LANDRETH: Well, that's actually true, you do run into that. And I prepared myself so much for it. I find what happens is, people can't get past the initial phase of what they hear on recordings and what they hear with the effects of the guitar; they don't catch the lyrics at first. But I also find that given enough time, it hooks them in the long run, and they become fans and turn up at the gigs and know all the words to the songs. It's really a great affirmation to get that level of feedback on a person-to-person basis. Having people come out to where we play, and coming up to me after the show and talking at length about specific songs, that really makes me feel good. It is a bit of a challenge, though, and in some respects it's held the perception of the image, and it's really hard to break away from that. It's not really that big of a surprise; I did anticipate it.
STARPOLISH: I think a lot of guitar players that I talk to sometimes feel a little frustrated. Steve Morse said the first 30 rows of his shows are always guys looking at his fingers. He thinks of himself as a writer or musician who uses his guitar as the main instrument, not just a guitar player. But a lot of the people who buy his albums, who are really vigorous fans, are huge guitar fans, and they turn other people onto his music and bring them to the shows. So if that's the huge price he has to pay, he's OK with it.
LANDRETH: I totally agree with Steve; he's a fantastic musician, and I couldn't have put it better myself. I do believe you have to own up to the overview of it all, and the fact that you have people who show up and support you at all is such an overwhelmingly wonderful thing in this business, because for every one musician that gets the opportunity to have an audience, there are tons of others that don't get that. It is so hard in the business to make a go of it. So if you have a constituent, if you have a loyal fan base, it's a blessing. I think it's the probably the key.
Majors and Indies
STARPOLISH: Going through the different albums you have, I noticed that Way Down in Louisiana was recorded for Epic which is a major label, you did a couple for Praxis/Zoo, and now you have two albums out for Sugar Hill, which I guess are more indie labels. There's a lot of debate among our community about working for a major label versus working for an indie. Do you have any sort of feelings about that, and the differences you experienced being on a major label versus a label like Sugar Hill?
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1 - jorge luis
hola