Sonny Landreth

Born in Canton, Mississippi, in 1951 and long based in southwest Louisiana around Lafayette and Breaux Bridge, Sonny Landreth develops a blues rooted in country blues, zydeco and Cajun colors. He first appeared on the Louisiana scene with Clifton Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band before launching his solo career with Blues Attack in 1981 and Way Down in Louisiana in 1985 with Bayou Rhythm. His style rests on a highly personal slide technique, nourished by local phrasing, where guitar lines intersect bayou rhythms, roots inflections and a simultaneous approach to single notes and chords. In the 1990s Landreth refined this writing on Outward Bound (1992) and South of I-10 (1995), and continued it with Levee Town (2000), The Road We’re On (2003), From the Reach (2008), Elemental Journey (2012), Bound by the Blues (2015), Recorded Live in Lafayette (2017) and Blacktop Run (2020). At the same time he has played with John Hiatt and John Mayall and taken part in projects or concerts with Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton and Alain Bashung, across clubs, blues festivals and American roots scenes.