In Conversation With Colin: Dede Priest & Johnny Clark’s Outlaws

When your influences range from Big Mama Thornton to Rory Gallagher, you already have a lot to work with. Throw in the mix massive and innovative talent, and you end up with Dede Priest & Johnny Clark’s Outlaws. On the face of it an unlikely pairing when you consider Dede is from Texas and Johnny is Dutch, but it’s clearly a match made in heaven.

Today, women blues artists are just as likely to excel as instrumentalists as vocalists, following the example of pioneers such as Hadda Brooks, Memphis Minnie, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Singer/guitarist/violinist and front woman Dede Priest is a force to be reckoned with, blessed with a voice that’s both powerful and tender, a mixture of Mavis Staples and Etta James. Combined with husband Johnny’s slide guitar and occasional gravelly baritone vocals reminiscent of Lee Hazlewood circa Cake Or Death, the resulting new album Best Pieces feels momentous and aberrant.

The album is astonishingly good and staggeringly bold, pulling threads from blues, rock, soul, gospel, country and more to weave a fuzzy guitar and blues fiddle that creates at times a swampy sound that is absolutely singular to Dede Priest & Johnny Clark.

Dede spent her formative years studying philosophy at The University Of Texas in Austin and decided to stay there for the vibrant music scene, she says, “I performed on 6th Street at places such as Joe’s Generic or The 311 Club and at the old Antone’s Club, that’s where I got my feet wet, singing”.

Dede and Johnny first met in 2004 when she toured The Netherlands at the suggestion of drummer Leon Toonen, coincidentally just as Johnny was forming his own band called The Bullfrog Blues Machine, they went on to release three albums on Dutch label Munich Records. Whilst recording their

final album Cross That Line, Dede was invited to sing on three of the twelve tunes. The album is long out of print and near impossible to find.

Meanwhile Dede was busy pursuing a solo career releasing two albums, Candy Moon in 2007 and Kinky At The Root in 2011.

“When that band ended somewhere around 2005” says Johnny, “I started a new trio Johnny Clark’s Outlaws, and Dede was doing her own thing so it wasn’t until 2015 that we were able to do some things together, and we loved it so much that Dede joined us. We started to develop and write new stuff and Dede added her violin and a little later added her guitar”.

That new partnership found Dede and Johnny sharing songwriting duties that has currently yielded three full length albums and an EP. Commenting on the songwriting process Dede explains “Sometimes the title just comes first and then some words come along but there’s no melody or tone, and the style can sound soulful and R&B but we mix it with other things”.

Drawing inspiration from blues greats such as Big Mama Thornton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Freddie King, Dede and Johnny have developed a unique dual guitar sound reminiscent at times of Stevie Ray and Tony Joe White. This sonic brilliance is perfectly executed on the track ‘Texas Hurricane’ from their 2022 EP Crocuses From Ashes. Johnny explains their guitar sound, “We are both playing guitar on there, I’m playing a Les Paul with open tuning with a little bit of slide and Dede plays lead with the wah and Gibson SG through a Fender Vibro-King tube amp”.

Dede Priest is testament to the fact that when it comes to playing the blues, women can do it just as well as the guys, and the new album is yet another detour along the twisting arc of this husband and wife’s creative journey.

Colin Palmer