StarPolish Interview: Sonny Landreth - Page 4

LANDRETH: I think in the very beginning it was just a matter of that I needed to do it. It was almost like I was possessed; I had this energy to tackle this thing of learning how to play the guitar, putting a band together, writing songs, recording songs, putting out an album and hitting the road. And I was so consumed with the actual reality of pulling that off that whatever was out there was going to be whatever was out there. In a way, there is kind of like a built in comfort zone, that you only deal with what you know about. And there is that element of adventure and excitement, and the element of anticipation and mystery, that actually probably helped push us along, so that when we finally got seriously into traveling as a band and making a go of it as a band and trying to project ahead to a career, it's been a bit of both. Some of it has been what I had hoped for, some of it is what I hoped it wouldn't be. And then there is always the element of surprise in a good way, and those are the times and moments that you look back on that really made it worthwhile. It really is a kind of adventure... in a way that really kept me going.

Getting the Hiatt Gig

STARPOLISH: How did it go from playing locally to being the back-up band for John Hiatt?

LANDRETH: That's a really smart question, because it came at a point in time that was very crucial. The band that Dave and I had, called Bayou Rhythm, had been out on the road for six-and-a-half, seven years, and we'd reached the point where we had done all that we can do with it — we played bars all over the place. So I decided to come home and regroup, sort of sit down and have a talk with myself and try to figure out which direction to go in and how to go about things, and what I could do to improve things. More than anything I just needed to take a break. As is the usual case, when you slow all the extraneous travel down that you are so involved with, then other things come up and you begin to be clear about things. I really just got into writing and practicing and really preparing myself; part of it may have been intuition, thinking there was something else coming up for the band. At that point in time — to make a long story short --I met John, and I put the band together for him with the Goners...

Article Author: Eric Olsen

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of Blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.

Visit Eric Olsen's author page — Eric Olsen's Blog