something he intentionally tried to do? Or did it just happen? “I started out playing guitar with a flatpick like everybody else, but the vocal quality and the lyrical aspect of slide playing really caught my ear. The fact that I was raised in south Louisiana where music was such a way of life in the Creole and Cajun culture; that I was taking trumpet in school and learning guitar on my own; all these different sounds helped shape what I did. Years later I realized that all my jazz heroes that I had on trumpet and my blues heroes I had on guitar were all seeking to emulate the human voice with their instrument.” Finding his own voice on the guitar has certainly led Sonny down a path that most guitarists only dream of. He has played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival every year! Was there a magical method to getting that gig? Nope. As is often the case, hard work + patience + networking + being ready, with a little luck thrown in gets it done. Sonny tells the story of how his collaboration with Clapton came about. “The interesting thing is I had a connection with Eric from way back even though we had never met. I hooked up with these English cats that were living in Tulsa, Oklahoma (believe it or not). They had started a record company in Tulsa and invited me up there, and that entailed using some of Eric’s band who were based out of Tulsa. This was around 1977, and we went up and recorded some songs, and we knew they would get played for Eric. Since I had this connection, I was home one day and just sat down with my resonator guitar, a metal body dobro, browneck style, and I just made a tape for Eric. Just Delta inspired solo stuff. I sent it to my friends in Tulsa and they got it to Eric through the band, and some years later I found out he still had that tape and was playing it for people.” Just that would be enough for most guitarists – “Hey! Clapton is jamming out to my tunes!” But Sonny wanted to get to meet him so he went down to New Orleans when Eric was playing a show, but he says, “there was a misfire and my name wasn’t
on the list, so I couldn’t get into the concert.” That, at least, makes us mortals feel better. Here is Sonny Landreth standing around outside the arena hoping to meet the man like everyone else. But fate would dangle another opportunity Sonny explains. “As they were leaving, I saw the drummer and told him I couldn’t get in. He said ‘Man, we are going down to hang out at the Acid Bar in the Quarter so come by.’ I went there and met the band. Eric was up at the bar, but I turned to say something to somebody, and when I turned around he had left, so I missed meeting him again! It wasn’t until years later that he invited me to play at the Crossroads Festival that I finally met him and we became good friends.” That is a great lesson to be learned for all musicians…perseverance! Want to get a gig or meet someone? Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen right away. Sonny has some great advice about this. “I tell people, it may not be the way you have envisioned it, in fact often times it’s not. It’s something that happens indirectly. You could be at a gig in a little bar and you don’t think anything of it, but there might be somebody there who knows somebody else, who knows somebody else. You might do a session or sit in at a live gig and someone hears you. That’s how it happens. So you have to open yourself up to those opportunities.” After this long and amazing career, what is there left to accomplish? Is there anything still out there that Sonny would like to do? “I never want to miss out on any opportunities! There are a ton of people out there I would like to work with. Looking ahead I really want to do an acoustic album, get some of the Resonators and old Nationals out and
“...I SENT IT TO MY FRIENDS IN TULSA AND THEY GOT IT TO ERIC [CLAPTON] THROUGH THE BAND, AND SOME YEARS LATER I FOUND OUT HE STILL HAD THAT TAPE AND WAS PLAYING IT FOR PEOPLE.” RIFF
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