Guitarist and singer/songwriter Ross Ward was born in Sydney in 1954, and grew up in very musically active and aware family. It’s no wonder Ross took up a career as a musician, after growing up without many of today’s modern diversions, and being “fairly swamped” with music that ranged from classical opera to the blues, and a collection of 78’s, 45’s and albums that included jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, soul, country, surf and later, rock.
“Left to my own devices, my own songs and style comes from all the music I hear and refer to as ‘Organic’. It’s played by real people, and it’s coming straight from the heart.”
“Typically, my stuff will cover influences from the blues, rock, jazz, funk, soul and even some Latin/World music, occasionally borrowing a bit of it all, sometimes wandering down each alley for a closer experience, but it’s all done with respect, honesty, and in a continual pursuit of excellence for the music and its performance.” – Ross Ward, 2008.
Below is a compacted decade-by-decade bio:
1969-1979
With performance origins tracing back to 1968, Ross Ward first appeared on national television’s ‘Uptight’ with The Flying Circus in 1969 (aged 14), as the fill-in bassist for his older brother Warren. The two weeks spent touring with a band, who had three records in the top 10 in those days, ruined any hopes of further education, and so a long journey began.
When Warren left the Flying Circus he formed ‘Stonehenge’ with Ross, Tim Gaze and Nigel Maccara. Ross also later toured with Ronnie Burns, Stevie Wright and Mike Furber, amongst others, then held down a residence at Sydney’s “Whiskey au Go-Go” for a year before joining ‘Cinamon’, a rock band from Sydney’s inner-western suburbs, and toured the East Coast consistently for the next two years into 1973.
Ross also played guitar on album releases by John J. Francis and Aidan Nolan in the mid-seventies, made a few guest appearances in later versions of ‘Blackfeather’, worked with rocker Jimmy Taylor, played guitar with Billy Taylor and Gregg Higg’s ‘Broadway Brown’ and then teamed up with old ‘Cinamon’ cohort Phil Doherty in ‘Nusa’ to round out the 70’s.
1980-1990
When ‘Nusa’ finally morphed into ‘Speed Limit’,
the band released a six track mini-album, and two singles on Polygram subsidiary Airborne records in 1981, before a fairly hectic and endless touring schedule for the next few years, along with supports to just about every major Aussie act at the time, plus a share of spots with internationals such as ‘The Cure’ and USA blues-men ‘Canned Heat’.
Ross had spent many hours in his formative years listening to Canned Heat’s albums, and the invitation to jam with (the now late)
Henry Vestine, (back in Henry’s motel rooms after the shows on that tour) had a profound effect, and so did the advice Henry passed on:
“Now that you got all those licks together, get back to your blues. Find the stuff that made you take up the guitar in the first place, man…”
In 1984 Ross founded the R & B Band which for the next ten years provided a ‘revolving door’ for many of Sydney’s best musicians. The band had a strong blues and blues/rock ethic, and regular guests included drummers Richard Harvey, Rudy Miranda, Bruce Stephens; guitarists Steve Edmonds and Phil Emmanuel, as well as vocalist/harp player Dave Tice.
1991-2000
With ‘The R & B Band’ working regularly around the area between Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong, and also with a regular line-up, Ross managed to escape himself for a time, joining Lucky Starr’s band for a year or so, then Sydney boogie band ‘Bandanna’, with both acts working and touring regularly, before Ross returned in 1992 with some ‘serious’ line-ups of the ‘R & B Band’, working it hard until 1995.
Relocating to Byron Bay the same year, Ross immediately set about establishing himself as an acoustic-based soloist in the area, and then formed ‘Ward’s Xpress’ in 1997. The band released the E.P. ‘Toe The Line’, which they sold at their regular gigs between Brisbane and Byron, but it also did enough to earn them a ‘Dolphin Award’ for ‘Best Blues’.
Encouraged by that, ‘Wards Xpress’ also recorded and released another two C.D.’s , 1998’s ‘South Bound Freight’, and ‘Wire-Fire’ in 2000. The band had begun to appear regularly at some major blues festivals, and they had also held down an almost seven-year residence at one local Byron venue. The new area had been kind, the music well-received and supported, and contact with so many great local musicians opened up new possibilities.
(Please see Ward’s Xpress bio for full details)
2001-2010
In between Wards Xpress commitments, Ross Ward’s solo gigs had begun to gain some momentum in their own right, and by 2002, he’d begun a fairly relentless solo touring schedule, covering much of the East Coast of Oz from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast all the way down to Victoria’s Hills country, and all points and cities in between, and kept his work rate up when he released his first solo effort, ‘Transit Lounge’ in Nov. 2003, earning the ‘Bluesoz CD of the year Award’ for it in 2004.
After maintaining the whole schedule for so long, and working ‘flat-out’ up until April 2008, Ross took a well-earned break, and in 2009 began pre-production for his next release, before commencing a series of then-local residencies in and around the Northern Rivers of NSW, which also lead to more national tours.
Ross also worked a lot of ‘sessions’ for other acts during the period, live and in the studio.
2010 and beyond?
In early 2010 Ross relocated back to Sydney after 16 years on the far north coast. Apart from focusing on much of the local market in and around Sydney, more touring in solo, duo and band modes have been slated for this year,
and the long-awaited follow-up to ‘Transit Lounge’ may also surface shortly. Stay tuned!
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