The great Louisiana guitar player, Sonny Landreth, played at the Redstone Room in Davenport a while back. We've seen Landreth on a number of occasions playing at Summerfest in Milwaukee with John Hiatt, as well as with his own band. And he played the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival last year here in Davenport, putting on a great show.
If you aren't familiar with Sonny Landreth, check out this incredible YouTube video of him playing at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago earlier this summer. It's one of his new songs that he played the night he was in Davenport.
Cindy and I went with my buddy, Randy Adams, and his girl friend, Laurie Brekke, to the show. I had asked Santo Pullela to hold us a table, but he wasn't able to do so. I noticed before the show started that there was a table over by the wall that had a "Reserved" sign on it. I asked Santo, "Is that table for us?"
He said, "Well, no one was supposed to be saving tables, so if you want to sit there, do it."
And we did. We had a great sight line directly to the stage. No one challenged us for the table.
Opening for Sonny Landreth that evening was a local trio calling themselves Fusion Infusion consisting of Paul DePauw on guitar, Al Nache on drums, and Barry Vestal on bass. These guys used to back up Ernie Peniston for a time, but broke out on their own to play a jazz/rock infused style of music. As long as I've known him, I've always been a big fan of Paul DePauw's guitar work and the band did a great job that night.
After about a 25 minute break, Sonny Landreth hit the stage. Landreth was accompanied by his longtime bass player David Ranson and a new drummer, Mike Burch, who played the hell out of the drums. The show was just absolutely electric. He played for about 90 minutes with one short break to solve a grounding problem after about five songs. But after the break, the band just unloaded. It was one helluva show.
The Redstone Room was extremely lucky to get Sonny Landreth for the price they did. He had an open date between a Thursday night show in Champaign, IL and a blues festival he was playing in Monroe, WI the next day. Santo told me how cheap it was to get him and I promised that I wouldn't reveal the amount. But it was significantly lower than what he normally gets for a show.
If you're into great guitar players, don't hesitate to buy a ticket when Sonny Landreth comes to a stage near you. He plays it all - rock, blues, cajun, jazz. You won't be disappointed.
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