So if you think working in adland can give you the blues, you need to meet David Dot Hale. For years, David led a double life – hard-charging agency creative director by day, wanna-be bluesman by night. In this latter guise, he appeared regularly with his band, Blind Lemon Peel, at renowned New York watering holes and blues hotspots such as Tramps, Delta 88, the Bitter End and the Lone Star Cafe, to name but a few.
Now he’s bringing his dream of returning to his hometown to fruition, as he and his Blind Lemon Peel bandmates will be performing at The Cutting Room on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 7 pm. Doors open at 6 pm. For tickets, go here.
During his advertising career, David held senior creative positions at such agencies as BBDO, JWT and DMB&B, where he worked campaigns for brands like Burger King, Miller Beer, Right Guard, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Papa John’s, among others.
Even while working on Madison Avenue, David’s passion for music and for the blues made an indelible impression on those around him. Best-selling author James Patterson, who was Chief Creative Officer at JWT when David worked there, even used his name for characters in his novels, and told him that his grasp of the blues moved him. And music critic David Hajdu caught his act back then and quipped, “just another Black blues singer/songwriter, trapped in a white Jewish adman’s body.”
In addition to winning his share of awards, his advertising experience helped him build a vast network of colleagues, collaborators, clients and friends. It even got him on the cover of Creativity magazine’s print edition back in his DMB&B days, when he was running the team on Burger King. In the process, he helped launch the careers of a number of current-day ad stars, most notably Craig Gillespie, the former art director who now directs commercials via MJZ. And for over 15 years he was the ‘creative consigliere’ for OSI Restaurants, now known as Bloomin’ Brands, parent of Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and other restaurant brands, functioning as the primary connector between the brands’ marketing leaders and their agencies.
About a decade ago, David relocated full-time to the West Coast and gave up his adland gigs to focus on BLP. As he put it, “I turned my life on its head, left my advertising career and all the comforts of home and moved to California to chase my life-long dream of being a full-time, professional blues musician.”
It’s not like his agency days didn’t boost his musical chops; he managed to mix the two, as his commercial assignments gave him a chance to work with a who’s who of artists from a range of genres. The list includes everyone from Michael Bolton to the Brecker Brothers to Chubby Checker, Ashford & Simpson, The Rascals and many more. “They always found me easier to deal with than most of other agency people,” he quips, “and that opened many doors for me as a musician.”
Indeed, he developed a core group of friends that included some of the top session players and sidemen in New York, people like guitarist Steve Burgh, who’s played with David Bromberg and Steve Forbert; drummer Richard Crooks, who’s backed Dr. John and Bob Dylan; keyboard genius Joel Diamond, who’s played with Graham Parker and Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor; and super bass player ‘Smokin’ Tim Arnold, who has his own advertising pedigree. Each brought their own particular expertise into BLP’s vision of avant-garde blues.
Diamond will be joining him at The Cutting Room, along with singer/songwriter Marc Blatte, another advertising veteran who was formerly with Look Music. Also on stage will be vocalist Randi Dorman.
As for what Blind Lemon Peel is going to play, David calls his music ‘progressive blues. "It's an evolution,” he told a Sacramento newspaper recently. "I appreciate the blues, where it came from, what it's about, and what the heritage and ethnicity of that music is all about. I try to anchor my roots firmly in the past while broadening the genre." He’s certainly got the background for it: his father was a touring saxophonist, and his babysitter introduced him to Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker when he was still in grade school. He got his start in blues bands before he was old enough to order a drink.
For more information, visit Blind Lemon Peel online here, or follow them on Facebook here.
