Doc White makes a (mutually) welcome return to Bendigo for the year’s first Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival showcase in late February, “the Blues & Roots Festival is astonishing and the best town festival I’ve played. The vibe of the city is amazing.”

He’s played in Bendigo over 20 times now.

Expect to hear some Doc White favourites, like Come Here Katy, The Lord Ain’t Helping Me Yet, and Baby Please Don’t Go when he takes the stage as well as tracks form his forthcoming release Muddy Mando Mojo.

The Adelaide-born writer-performer is a dead-set blues aficionado whose list of influences and inspirations could fill a medium-sized address book. Jazz, though, is a developing interest: “I spend a bit more time on jazz now because there are techniques and vocabulary there that can be applied to blues to make it a bit more interesting.”

Doc White is also one of a very select group of blues mandolinists. There are reportedly five in the world. It’s a bit like welcoming a living ex-US President to Bendigo.