Doug Wamble News

Date: 06.17.2007
Publication: The New York Times
Author: Jon Pareles

Back in the 1960’s, the hippie counterculture briefly looked like a political opposition to a protracted war. At Bonnaroo this year, hippie fashion statements also go with protest songs and anti-Bush pronouncements. Perhaps that’s no surprise at a festival that includes longtime politically inclined rappers like the Roots, Michael Franti and El-P, who tour to the same collegiate audience that comes to Bonnaroo. Friday’s lineup also included Manu Chao, the globe-trotting, mostly Spanish-speaking songwriter whose hopped-up reggae and ska songs decry violence and poverty, support human rights (especially for immigrants and displaced people) and savor romance and marijuana.
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Date: 08.01.2005
Publication: Jazz Times
Author: Jon Pareles

Terms like “eclectic” sell Doug Wamble short. His sophomore release, with pianist Roy Dunlap, bassist Jeff Hanley and drummer Peter Miles, is a 21st-century drama with gospel, blues, Americana, neosoul, bop and modal characters strutting across the stage. In his liner notes, fellow guitarist-vocalist Matt Munisteri pinpoints the singularity of Wamble’s art as well as anyone could hope to, but let me remark on a few vibrant qualities: the rootsy purity of Wamble’s guitar tone; the advanced content of his improvised lines; and the winsome drawl of his singing voice, but also its haunting, preacherly power.
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Date: 06.23.2005
Publication: Toronto Star
Author: Greg Quill

On his second outing produced, as was his debut, Country Libations, by Branford Marsalis, the American singer/guitarist/songwriter moves farther into jazz territory, though it’s clearly his formative country/folk environment that sustains his sensibilities.

The opener, “If I Live to See the Day,” is a biting indictment of American foreign policy, as powerful a protest song as we’ve heard in decades, dressed up in Weather Report drag.
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