Bound by the Blues
Sonny Landreth
Guitars Exchange readers are in no need of explanation regarding the
art of the slide guitar, and even less on how difficult it is to master this technique,
one that only a precious few have managed to excel at. Maybe you have to be
born in Mississippi and live in Louisiana like Sonny Landreth to ensure the presence of the slide gene in your DNA
and become a true maestro. It goes without saying that his is the world of Blues,
but in his case fused with the characteristic zydeco rhythm and the
indigenous flavours found in the swamplands of his homeland - Creole
and jazz
sounds with a soupçon of country.
With a spicy
mix that gives his music enough kick to stand out in a genre overflowing with
virtuoso talent, Landreth has thrived
in the upper echelons of the sacrosanct Billboard's
blues sales charts for years. Now he is back with his latest work, Bound
by the Blues, a record that should be on every music-lover's 'must buy'
list for 2015.
Landreth has been up on stage with his inseparable Fender Stratocaster over his shoulder
for so long that he is already considered a living legend. Sadly, this cult
figure in the States is hardly known this side of the pond. A man who has
suffered a similar fate is John Hiatt,
with whom Landreth has played on
many occasions. A guitarist's guitarist,
Landreth is revered by such great
players as Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, the latter even asking
"the King of Slydeco" to lend him a hand back in the mid
'90s. A quick look at his Zydeco shuffle on YouTube will leave you in no doubt as
to his abilities and also confirm that surprisingly, his skin is in fact white.
Slide guitar, by the way, is just one of this man's many great talents.
Bound by the Blues is a return to the simplicity of the
guitar-bass-drum trinity, paying homage to the blues classics. Covers of Elmore James and Robert Johnson intermingle with his own material in which the
styles of other guitar greats can be heard. One of them is the recently
passed-away Johnny Winter, who Landreth pays tribute to using a Gibson Firebird, an instrument long
associated with Winter, in Firebird
blues.
Raw Delta Blues in its purest form. Sonny Landreth has forsaken his usual
musical leanings and this time, just this once, he has done as these past
masters would have liked it. Not a drop of jazz and only a hint of zydeco,
for a change. His lightning quick guitar laps it up in what is a torrent of
inspiration, but above all, impeccable taste. Pure heaven for the ears… but hell
on the fingers.