#sonny landreth

[jt1674]

[rolloroberson]

John Hiatt and the Goners - Tennessee Plates

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jake Shimabukuro and Mick Fleetwood - Blues Experience

Blues Experience feels like an opportunity missed for Jake Shimabukuro and Mick Fleetwood.

Because while the ukulele master and the former Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac drummer strike a few chunks of gold - notably on Jeff Beck’s “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers,” with Sonny Landreth on slide guitar; the album’s lone original, Shimabukuro’s “Kula Blues;” and Gary Moore’s “Still Got the Blues” - the album, with Jackson Waldhoff on bass and Michael Grande on keys, contains a ton of filler.

Forgetting the instrumental LP is supposed to be a Blues Experience, Fleetwood overlooked all the blues tracks in his repertoire in favor of ambient and spoken-word versions of Christine McVie’s “Songbird.” What are supposed to be heartfelt tributes come off as misplaced and overwrought, respectively.

“As the Songbird sings, now from the heavens/to you, Christine, I wish you all the love in the world/but most of all, I wish it from myself/I wish it from myself,” Fleetwood intones on the latter.

And though Shimabukuro, in a startling display of innovation and virtuosity, proves the uke every bit as sharp as an axe, that doesn’t prevent the quartet from transforming Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” into elevator music and casting Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” into the soundtrack recording for a club that failed to obtain licensing.

Grade card: Jake Shimabukuro and Mick Fleetwood - Blues Experience - C

12/5/24

[musicmags]

[dearyallfrommatt]

"Give Me One Reason”

Since the Grammys the other night and we’re all giving Tracy Chapman her well-deserved flowers, I want to highlight another cover of hers that’s pretty damn good. This is from Junior Well’s final studio album, 1996's Come On In This House. At the time, both acoustic albums and albums featuring blues survivors with young guns were big sellers, so Junior pulled a two-for. Furthermore, the album spotlighted slide guitarists like Derek Trucks and Alvin Youngblood Heart. Lousiana man Sonny Landreth is laying out the licks here.

This song (from her fourth album, New Beginnings, 1995) was an enormous hit for Chapman, topping multiple charts including the Adult Top 40 and Number Two on the Billboard charts. Junior’s album won him a Grammy and a W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. It was also the last studio album released before Junior’s passing in 1998. His cover also got a good bit of airplay back when radio still did that sort of thing.

Long tied with brother-in-the-blues Buddy Guy, Junior cut a singular figure in the blues harp world. He may not have had the raw chops of Little Walter or either Sonny Boy, but what Junior had was swagger. He modeled a lot of his post-’60s persona after James Brown - going so far as to call himself the Godfather of the Blues - but there was always a strut in his voice and harp work.

Junior liked to have fun and clown around, so his studio work can be spotty. However, his first album Hoodoo Man Blues from 1965 is one of the very few must-have non-collection albums in blues music and Come On This House is one of the finest examples of an old dog teaching young pups new tricks.

There’s a certain poetry to that, the Alpha and Omega, and I think that’s pretty cool.

[daddysmusicblog]

[tratadista]

Sonny Landreth - The High Side (Recorded Live In Lafayette)

[dailyjimmybuffett]

Cover Friday: U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile

U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile was originally recorded by Sonny Landreth in 2000 and covered by Jimmy Buffett in 2002.

[favemusiclessons]

1. Have a Dedicated Guitar Set up for Slide

2. Start With an E Tuning

3. Try Heavier Gauge Strings

4. Find the Happy Couple

“Match the size and weight of your slide with your string gauge. There is no one combination that is best for everyone, so it’ll take a bit of experimentation. You want a slide that isn’t so heavy that it chokes out on thinner strings, but isn’t so light that you don’t get enough sustain with thicker strings.

“There’s a universe of different options out there – glass, metal, porcelain to name a few – all of which are worthy of consideration. You can always change up later, but first go with what resonates with you and feels the most like home.”

5. Learn to Pick Fingerstyle

6. Improve Your Intonation With This Cool Trick

7. Vibrato Like a Leslie Cabinet

8. Practice With a Click or Metronome

9. Double Your Mojo – On Acoustic

10. Become the Horn Section

[davidnajewiczphotography]

Blues Tent - NOLA Jazz and Heritage Festival, a few years ago - is that Sonny Landreth? Just saw WWOZ has early VIP passes for sale for 2024 Fest....

[jt1674]

[rolloroberson]

John Hiatt with Sonny Landreth - Crazy Thing Called Love

[krispyweiss]

Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes Cook up Bland Remake of “Going Home”

An over abundance of cooks can result in a dish that is, at worst, gross, or, with some luck, simply flavorless.

Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes is the latter with nearly 60 musicians - including Jeff Beck in his final performance; Beck’s fellow former Yardbird Eric Clapton; an MG (Steve Cropper); a slice of Humble Pie called Peter Frampton; a Black Crowe (Audley Freed) and Sheryl Crow; a Genesis (Mike Rutherford) and a Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi); a Traffic (Dave Mason) and a Pretender (Robbie McIntosh); a Cheap Trick (Rick Nielsen); a Chic Nile Rodgers, a Toto (Steve Lukather); a Beatle called Ringo and Stone Face called Ronnie Wood; and a couple of Eagles (Vince Gill and Joe Walsh) among them - teaming up on a 10-minute remake of “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)” to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

Producer Guy Fletcher was left with the unenviable task of melding 54 players’ contributions into a single track. In that regard, he succeeded. But to do so, he had to stir everyone so far into the mix that even the easiest-to-identify guitar slingers - think David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Brian May, Joe Satriani and Derek Trucks - are rendered anonymous.

Knopfler is the one guy who seems to appear on the entire track, as his telltale licks pop through across the runtime.

It’s not that 2024’s “Local Hero” is musically worthless. It’s just that with names like Ry Cooder, Sonny Landreth, Greg Leisz, Tom Morello, Susan Tedeschi, Pete Townshend and Steve Vai in the credits, listeners’ expectations far exceed what Fletcher cooked up at the board.

3/15/24

[musicman69love]

Sonny Landreth on the slide.

[daddysmusicblog]