This is the question I'm asked more than any other… how did it all begin? So here goes…
I started as an electric guitarist. Playing Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, all the classics. I'm a big Eric Clapton fan, I love Cream and John Mayall’s Blues breakers. And then I saw Clapton playing on Eric Clapton Unplugged - he played Walking Blues on the bottleneck.
I remember thinking, 'oh, that's cool. I'm gonna try that'. And that's when I first picked up the bottleneck.
And then I went on a journey - down the rabbit hole to find all the original recordings by Robert Johnson and Son House, and even further back than that. The library in Preston has a real Treasure Trove of old recordings! I discovered many of the greats here, and then musicians like Davey Graham and Bert Jansch, who were blending different musical styles.
I picked up the blues harmonica at the same time, and that took me down several other fascinating rabbit holes!
I was very much into the Beatles as well, and also very much into Indian music around that time, so these also influenced me a great deal. I probably heard Indian music from George Harrison first of all, and I explored further from there. But then, when I came to study music, I went into more detail and discovered that there's a really strong tradition of slide guitar in India. And in terms of technique, they had the best technique for pitching, and a beautiful fluidity of sound. So I became really obsessed with that and ended up in Calcutta studying underneath Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, which was an incredible experience.
So I suppose that was the start of my journey… and I'm still loving it!
What was the defining moment when you fell in love with slide guitar? If you want to get started with your journey towards playing slide, I can help. Check out my courses online and grab your free Get Going with Slide Guide here.