Sonny Landreth
When it comes to Sonny Landreth, even Eric Clapton
is a fan. "He’s probably the most underestimated
musician on the planet and also probably
one of the most advanced," he says. In 2004, Landreth performed at Clapton’s
Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, the Festival
International de Jazz de Montreal, and the
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
He recently performed with Jimmy Buffett at Fenway Park and appears on Buffett’s first number one album, License to Chill. Landreth also received a long overdue nod with a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Recording for his seventh album, The Road We’re On, released on Sugar Hill Records.
Grant Street, Landreth’s latest effort, finds the slide guitar master on his first live recording and back at his old haunt in Lafayette, Louisiana. "Making this album was a homecoming," Landreth says of the 2003 recording. When Grant Street Dancehall opened its doors on the 4th July in 1980, Landreth performed with both bands that evening - Red Beans & Rice Revue and the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier.
It was the beginning of a long history with the converted fruit warehouse. "For the first time, I got the opportunity to open shows or hang out with a lot of my heroes, like Ray Charles, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Son Seals, and John Hammond Jr. Those were powerful shows and great times. I wanted to tap into that for this live album."
With Grant Street, Landreth returns to that well of inspiration and captures Lafayette’s unique vibe while showcasing his trio. Since the early 90s, Landreth has had a yearly gig at Grant Street in April for Festival International in Lafayette. "This album is more about catching the kind of spontaneity that only happens in the heat of the moment." And he couldn’t have picked a hotter place to record Grant Street. Even in April, with air-conditioning and a dozen industrial fans, the club has a reputation for a hot atmosphere, even hotter music, and cold beer.
"Although I love having special guests sit in with us, this time I decided to document our band as it is every night on the road," Landreth says. "Also, the trio format gives me the space to focus on the slide guitar thing." Landreth’s unique approach of combining the slide with fretted notes is legendary. More than just laying down licks, his fingerpicking technique creates a complex, multi-layered sound onstage.
Grant Street was recorded over the course of two nights and captures the energy of the crowd, the clinking of beer bottles, and even the pounding of barstools on the cypress dance floor to lure Landreth and company back onstage for an encore. "It had to be raw and real with no overdubs. I didn’t want to rerecord our parts in the studio afterwards. Everything that’s on there happened on those two nights."
Grant Street features over an hour of Landreth’s original music with three previously unreleased titles, and a 10-minute version of his Louisiana anthem, Congo Square. For more than 30 years, Landreth has penned his own poignant songs, drawn from his South Louisiana roots and the area’s rich storytelling tradition.
And for those who haven’t heeded Clapton’s testimony to Landreth’s talent and soul, Grant Street is sure to convert them into true believers.