Dan Patlansky

Born in Johannesburg in 1981, South African blues-rock guitar virtuoso Dan Patlansky entered a household steeped in music. Immersed from childhood in his parents’ collection of classic rock, blues, jazz, funk, and soul, he later gravitated toward Pink Floyd, the band that would become his primary influence. That discovery soon gave way to an intense engagement with Stevie Ray Vaughan, prompting him to commit fully to blues-rock and to launch his first band at sixteen. His independently issued debut, Standing at the Station (2000), briefly attracted the attention of Blue Note, which issued his sole major-label effort, True Blues, in 2004. Promoter Selwyn Miller subsequently arranged two trips to New Orleans over the next couple of years, during which Patlansky performed a series of showcase concerts. Returning to South Africa, he steadily built his reputation through successive self-released albums. International recognition arrived in 2014 with his seventh album, Dear Silence Thieves, named album of the year by Blues Rock Review. Produced by Theo Crous, the record marked the first complete realization of Patlansky’s distinctive approach, merging classic blues with contemporary rock. That same year he supported Bruce Springsteen and toured alongside Joe Satriani; the following year Total Guitar placed him fourth among the world’s rock guitarists. IntroVertigo, the 2016 successor also cut with Crous, gave way to 2018’s Perfection Kills, which Patlansky produced himself in order to preserve the unvarnished, live-in-the-studio atmosphere that mirrors his band’s concert sound.