I was lucky to have the opportunity to catch a few concerts these past few months in NYC and beyond. I’m very picky, it’s true and the venue means a lot to me. Also, I don’t have a ton of dough and I’ve seen a shitload of really outstanding concerts (Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, and on and on...) in my time so I’m a tough sell. I managed to see some really top flight musicians in two out of the three shows, though, I’m happy to say.
The middle show in the lineup was Sonny Landreth at the City Winery. My friend who goes to tons of concerts, sports events and the like bought the tickets or I wouldn’t have even known that Sonny was playing and basically right in my own backyard. Just shows how you can be a knucklehead at times, despite the best intentions. I play a lot of slide guitar as anyone who reads my blog must know. So it was a no-brainer.
Mr. Landreth as the NY Times might call him, was well on form. Definitely a super technical guitar player but with a lot of soul. He was playing a lot of numbers from his Bound By The Blues album, which was released in 2015. These included an excellent version of “Firebird Blues,” a Johnny Winter tribute that captured Johnny’s slinky, swaggering sexiness in the feel of the song in a very intrinsic, elemental way. It was way cool. All in the groove, perhaps. Killing.
Plenty of classic blues numbers including Robert Johnson’s “Walking Blues,” Elmore James’ “It Hurts Me Too,” and Big Bill Broonzy’s “Key To The Highway” were also on offer and delivered with inventiveness, passion and style. We were right up close and I got to see Sonny working his magic in detail, not that you can easily put together what he’s doing. What tuning is he in? It’s not that obvious but you can get an idea. He’s that good. His use of effects is also stunning yet tasteful and his legendary sound surprised me by its muscle. Most of the clips that I’ve seen online (posted by fans) emphasize his lyrical gifts, but in this here concert he was in more of an ass-kicking mood.
The show was opened by… Sonny and his band in acoustic form. They played a relatively short set with drummer Brian Brignac on one of those zany box thingies and the bassist David Ranson playing an absurdly small ukulele bass. It sounded wonderful and complete, with a clear, full sound in which you could hear everything you wanted in an excellent, balanced mix. Unfortunately, the sound during the electric set was a little bit heavy on the guitar to the point where the vocals were somewhat lost. Also, it was rather short.
I managed to steal a lick from Sonny, probably the simplest one that he played all night. It clicked for me because I’ve heard Lowell George play it as well. I used it last night in my gig so I figure, yes – he was playing in Open A or Open G at some point. Thanks Sonny! Another thing I noticed was Sonny’s supernatural ability to navigate the effects, his guitar and singing all at the same time, no easy Feat. There was one lightning fast move in particular that I can still see in my mind, a quick hit on the pedal board and an adjustment to the guitar volume or tone (one of his guitars was a custom Strat with four knobs, no less!) all in the blink of an eye as a solo gave way to a vocal. All slide guitar players who sing will appreciate that, I’m sure. -Christian Botta
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