CAIRNS music fans will be treated to a memorable night of gospel-blues this October when legendary slide guitarist Dom Turner from the Backsliders presents his global musical collaboration, The Turner Brown Band.
The band combines Australian-born Turner with Ohio-based lap-slide guitarist and vocal sensation Nikki D Brown to form an uplifting gospel-soul-funk meets blues musical feast for the senses.
A renowned blues-based slide-guitarist and vocalist, Dom has spent more than 30 years touring the festival circuit with his Sydney-based band, Backsliders.
Nikki, born into a Church-based slide guitar tradition known as Sacred Steel, was described as the “Jimi Hendrix of Sacred Steel”, (Guitar World Magazine, 2016).
The result is a merging of Nikki’s southern style US gospel guitar and vocals with Dom’s blues-based sounds forming a duelling slide guitar eclectic and uplifting gospel-blues musical feast.
“I travelled to the USA in 2015 with the idea of hooking up with Nikki in Toledo and getting into a room to play music together to see if it would work,” Dom says.
“As it was, the first meeting was a huge success and the musical synergy was immediate and so we recorded during that first visit, the result of which was our first album, Sliding Steel.”
Joining Dom and Nikki is the Browns: Nikki’s sister Gloria Brown (rhythm, guitar and vocals), and cousin Tomika Webb (drums and vocals), for a special show that Dom describes as “the secular meets the sacred.”
“Imagine a southern US church that is really pumping with raucous gospel singing and steel guitar music and then a blues musician joins in and the ‘slide’ guitars start to meld into one infectious sound,” Dom says.
The Cairns show will be a welcome return for Turner who will make his fifth appearance at Tanks, having played on four previous occasions with the Backsliders.
“The Tanks is a unique space where musicians can draw creatively from the industrial-like surroundings to create sound,” Dom says.
“I love the massively tall ceilings and the huge sound that is possible within the circular structure. I’ve played the Tanks many times and it’s always a joy to perform there.”
The Turner Brown Band play Tanks Arts Centre on Friday 18 October at 7:30pm. Tickets cost $35 or $30 for concession and are available from Ticketlink.
© Copyright 2025 | NQ Music Press