Lord knows what we were doing in August 2021, but something we clearly weren't doing was paying attention. There's no other possible reason for us missing an extraordinary live version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) by Australian keyboardist Lachy Doley.
Doley, who has played with the likes of Joe Bonamassa and Glenn Hughes – as well as Aussie acts like Jimmy Barnes and Powderfinger – recorded his version of Voodoo Chile for his album Studios 301 Sessions, which came out in October 2021. And while his arrangement of the song remains largely faithful to the original, Doley manages to break new ground by replicating Hendrix's rubbery guitar part on a clavinet equipped with a whammy bar.
Smartphone footage of Doley playing the song was uploaded to YouTube in 2019, followed by an official video in 2020, but it's the Studios 301 Sessions version that really brings home what an explosive cover it is, and demonstrates why Hughes – who reportedly described Doley as "the greatest living keyboard player in the world today" – hired him to play on his Resonate album in 2016.
Doley has also been described as "The Hendrix of the keyboards" by some, but takes such praise with a grain of salt.
"Lots of people would make that reference, and I thought, 'it's a good quote, and it works well with press'," he tells the Salty Dog Blues N Roots podcast. "But it does explain what to expect from one of my shows: the energy, the wildness. From a keyboard! Because, generally, when you say 'keyboards', people think it's going to be subdued."
It isn't subdued. Doley plays the rare clavinet like a maniac, manhandling the whammy bar with wild gusto as he replicates Hendrix's swoops and screeches.
And it's mind-boggling.
To learn more about Lachy Daley, visit his website.
