Sonny Landreth - Live at Grant Street - 2005

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Sonny Landreth - Live at Grant Street - 2005

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Biography: Southwest Louisiana-based guitarist, songwriter and singer Sonny Landreth is a musician's musician. The blues slide guitar playing found on his two Zoo Entertainment releases, Outward Bound (1992) and South of I-10 (1995) is distinctive and unlike anything else you've ever heard. His unorthodox guitar style comes from the manner in which he simultaneously plays slide and makes fingering movements on the fret board. Landreth, who has an easygoing personality, can play it all, like any good recording-session musician. His distinctive guitar playing can be heard on recordings by John Hiatt, Leslie West and Mountain, and other rock & rollers.
Landreth was born February 1, 1951, in Canton, MS, and his family lived in Jackson, MS, for a few years before settling in Lafayette, LA. Landreth, who still lives in southwest Louisiana, began playing guitar after a long tenure with the trumpet. His earliest inspiration came from Scotty Moore, the guitarist from Elvis Presley's band, but as time went on, he learned from the recordings of musicians and groups like Chet Atkins and the Ventures. As a teen, Landreth began playing out with his friends in their parents' houses.
"They would ping-pong us from one house to another, and though we were all awful at first, as time went on we got pretty good. It's an evolutionary process, just like songwriting is," Landreth explained in an interview on his 44th birthday in 1995. After his first professional gig with accordionist Clifton Chenier in the 1970s (where he was the only White guy in the Red Beans and Rice Revue for awhile), Landreth struck out on his own, but not before he recorded two albums for the Blues Unlimited label out of Crowley, LA, Blues Attack in 1981 and Way Down in Louisiana in 1985. If anyone is living proof of the need to press on in spite of obstacles, it is Landreth.
The second of those two albums got him noticed by some record executives in Nashville, which in turn led to his recording and touring work with John Hiatt. That led to still more work with John Mayall, who recorded Landreth's radio-ready "Congo Square." More recently, he's worked with New Orleans bandleader and pianist Allen Toussaint (who guests on several tracks on South of I-10, as does Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler).
On Landreth's brilliant albums for Zoo, the lyrics draw the listener in to the sights, sounds, smells and heat of southwest Louisiana, and a strong sense of place is evident in many of Landreth's songs. Although his style is completely his own and his singing is more than adequate, Landreth admits that writers like William Faulkner have had a big influence on his lyric writing. The fact that it's taken so long for academics at American universities to recognize the great body of poetry that blues is concerns Landreth as well. Robert Johnson is Landreth's big hero when it comes to guitar playing. "When I finally discovered Robert Johnson, it all came together for me," Landreth said, noting that he also closely studied the recordings of Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt and Charley Patton. ~ Richard Skelly, All Music Guide


Product Description: Just as Muhammad Ali once boasted that he could "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," Louisiana's Sonny Landreth can make his slide guitar roar like a rocket ship and dance like a ballerina. As this live set recorded on his home turf attests, few guitarists combine such power with such precision. Landreth’s veteran rhythm section of bassist David Ranson and drummer Kenneth Blevins provides whipcrack support on a set of supercharged instrumentals ("Native Stepson," "Z. Rider," "Pedal to Metal") and original blues ("Broken-Hearted Road," "Wind in Denver"), building to a climax with the guitarist’s signature tune, "Congo Square." Though Landreth established himself as an ace sideman from his apprenticeship with zydeco kingpin Clifton Chenier through his extended stint with John Hiatt, he really cuts loose with his own trio, generating a dynamic propulsion that threatens to levitate this Lafayette dancehall.

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Sonny Landreth - Live at Grant Street - 2005

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Review: Fellow blues lovers, what you are looking at is one the most exiting live album ever released (maybe!). Ok, I would agree with you that it is not 100% blues, however the blues is the base foundation on which the entire performance is based on. After the outstanding "The road we're on" this is the best follow up Mr. Landreth could have ever realised. I think that is pointless to spend too many words about his mastery as slide guitar player, he is just probably the best around. What is remarkable, and it must been pointed out, is the fact that the feeling that pervades the entire concert from start to finish, is absolutely amazing! This CD includes a great selection of songs and all of them feature stunning guitar works that will leave you speechless. From uptempo to slow blues a wide selection of different songs that I am sure will please the tastes of many of you. My favourite cuts are the incredible seven-min. plus version of "Broken hearted road", the monumental "Congo Square" and the absolutely amazing "Wind in Denver". In conclusion this is just a must have CD that will for sure enrich your CDs collection.

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Sonny Landreth - Live at Grant Street - 2005

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