Sonny Landreth

The older you get the more rare it becomes to have your eyes opened up to new things. When I first heard Sonny Landreth play it was watching the video to "Native Stepson" when I was in college. I remember thinking that this guys playing was ridiculous. At the time I had my head far too buried in the workings of Satriani, Vai and Petrucci to take more than a quick glance into his playing. I remember going back and searching for his music though...took a few sample listens and heard vocals, listened about 10 seconds and stopped. That was it for awhile. I always liked the slide guitar...even used it on a couple of songs that we played but I never really appreciated it. Then after time I remember going back to watch "The duel" at the end of the movie Crossroads.......suddenly it was no longer Vai's playing with abandon that caught my ear but the slide guitar that mimicked his every move. Of course this was Ry Cooder not Sonny Landreth...but somewhere along the way I began looking for some of Sonny's music once again. I still had parts of that video burned into my head from years before. I landed upon "Grant Street"...I live album of all things and I sat and listened. The tone was immense. The phrasing was stunning and the techniques being employed were not only high on the difficulty level but musical. The final step was seeing Sonny live and I did some 3 years ago at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville. To put in simply it was an incredible show and Sonny's playing was not only mesmerizing to listen to but to watch. I remember leaving....I stopped for a second to shake Sonny's hand on the way out of the club. I left musically reinvigorated...it was like I had discovered a color that I previously did not know existed. While currently my level of playing slide ranks somewhere in the realm of bad to poor.....I still take great joy in having my eyes opened up to things I did not comprehend before.



http://www.sonnylandreth.com/

Todd Duane

One of my favorite things in the world is to find unknown guitar players and bands. Since I started playing guitar some 17 years ago I have spent countless hours doing nothing more than searching for new players that inspire me to want to play better. One such guitar player is Todd Duane. I believe I first heard his name when his debut on "Shrapnel records" came out some 14 years ago. I however never heard him play a note until I picked of Electrocution 250's "Electric Cartoon Music from Hell" a few years back. In recent years I am usually much more excited by bands than instrumental music. However the chops on this CD where astounding. The playing between Lale Larson on keyboards and Todd Duane on guitar sounds like Dream Theater on hallucinogens. . In fact the CD is over the top at times. It does however remain quirky and humorous ......oh yeah it is insanely fast. After a little research I found that not only does Todd Duane possess amazing chops. He also has an enviable collection of amplifiers. Listening through the many YouTube clips he has posted of him playing through the various amps I've come away inspired by his playing and his tone. He therefore takes the first post of this blog as a relatively unknown guitar player who deserves to be known. Of course what would all this be without some video evidence........



www.toddduane.com