By Steve Newton
I called Louisiana slide guitar-ace Sonny Landreth up at his home in Lafayette yesterday and we chatted for a while, mainly about his latest album, Bound By the Blues, which he’ll showcase tunes from in Vancouver on January 17.
The album, his ninth studio release, is a paeon to the blues and his blues heroes, so there’s no real surprise that it includes a tribute to Johnny Winter called “Firebird Blues”.
Being a huge Winter fan myself, I reveled in Landreth’s praise of the Texas guitar great, who passed away last summer at the age of 70.
“He’s right up there with Eric [Clapton] and Jeff [Beck] and all them,” raved Landreth, “because what he did over here paralleled what they were doin’ in their part of the world. He always stayed true to his roots, and that’s what we wanted to capture, some of that, on that track.
“The news of his death had come to us right before we started the album,” he added, “and so it was fitting as a tribute to heroes to include Johnny for sure.”
For more from Landreth on the music greats honoured on Bound By the Blues, stay tuned.
I too have put Johnny Winter up there with the top ten electric blues guitarists. I also put his singing way up at the top (love the moaning style, I guess).
I WOULD AGREE, CHEERS, PAUL ”BONHAM” MAVRAKIS