ACOUSTIC GUITARIST : CONCERTS, FESTIVALS, CLUBS, WORKSHOPS, TEACHING.
Hi and welcome to the site;
The acoustic guitar is like my own little orchestra in a box and I love the challenge of trying to make it sound like one. It is, along with my family, my passion and one which has given me so much in difficult times.
Sessions on BBC Radio 2's Paul Jones and Johnny Walker Shows have helped me to be heard by a wide audience and I'm very grateful also for all the support and help given to me by Blues In Britain magazine , Elaine Williams at Small Planet Music and every promoter who has given me the opportunity to play at their venue.--ooOoo--
Folk clubs became my testing ground and whenever I'd learn a new tune or song, off I'd go to do my floor-spot. These clubs were a fantastic breading ground for musicians and I would spend many many nights at Les Cousins in Soho listening to Roy Harper, Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell, The Incredible String Band, Davey Graham and many an American guitar picker. I eventually started to get a gig or two at the clubs and began writing myself (it was after all the age of the singer-songwriter!).
I met up with Mike Cooper, a leading light of the emerging UK country blues scene in the late '60s and began playing acoustic and slide guitar with him on gigs around the UK and Europe. He made a couple of albums for Pye records which I had the privilege of appearing on alongside such luminaries as Danny Thompson, Stephan Grossman, Mike Osborne and Alan Skidmore.
It was some years later that I formed the first of the Sonny Black bands with Paul Swinton on harmonica, Dick Jones on bass and a variety of drummers. We played a hard Chicago type of blues and acted as the house-band at Dino's Blues Bar at the West End Centre in Aldershot playing with Eddie C Campbell, Lowell Fulson, Guitar Shorty, Carey Bell and others. A great experience!
The band came and went through various line-ups due to work and familly commitements featuring, at different times:
Sam Kelly (drums),Dan Smith (piano),George Pearson (bass), Alan Glenn (harmonica), Dino Coccia and Damon Sawyer (drums) and Bob Haddrell (organ/piano).
I began writing more and more instrumental material for the band and for solo acoustic guitar.
During all the time that I played wih the band, I had always continued playing acoustic guitar (each band album always had a couple of acoustic tunes on them) and as my musical horizons expanded outside of the pure blues gendre, I was finally drawn back to playing just finger picking acoustic and National steel guitar. I never really felt very comfortable with the electric guitar and ended up selling them and the amps.
So now, with my good mate Chris Belshaw on bass, I play a variety of stuff from ragtime to country, from blues to jazz standards and just about anything else that takes my fancy!
Yours, sonny black ?
Here's some pics taken during the recordings of my previous CD 'The Best of Days'.