30 years of Blues with a Feeling

Shaun Bindley is a name synonymous with the Blues.

In fact, you’d be hard pressed finding anyone more passionate about this style of music than the Brisbane-based radio presenter, producer, voiceover artist and Air News newshound.

Shaun is about to celebrate 30 years of hosting Blues with a Feeling, a program showcasing the greatest Blues releases, album features and interviews from Australia and across the world.

In that time, it’s evolved from a radio show to the popular podcast it is today.

But for Shaun, it never gets ‘old.’

He tells Radio Today “Despite the passing of 3 decades, I still get a thrill out of presenting the show.”

As a blonde-haired, sun tanned kid from Bondi living in America’s Deep South, it was the late sixties when Shaun’s interest in the Blues as a style of music began to take shape.

After serving two tours of Vietnam, Shaun’s army officer dad was seconded to the US Infantry and transferred to America.

Shaun’s family lived on a massive army base at Fort Benning in Georgia.

It was then that he began to see singers like Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald appear as guests on American TV talk shows.

Shaun recalls seeking out black singers and musicians long before he became aware of the musical genre known as the Blues.

Later, as a young man in Brisbane, an ad for the first Bluesfest at Byron Bay proved another one of life’s ‘lightbulb’ moments.

The four days he spent at the international Blues and Roots festival led Shaun to decide once and for all that his future lay with that style of music.

Overcome by what he had experienced at Bluesfest, Shaun’s head was spinning with possibilities – from singing with his own band to owning his own blond Guild archtop guitar.

Shaun’s foray into radio came somewhat by chance.

Having retired from rugby – a sport he loved – and lacking direction, he felt depressed, and drifted from job to job.

Having heard Mark Doherty’s show Nothing But the Blues on community station 4ZZZ, Shaun started tossing up the idea of having his own program, playing the kind of music he loved.

At the time, he had a job delivering chlorine for a pool shop.

He later started picking up work as an extra on various movies and locally produced TV shows.

Shaun reflected on that period of his life in an interview with the South East Queensland Blues Association: “Bitten by the acting bug, I was sitting in the Stones Corner Commonwealth Employment Service office, desperately looking for a part time job option that didn’t involve going back to the pool shop and the daily workload of 80 20 litre drums to be delivered each day.”

As fortune would have it, Shaun noticed a sign on the wall for a radio production and presentation course.

With his case manager’s blessing, he decided to give it a crack.

About 3 months after completing the course, he presented a proposal for the Blues with a Feeling program to management at Brisbane community station 98.9FM.

They agreed to give it a go.

The program was live and completely improvised, with Shaun hauling in a bag of CDs each week – totally in his element – and never missing a show in 23 years.

Featured guests over the journey have included Taj Mahal, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray, Ruthie Foster, Matt Taylor, Keb Mo, Eric Bibb, John Nemeth, Larry Fulcher, Matthew Stubbs and Shemekia Copeland, to name just a few.

Having built a solid and loyal following, it made sense to make the show available as a podcast.

And three decades in, Shaun will never tire of playing, sharing and bonding over the music he loves.

“Being able to connect with people over a mutual love of music, people of all ages, is a blessing,” he says. “And receiving an artist’s new record – and interviewing them about it – is a privilege and a pleasure. Perhaps now more than ever.”

As to his future plans, Shaun says “I want to continue to build the audience and produce a high quality program that people look forward to every week.”

Episode 1495 of Blues with a Feeling airs this week.