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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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SONNY LANDRETH
The Borderline, London, May 12th
2009
It’s
all about technique, really. About hours of relentless
practice, remorselessly pushing oneself to the
outer limits of endurance. Stretching every muscle,
every tendon, every nerve in search of that ultimate
goal. It’s something that amateurs and dilettantes
never understand, never appreciate. It’s
about having the technique. How else do you think
anyone could survive three hours packed sardine-like
into the Borderline on a warm Spring evening?
The sweat is dripping off the walls, beer sticks
to the floor. |
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| The
audience, mostly over-weight men in their fifties
[who exactly are you talking about Nick? Ed.] seems
to have prepared for the evening by spending three
days eating nothing but Chicken Chilli Masala laced
with pickled onions (an inspired combination of
two of Britain’s most traditional foods) ,
if the tepid and malodorous air – what little
of it there is – is anything to go by. With
no space to spare, it’s every man (or Photographer)
for himself, trying to find a spot, perfectly balanced,
where a not-too-craned neck will get you a clear
view of Sonny
Landreth. Because you just have to
see him playing the guitar. Listening isn’t
enough. It’s all about the technique, really. |
| In
case you don’t know, Landreth, who hails from
Louisiana, is a slide guitarist. Well, not quite.
In most people’s eyes, he is the slide guitarist.
A man who transforms rolling a piece of metal tube
across six pieces of taught wire into an art learnt
from the gods. He’s not what you would call
well-known: most of his reputation rests on the
work he’s done for other artists, notably
John Hiatt.
His last album, 2008’s From the Reach, a collaborative
work with a host of blues luminaries, is currently
ranked 22,861 in Amazon’s list of UK bestsellers.
That puts him almost on a par with Bob
the Builder, whose Never Mind the Breeze Blocks
ranks at 19,735, way behind the soundtrack to Madagascar
3: Escape 2 Africa, out of sight of High
School Musical 3: Senior Year, and apparently
in an entirely inferior league to the novelty-voiced
Paisley (i.e. Scotland, and where the ties and dressing
gowns come from) boy Paolo
Nutini, whose new album is, after only a week
on the market, listed as number one. |
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| Odd
then that Rolex International Brand Ambassador and
sometime blues guitarist Eric
Clapton (did you know he has a watch collection,
Serge? Who would do a thing like that?) should describe
him as "probably the most underestimated musician
on the planet, and also...probably one of the most
advanced.". But it’s true, and to appreciate
the point you have to endure any degree of physical
discomfort to see him play. It’s all about
the technique, really. |
| No-one
had told me, not even Mike who’s seen Landreth
on many occasions, so when he started playing, I
was simply flabbergasted. And the point is that
it wasn’t just his left hand which, ably working
the slide, killing unwanted strings behind but fingering
others, made it look as though the slide was just
a natural extension of his hand like some sort of
X-Man. No, it was his right-hand technique that
was truly remarkable. Of course, he led with a percussive
thumb pick as most slide players do, but the way
he used his remaining four fingers (or was it eight,
or ten, or twelve?) was practically impossible to
comprehend. He picked, he plucked, he strummed;
his right-hand fingers danced the length of the
fret-board, teasing sounds from the slide and strings
that were simply wonderful. In fact, I cannot do
it justice, I’m not that good a writer. You
have to see him play. |
| And
don’t get me wrong, or mismanage your expectations:
the songs aren’t really great. His backing
band are as precise as the atomic
clock, but they’re never going to set
the world on fire. And Landreth’s voice is
pretty much like any other southern-accented American
rock singer. That’s not the point. It’s
the guitar playing: it sounds as devilishly complex
as it looks, so that corpulent men and bowel and
body odour notwithstanding, you could listen to
it for hours. It’s all about the technique,
really. - Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate) |
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Listen
and watch Sonny Landreth solo: |
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