The magician Sonny Landreth at BB Kings Club NYC 10-11-09

[tfarny]

I have to thank Stub for turning me on to this guy - probably the single best guitar player I've ever seen live.The video is just a random couple of minutes taken from my digitial camera - the solo starts a minute in. I was too mesmerized to bother trying to film some of the crazier stuff he did later.
Dead proof, if you ever needed it, that you don't need a fancy geetar to sound and play great. His gear = regular looking strat with hot rails-type bridge, Marshall JCM 2000 and exactly four boss-sized pedals, none of which he touched the whole time during songs except a couple of adjustments.

[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gfRm9wjzREM&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gfRm9wjzREM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

 

[tfarny]

Oh yeah, and I was 8 feet from the monitors.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

That was pretty amazing.  Thanks for sharing.

 

[Tonar8352]

Yes; he is the man! 

Ceck out the stuff  he did with John Hiatt, he is so tasty.

 

[jimh]

Sonny Landreth has to be one of the top slide players in the world at teh moment.

I first saw him years ago when he did a track with Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. Never really heard much more about him until I got his 'From The Reach' album.
Its brilliant

Glad you got to see him in person, and that you enjoyed the show.

 

[whitebison66]

I met him a few years ago at a benefit show in Nashville for Jack Emerson, the man who discovered and/or managed Jason and the Scorchers, Steve Earle, Webb Wilder, and John Hiatt (among others), all of whom showed up to play.

Sonny was an extremely nice, self-effacing guy and I only wish I wasn't running around like a maniac and could talk more with him. But I did stop during soundcheck to listen to him play some of the most unreal slide and straight guitar I've ever heard. He was noodling around with this fusion stuff during soundcheck that was just unreal sounding. He had a boutique amp and a very nice mic for it, and was playing a Les Paul with the computerized tuning system (pre-Robot, it was aftermarket).

He's definitely one of those players that makes you ask yourself why you even bother trying.

Luckily he doesn't act that way... cough cough... Yngwie... cough...

 

[Return of Guitlouie]

One of my favorite Landreth moves is to fret behind the slide.  You can see him do it fairly clearly a couple time in that vid.  It is really hard to do, but he makes it look like cake.