Sonny Landreth

Southwest Louisiana serves as home base for guitarist, songwriter, and singer Sonny Landreth, a prize-winning artist respected by peers. Distinctive phrasing sets apart the work on his Zoo Entertainment studio albums Outward Bound (1992) and South of I-10 (1995) from other entries in the electric blues repertoire. His approach draws on multiple foundational styles such as Cajun music, zydeco, Delta blues, swamp pop, and R&B together with rockabilly. Fingers applied to the fretboard at the same time as slide technique produce an effect comparable to several guitarists performing simultaneously. His contributions have appeared on countless sessions extending back to the 1970s alongside performers from Elliott Murphy and Zachary Richard through Kirk Whalum, Irma Thomas, and many additional artists. Three well-regarded titles emerged on Sugar Hill early in the twenty-first century, among them 2005’s Grant Street and 2008’s From the Reach, which paired him with celebrated guitarists Eric Clapton, Vince Gill, and Mark Knopfler. His first Provogue album, Bound by the Blues, arrived in 2015 and was followed two years later by the Grammy-nominated Recorded Live in Lafayette.

Born February 1, 1951, in Canton, Mississippi, Landreth spent several childhood years in Jackson, Mississippi, before the family relocated to Lafayette, Louisiana. Guitar study began only after an extended period devoted to trumpet. Earliest influence arrived via Scotty Moore, guitarist in Elvis Presley’s band, though subsequent listening incorporated recordings by Chet Atkins and the Ventures. During adolescence he started performing informally with friends inside their parents’ homes. “They would ping-pong us from one house to another, and thought 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. Following an initial professional engagement in the ’70s with accordionist Clifton Chenier, during which he remained the sole white member of the Red Beans & Rice Revue for a period, Landreth pursued an independent path after first completing two albums for the Blues Unlimited label in Crowley, Louisiana—Blues Attack in 1981 and Way Down in Louisiana in 1985. Landreth exemplifies persistence through setbacks. The latter of those two releases attracted attention from Nashville executives, resulting in recording and touring work with John Hiatt; that association in turn generated further opportunities, including a stint with John Mayall, who included Landreth’s radio-ready “Congo Square.” Additional partnerships have encompassed New Orleans bandleader and pianist Allen Toussaint, a guest on several tracks from South of I-10, as was Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler.

Lyrics on the acclaimed Zoo albums draw listeners into the visual, auditory, olfactory, and thermal qualities of southwest Louisiana, with a pronounced regional identity evident across many of Landreth’s compositions. Although his instrumental voice remains entirely personal and his vocals fully capable, Landreth credits writers such as William Faulkner with shaping his approach to lyric craft. He has also expressed concern that American university scholars have been slow to acknowledge the substantial poetic achievement contained within blues traditions. Guitar hero Robert Johnson occupies the foremost place in Landreth’s estimation. “When I finally discovered Robert Johnson, it all came together for me,” Landreth said, adding that he likewise examined recordings by Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, and Charley Patton with close attention. The all-instrumental Elemental Journey appeared in 2012 as his eleventh solo project, merging blues with classical and jazz idioms supported by a full orchestra. The guitarist made his fourth appearance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2013.

Landreth and a trio maintained an intensive touring schedule throughout the following year while preparing new material and signing with Provogue. A straightforward return to blues fundamentals was chosen. Sessions with drummer Brian Brignac and bassist David Ranson took place late in 2014, yielding Bound by the Blues, a collection comprising both early blues standards he first learned and original songs; the album reached the public in June of the next year. The concert album Recorded Live in Lafayette followed in 2017. In 2020 Landreth delivered Blacktop Run, a ten-song collection that reunited him with producer R.S. Field, who had overseen the guitarist’s breakthrough Zoo Entertainment recordings in the ’90s. The majority of tracking occurred live at the renowned Dockside Studios along the Vermilion River south of Lafayette, Louisiana. The resulting program encompassed electric and acoustic blues as well as the jazz-rock-tinged “Groovy Goddess.”