Clyde Vernon "Sonny" Landreth (born February 1, 1951) is an American blues … Read Full Bio ↴Clyde Vernon "Sonny" Landreth (born February 1, 1951) is an American blues musician from southwest Louisiana who is especially known as a slide guitar player. He was born in Canton, Mississippi, but soon after, his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, before settling in Lafayette, Louisiana. When he is not touring and performing, he resides in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
Although Landreth is an extremely competent guitarist in the conventional form, he is most well-known for his slide playing. Landreth has developed a technique where he also frets notes and plays chords and chord fragments behind the slide while he plays. Landreth plays with the slide on his little finger, so that his other fingers have more room to fret behind the slide. He's also known for his unique right-hand technique, which involves tapping, slapping, and picking strings, using all of the fingers on his right hand.
Landreth has worked steadily for decades and amassed a following among his fans and peers. Eric Clapton has said he is "probably the most underestimated musician on the planet and also probably one of the most advanced.
Sonny Landreth's official website (Warning: Flash) is http://www.sonnylandreth.com.
-----
Sonny Landreth released his Newest CD: "From the Reach"!βThis ninth album, is the first is released on his own Landfall label. On it, the Louisiana-based slide guitar wizard does something unprecedented in his body of work, as he collaborates with five of the greatest guitar players on the planet β Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson and Vince Gill β for some jaw-dropping performances. Also making a house call is legendary New Orleans pianist and singer Dr. John and iconic Gulf Coast troubadour Jimmy Buffett and also features Nadirah Shakoor (backing vocals) from Buffett discovery.
On the opener, βBlue Tarp Blues,β Sonny trades solos with Knopfler, and the aural contrast between Sonnyβs shimmering slide and the Dire Straits leadersβ biting Strat is a textural treat. Clapton cuts loose on the following βWhen I Still Had You,β adding his soulful voice to the choruses as well. Slowhand then wails on βStorm Of Worryβ, a spooky slow blues reminiscent of his Bluesbreakers era.
βThe Milky Way Homeβ is a powerful instrumental rocker that features Eric Johnson on delectably distorted guitar passages that morph into his trademark violin-like sound. βThe Goinβ Onβ shifts into a country rock groove, with Vince Gill and Sonny alternating guitar solos and lead vocals. Robben Ford brings his soulful tone and phrasing to βWay Past Longβ and βBlue Angel (the latter with Gill on backing vocals), as Landreth swaps his trusty Strat for a Les Paul. Each of these performances is an extraordinary showcase of brilliant players reacting to each other in supremely inspired fashion.
βIβve wanted to make this kind of record for a long time β to do an entire album that would feature some of my favorite players as special guests,β says Landreth, whoβs as articulate as he is virtuosic. βAnd after all these years, Iβve gotten to become friends with them, so that addressed the question of, who do you ask? Every one of them wanted to do it, so that really fired me up.β
βThe other thing was how to do it without it being yet another clichΓ©d βduetsβ album,β he continues. βThen I got the idea to write the songs specifically for each of the artists and that was the real hook for me, as a writer as well as a guitar player. I grew up listening to Eric and Mark, and these other players have influenced me along the way. Not only that, but we all came up listening to a lot of the same music, so we had common ground to work with. Once someone would say yeah, then I had to come up with songs that were worthy of them.β
Landreth spent a year writing these songs, and another year putting the album togetherβa logistical feat of some magnitude considering the fact that every one of the principals, including Landreth, spends considerable time on the road. The process for most of the recording involved two stages. After Landreth had a particular song written, he went in the studio with his band and longtime engineer Tony Daigle and completed the basic tracks, leaving space for the guests. Daigle then sent his mix of the tune to the guest to contribute his or her parts. (The exceptions were the tracks with Gill, which were cut face to face in Nashville, and the one featuring Dr. John, which was recorded in New Orleans.)
βIβd get back these fantastic solos, and Iβd go, βOh my God, Iβve gotta re-cut mine!β Sonny recalls with a laugh. Heβs exaggerating, but he did take a second pass at a couple of his parts.
The final stereo mixes feature Landreth on the left and the other players on the right. βWe did it to tap into the conversational aspect of it,β Sonny points out. Current technology brought virtually unlimited flexibility to the recording process, but in the end what matters is that the performances truly feel in the momentβeven if that moment was actually separated by time and physical distance.
βThat was of course the goal with these performances,β Sonny confirms. βTheyβve gotta feel right. I was going for the essence of what about these fabulous musicians inspired me to begin with, and thatβs what I honed in on. I was able to go, βThis sounds like a lick he would do,β and then write that into the arrangement. The guests then had a chance to flesh the concepts out. I really wanted to make sure we captured each of their individual voices on the guitar, and I feel like we did that.β
In one of two delightful changes of pace to the albumβs six-string focus, Dr. John brings the requisite gris-gris to βHowlinβ Moonβ with his trademark rollicking piano and harmonies, on which heβs joined by Jimmy Buffett. βAlthough the central idea of the record was playing with my guitar heroes, I wanted to be open to the unexpected as well,β Sonny explains. βIβd written βHowlinβ Moonβ a long time ago, and I always had Dr. John in mind for it. Then we took it a step further with Jimmyβs vocal and the vibe was perfect.β
As for the rest, βLet It Fly,β a slice of exotica so warm that sweat drips off it, features backing vocals from Buffett discovery Nadirah Shakoor. The title of βUberesso,β a blistering instrumental from Landreth and his band, was inspired by Sonnyβs passion for espresso. The album closes with the metaphysical ballad βUniverse,β as Gill adds his glorious voice to the goosebump finale.
Anchoring the grooves is Landrethβs touring rhythm section featuring longtime musical partner Dave Ranson on bass and Mike Burch on drums. Steve Conn, another regular, is on keyboards. Sam Broussard plays acoustic guitar on βUniverseβ and βLet It Fly.β
As for the intriguing album title, βI thought about it a lot,β says Sonny. βOne of the most interesting things to me in the songwriting process is letting it cook and bubble and see what comes up to the top. As I was writing these songs, the word βreachβ kept coming up, and βreachβ is a pretty powerful word. Aside from the obvious meanings, it can refer to a body of water. And the water imagery kept appearing as well, so itβs like this is what came up out of this whole project for me. What would happen if I invited all these people; where would this take me? I literally reached out to them, and they graciously came on board. Then there was the impact locally of Hurricane Katrina. So the title is the result of all of the above. Itβs coming from an honest place.β
The same could be said of everything this one-of-a-kind artist has done in his single-minded career.
Source:-- Bud Scoppa
http://vetril.blogspot.com/2008/05/sonny-landreth-new-cd-from-reach.html
Landreth was born February 1, 1951, in Canton, MS, and his family lived in Jackson, MS, for a few years before settling in Lafayette, LA. Landreth, who still lives in southwest Louisiana, began playing guitar after a long tenure with the trumpet. His earliest inspiration came from Scotty Moore, the guitarist from Elvis Presley's band, but as time went on, he learned from the recordings of musicians and groups like Chet Atkins and the Ventures. As a teen, Landreth began playing out with his friends in their parents' houses.
"They would ping-pong us from one house to another, and though we were all awful at first, as time went on we got pretty good. It's an evolutionary process, just like songwriting is," Landreth explained in an interview on his 44th birthday in 1995. After his first professional gig with accordionist Clifton Chenier in the 1970s (where he was the only White guy in the Red Beans and Rice Revue for awhile), Landreth struck out on his own, but not before he recorded two albums for the Blues Unlimited label out of Crowley, LA, Blues Attack in 1981 and Way Down in Louisiana in 1985. If anyone is living proof of the need to press on in spite of obstacles, it is Landreth.
The second of those two albums got him noticed by some record executives in Nashville, which in turn led to his recording and touring work with John Hiatt. That led to still more work with John Mayall, who recorded Landreth's radio-ready "Congo Square." More recently, he's worked with New Orleans bandleader and pianist Allen Toussaint (who guests on several tracks on South of I-10, as does Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler). In the last years he was on tour with guitarist, composer and singer Hank Shizzoe.
On Landreth's brilliant albums for Zoo, the lyrics draw the listener in to the sights, sounds, smells and heat of southwest Louisiana, and a strong sense of place is evident in many of Landreth's songs. Although his style is completely his own and his singing is more than adequate, Landreth admits that writers like William Faulkner have had a big influence on his lyric writing. The fact that it's taken so long for academics at American universities to recognize the great body of poetry that blues is concerns Landreth as well. Robert Johnson is Landreth's big hero when it comes to guitar playing. "When I finally discovered Robert Johnson, it all came together for me," Landreth said, noting that he also closely studied the recordings of Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt and Charley Patton.
FOR SPECIAL VIDEOS See Also:
Youtube channel: "Sonny Landreth's Specials": http://www.youtube.com/user/WilliamMusicEater
Although Landreth is an extremely competent guitarist in the conventional form, he is most well-known for his slide playing. Landreth has developed a technique where he also frets notes and plays chords and chord fragments behind the slide while he plays. Landreth plays with the slide on his little finger, so that his other fingers have more room to fret behind the slide. He's also known for his unique right-hand technique, which involves tapping, slapping, and picking strings, using all of the fingers on his right hand.
Landreth has worked steadily for decades and amassed a following among his fans and peers. Eric Clapton has said he is "probably the most underestimated musician on the planet and also probably one of the most advanced.
Sonny Landreth's official website (Warning: Flash) is http://www.sonnylandreth.com.
-----
Sonny Landreth released his Newest CD: "From the Reach"!βThis ninth album, is the first is released on his own Landfall label. On it, the Louisiana-based slide guitar wizard does something unprecedented in his body of work, as he collaborates with five of the greatest guitar players on the planet β Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson and Vince Gill β for some jaw-dropping performances. Also making a house call is legendary New Orleans pianist and singer Dr. John and iconic Gulf Coast troubadour Jimmy Buffett and also features Nadirah Shakoor (backing vocals) from Buffett discovery.
On the opener, βBlue Tarp Blues,β Sonny trades solos with Knopfler, and the aural contrast between Sonnyβs shimmering slide and the Dire Straits leadersβ biting Strat is a textural treat. Clapton cuts loose on the following βWhen I Still Had You,β adding his soulful voice to the choruses as well. Slowhand then wails on βStorm Of Worryβ, a spooky slow blues reminiscent of his Bluesbreakers era.
βThe Milky Way Homeβ is a powerful instrumental rocker that features Eric Johnson on delectably distorted guitar passages that morph into his trademark violin-like sound. βThe Goinβ Onβ shifts into a country rock groove, with Vince Gill and Sonny alternating guitar solos and lead vocals. Robben Ford brings his soulful tone and phrasing to βWay Past Longβ and βBlue Angel (the latter with Gill on backing vocals), as Landreth swaps his trusty Strat for a Les Paul. Each of these performances is an extraordinary showcase of brilliant players reacting to each other in supremely inspired fashion.
βIβve wanted to make this kind of record for a long time β to do an entire album that would feature some of my favorite players as special guests,β says Landreth, whoβs as articulate as he is virtuosic. βAnd after all these years, Iβve gotten to become friends with them, so that addressed the question of, who do you ask? Every one of them wanted to do it, so that really fired me up.β
βThe other thing was how to do it without it being yet another clichΓ©d βduetsβ album,β he continues. βThen I got the idea to write the songs specifically for each of the artists and that was the real hook for me, as a writer as well as a guitar player. I grew up listening to Eric and Mark, and these other players have influenced me along the way. Not only that, but we all came up listening to a lot of the same music, so we had common ground to work with. Once someone would say yeah, then I had to come up with songs that were worthy of them.β
Landreth spent a year writing these songs, and another year putting the album togetherβa logistical feat of some magnitude considering the fact that every one of the principals, including Landreth, spends considerable time on the road. The process for most of the recording involved two stages. After Landreth had a particular song written, he went in the studio with his band and longtime engineer Tony Daigle and completed the basic tracks, leaving space for the guests. Daigle then sent his mix of the tune to the guest to contribute his or her parts. (The exceptions were the tracks with Gill, which were cut face to face in Nashville, and the one featuring Dr. John, which was recorded in New Orleans.)
βIβd get back these fantastic solos, and Iβd go, βOh my God, Iβve gotta re-cut mine!β Sonny recalls with a laugh. Heβs exaggerating, but he did take a second pass at a couple of his parts.
The final stereo mixes feature Landreth on the left and the other players on the right. βWe did it to tap into the conversational aspect of it,β Sonny points out. Current technology brought virtually unlimited flexibility to the recording process, but in the end what matters is that the performances truly feel in the momentβeven if that moment was actually separated by time and physical distance.
βThat was of course the goal with these performances,β Sonny confirms. βTheyβve gotta feel right. I was going for the essence of what about these fabulous musicians inspired me to begin with, and thatβs what I honed in on. I was able to go, βThis sounds like a lick he would do,β and then write that into the arrangement. The guests then had a chance to flesh the concepts out. I really wanted to make sure we captured each of their individual voices on the guitar, and I feel like we did that.β
In one of two delightful changes of pace to the albumβs six-string focus, Dr. John brings the requisite gris-gris to βHowlinβ Moonβ with his trademark rollicking piano and harmonies, on which heβs joined by Jimmy Buffett. βAlthough the central idea of the record was playing with my guitar heroes, I wanted to be open to the unexpected as well,β Sonny explains. βIβd written βHowlinβ Moonβ a long time ago, and I always had Dr. John in mind for it. Then we took it a step further with Jimmyβs vocal and the vibe was perfect.β
As for the rest, βLet It Fly,β a slice of exotica so warm that sweat drips off it, features backing vocals from Buffett discovery Nadirah Shakoor. The title of βUberesso,β a blistering instrumental from Landreth and his band, was inspired by Sonnyβs passion for espresso. The album closes with the metaphysical ballad βUniverse,β as Gill adds his glorious voice to the goosebump finale.
Anchoring the grooves is Landrethβs touring rhythm section featuring longtime musical partner Dave Ranson on bass and Mike Burch on drums. Steve Conn, another regular, is on keyboards. Sam Broussard plays acoustic guitar on βUniverseβ and βLet It Fly.β
As for the intriguing album title, βI thought about it a lot,β says Sonny. βOne of the most interesting things to me in the songwriting process is letting it cook and bubble and see what comes up to the top. As I was writing these songs, the word βreachβ kept coming up, and βreachβ is a pretty powerful word. Aside from the obvious meanings, it can refer to a body of water. And the water imagery kept appearing as well, so itβs like this is what came up out of this whole project for me. What would happen if I invited all these people; where would this take me? I literally reached out to them, and they graciously came on board. Then there was the impact locally of Hurricane Katrina. So the title is the result of all of the above. Itβs coming from an honest place.β
The same could be said of everything this one-of-a-kind artist has done in his single-minded career.
Source:-- Bud Scoppa
http://vetril.blogspot.com/2008/05/sonny-landreth-new-cd-from-reach.html
Landreth was born February 1, 1951, in Canton, MS, and his family lived in Jackson, MS, for a few years before settling in Lafayette, LA. Landreth, who still lives in southwest Louisiana, began playing guitar after a long tenure with the trumpet. His earliest inspiration came from Scotty Moore, the guitarist from Elvis Presley's band, but as time went on, he learned from the recordings of musicians and groups like Chet Atkins and the Ventures. As a teen, Landreth began playing out with his friends in their parents' houses.
"They would ping-pong us from one house to another, and though we were all awful at first, as time went on we got pretty good. It's an evolutionary process, just like songwriting is," Landreth explained in an interview on his 44th birthday in 1995. After his first professional gig with accordionist Clifton Chenier in the 1970s (where he was the only White guy in the Red Beans and Rice Revue for awhile), Landreth struck out on his own, but not before he recorded two albums for the Blues Unlimited label out of Crowley, LA, Blues Attack in 1981 and Way Down in Louisiana in 1985. If anyone is living proof of the need to press on in spite of obstacles, it is Landreth.
The second of those two albums got him noticed by some record executives in Nashville, which in turn led to his recording and touring work with John Hiatt. That led to still more work with John Mayall, who recorded Landreth's radio-ready "Congo Square." More recently, he's worked with New Orleans bandleader and pianist Allen Toussaint (who guests on several tracks on South of I-10, as does Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler). In the last years he was on tour with guitarist, composer and singer Hank Shizzoe.
On Landreth's brilliant albums for Zoo, the lyrics draw the listener in to the sights, sounds, smells and heat of southwest Louisiana, and a strong sense of place is evident in many of Landreth's songs. Although his style is completely his own and his singing is more than adequate, Landreth admits that writers like William Faulkner have had a big influence on his lyric writing. The fact that it's taken so long for academics at American universities to recognize the great body of poetry that blues is concerns Landreth as well. Robert Johnson is Landreth's big hero when it comes to guitar playing. "When I finally discovered Robert Johnson, it all came together for me," Landreth said, noting that he also closely studied the recordings of Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt and Charley Patton.
FOR SPECIAL VIDEOS See Also:
Youtube channel: "Sonny Landreth's Specials": http://www.youtube.com/user/WilliamMusicEater
The Promise Land
Sonny Landreth Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She got great expectations
Down in louisianne
She got great expectations
Down in louisianne
To leave her trailer park
The natives call the promise land
She said "please baby please now
Come just as quick as you can"
She said "please baby please now
Come just as quick as you can
And rescue me
Away from the promise land"
Now many a country mile
I'm poundin' under my van
Yeah many a country mile
I'm poundin' under my van
So I don't break my word
I'm bound for the promise land
Now when you pack your bags babe
Don't forget your travelin' fan
Now when you pack your bags
Don't forget your travelin' fan
We're gonna blow tonight
Out of the promise land
Down in louisianne
She got great expectations
Down in louisianne
To leave her trailer park
The natives call the promise land
She said "please baby please now
Come just as quick as you can"
Come just as quick as you can
And rescue me
Away from the promise land"
Now many a country mile
I'm poundin' under my van
Yeah many a country mile
I'm poundin' under my van
So I don't break my word
I'm bound for the promise land
Now when you pack your bags babe
Don't forget your travelin' fan
Now when you pack your bags
Don't forget your travelin' fan
We're gonna blow tonight
Out of the promise land
The lyrics of "The Promise Land" by Sonny Landreth talk about a woman who is stuck in a trailer park in Louisiana, dreaming about leaving and going to the "Promise Land". She has high expectations of a better life, and she asks her lover to come rescue her and take her away as fast as he can. The singer of the song then describes how he is driving many miles under his van to keep his promise of going to the Promise Land, which is portrayed in the lyrics as a place of freedom and fulfillment. The song ends with a promise of blowing the night away in the Promise Land, implying the excitement and happiness of finally reaching their destination and leaving their troubles behind.
The Promise Land is a metaphor for a better life, a place free from the struggles and limitations of their current existence. This is a common theme in many blues songs, where the imagery is used to represent the hopes and desires of the marginalized or oppressed. The lyrics use repetition to emphasize the woman's longing for escape and the urgency of her request to be rescued. The singer's determination and commitment to his promise is also emphasized in the lyrics, which reinforce the idea of the Promise Land as a place of possibility and hope.
Line by Line Meaning
She got great expectations
She has high hopes and aspirations
Down in louisianne
In the southern state of Louisiana
To leave her trailer park
She wants to move away from her current living situation in a trailer park
The natives call the promise land
The locals refer to the desired destination as the promise land
She said "please baby please now
She begged and implored her partner to help her leave her current situation
Come just as quick as you can"
She wanted her partner to arrive promptly
And rescue me
She wanted to be saved and taken away from her current situation
Away from the promise land"
She wanted to leave the place that was once considered a promise land but was no longer fulfilling her dreams
Now many a country mile
Travelling a long distance
I'm poundin' under my van
Driving many miles with determination
So I don't break my word
To keep his promise
I'm bound for the promise land
He is determined to reach the intended destination
Now when you pack your bags babe
When she packs her belongings
Don't forget your travelin' fan
She should bring a cooling device to help in travels
We're gonna blow tonight
They are going to have a great time and celebrate once they reach their destination
Out of the promise land
They will finally leave the once-promised land that did not fulfill their dreams
Writer(s): SONNY LANDRETH
Contributed by Aaron R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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@SantaCruzOM
I love that Clapton watches Sonny's solo with absolute admiration in his eyes. And rightfully so!
@LloydBraun11
I really love seeing them hug at the end.
@philipearlmcg3964
Vince Gill said watching Sonny was like algebra. He just couldnβt understand it.
@philipearlmcg3964
I live in Lafayette and get to see Sonny often. Will see him with Marcia Ball 5/19/22 at Rhythms on the River. Saw him last week at the Festival International de Louisiane here in Lafayette
@nicolasnikopol7946
Clapton said that Sonny was 50 years ahead any guitarist in the world. He IS impressed.
@vanshipman
Sonny is a monster with a technique that is just humbling. I found out about Sonny through an Edward Van Halen interview. He was Eddieβs favorite slide player and you can hear how Sonny influenced him on the song βBallot or the Bulletβ on the VH III album. So thank you Edward for giving that shine, just like Eric did later with his Crossroad shows. I love how Sonny brings out the fire in Eric on this particular performance. Great players tend to do that to one another and when it happens, itβs so special and rare.
I love these players and will always be inspired by their God given gifts.
I miss you Eddie, you were simply the GOAT and will forever be missed. π πΈ
@Realfi
Whenever I watch these Crossroads clips I gain a lot of respect for Clapton's generosity and humility.
@DH-gg6jx
Landreth is one of the most underrated guitarists of all time and deserves to be named up there among the best! Brilliant pairing on stage this Clapton loves it!
@gavinclelland6488
Agreed, and I'm way too late to the conversation. Clapton has the rep, but Sonny is pretty darn close in ability. Two totally different styles, but it sure works together, one of the best duets I've heard.
@DH-gg6jx
Gavin Clelland never too late! Agree with your comment. Different styles but sonny is a master at what he does. Effortless.