feel to some of the songs, folk and old time all mixed together, anything that keeps the energy up. We like a lot of audience participation, people getting up dancing, and some booty shaking going on.”

His musical journey began with rock, but his path soon changed.

“I did not want to be like my musical heroes, I wanted to be them, so I would research them, their influences, and I found myself coming back every time to the likes of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Mississippi McDowell.

“I started trying to figure tunes out and that’s when I got it. This is not normal, his playing was insane. From there I got turned on to Booker White, Sun House and Blind Willie McDowell.”

The final turning point for Dobbs came while his metal band was the supporting act for rapper Snoop Dog.

“That gig was the same night my Grandma passed away. While I was on stage that night something snapped in me, and I realised that this was not the music I wanted to play, I wanted to play music that I enjoyed and was a homage to my grandmother, so I just walked off stage and left that all behind me and threw myself into the Delta blues.

“I am getting too old to die young, so I needed something that I could age gracefully into. I started Swampcandy on my own, and then I met Joey, and he suggested that we should try something together.”

The duo soon started to gain a following around their local area and soon found they were playing a gig somewhere night after night to small but enthusiastic fans. The fan base has grown over the years, and is a vital part of what the duo do.

When Dobbs and Mitchell decided to make a documentary film about how they got to where they are today, as well as discovering the true sound of the Delta blues, it was the fans who come up with half of the money for the project.

The resulting documentary & album Midnight Creep, is a testament to the duo’s passion and determination to play the blues.

While the duo have immersed themselves in the true sound of the blues, allowing them to continue the tradition and spread the word of the Delta Blues to a new generation of music fans, it’s the UK fans that Dobbs has a great deal of respect and affection for.

“I believe that the music fans in the UK are much better guardians of blues music than the American music fans; the desire to keep it going is strong with the UK blues movement, over here I can play a Sun House song and somebody will come up to me at the bar after the show and say ‘Oh you used most of the lyrics from the 1930 version, but a couple of lyrics from the 1960 version’ which is amazing as a musician.

“In the States I found myself having to explain the Blues and its roots to so many people, and we invented it!”