Sonny Landreth

Sonny Landreth
Background information
Born	(1951-02-01) February 1, 1951
Genres	Blues
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1973–present
Associated acts	Jimmy Buffett, John Hiatt, The Goners
Website	sonnylandreth.com

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.

Technique

Landreth is best known for his slide playing, having 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 right-hand technique, which involves tapping, slapping, and picking strings, using all of the fingers on his right hand. He wears a special thumb pick/ flat pick hybrid on his thumb so he can bear down on a pick while simultaneously using his finger style technique for slide.

Sonny Landreth is known for his use of Fender Stratocaster guitars and Dumble Amplifiers. He is also known to use Demeter and Fender amplifiers on occasion. Landreth uses Jim Dunlop 215 heavy glass slides and Dunlop Herco flat thumb picks. His guitars are fitted with DiMarzio and Lindy Fralin pickups, a special Suhr back plate system, and D'Addario medium nickel wound strings gauges 0.13 - 0.56.

Landreth has recorded with Jimmy Buffett, and accompanied him on his 2006, 2007 and 2010 summer tours.^{[citation needed]}

Landreth performed at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004, 2007, 2010, and is scheduled to play at the 2013 festival in New York.

Discography

Solo

Landreth has released at least eleven albums:

• Blues Attack (1981; re-released 1996)
• Down in Louisiana (1986; re-released 1993)
• Outward Bound (1992)
• South of I-10 (1995)
• Crazy Cajun Recordings (1999) - source material from 1973 and 1977
• Prodigal Son: The Collection (2000) - source material from 1973 and 1977
• Levee Town (2000; re-released 2009 with 5 bonus tracks)
• The Road We're On (2003)
• Grant Street (2005) - live recording
• Sonny Landreth - Live At Jazz Fest 2007 (2007) - live recording
• From the Reach (2008)
• Elemental Journey (2012)

Guest appearances

with Jimmy Buffett:

• "USS Zydecosmobile" and "Mademoiselle (Voulez-Vous Danser)" on Far Side Of The World (2002)
• License To Chill (2004)
• Live at Fenway Park (2005)
• Jimmy Buffett's appearances on the Hoot movie soundtrack (2006)
• Take The Weather With You (2006)

with John Hiatt:

• Slow Turning (1988)
• The Tiki Bar is Open (2001)
• Beneath This Gruff Exterior (2003)

with Eric Johnson:

• On Eric's Up Close album (2010) track "Your Book"

with others:

• "When The Levee Breaks" and "The Wrong Side" on Lay Your Burden Down by Buckwheat Zydeco
• "Then I'm Gonna Make Love To You" on Elliott Murphy's "Selling The Gold" 1995
• Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007
• Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010
• Mark Knopfler's Golden Heart (1996)
• Mark Knopfler's A Night In London (1996)
• Gov't Mule's 32/20 Blues
• Little Feat's Join The Band (2008)
• Alain Bashung's Osez Joséphine (1991)
• Alain Bashung's Chatterton (1994)

Honors and awards

• Americana Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year: 2005

External links

• Official website
• Sonny Landreth's Official Facebook page
• Sonny Landreth Interview with Jarrod Dicker (2009)
• "The Road He's On", interview with Sonny Landreth
• PREVIEW: Sonny Landreth
• Sonny Landreth: The USS Zydecoldsmobile
• Sonny Landreth's Ghost Notes

Awards
Preceded by Will Kimbrough	AMA Instrumentalist of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Kenny Vaughan