Sonny Landreth And Eric Johnson Storm The Paramount

When this double bill was first announced, I had a double-take. It sounded too good to be true. There is no doubt in my mind that Sonny Landreth and Eric Johnson would occupy 2 spots on my own personal Top 10 guitar player list. A double bill would prove to be something akin to guitar heaven – at least in my world.

Better yet, a double bill in which they both played on the same stage at the same time would be even more incredible. One could only hope for such nirvana.

Last Friday, September 30, I was witness to, well, guitar heaven - or at least the little piece of it that came to the Paramount Theater in Austin.

Both of these guitar players have provided me with some significant memories over the years. They have both been a part of my journey, first to Texas and then in my development as a guitar player. On Friday, they reminded me of what passionate musicianship looks like, sounds like, and feels like – together on the same stage.

While living in Canada, I read about the legendary Austin guitar player by the name of Eric Johnson. I finally managed to get my hands on a vinyl copy of “Tones”, his first album. On my first trip to Austin in 1988, I was lucky enough to see him play at the Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, Texas.

I will never forget that night. There were just a handful of people in attendance. Johnson opened his set with a John Mayall song. The title has been lost in my memory, but the stunning effect of his guitar tone on my senses and psyche was significant. If I wasn’t a fan before then, I certainly was after that night in San Marcos. Since then, I have seen him a number of times – with his solo project, with Alien Love Child, and performing solo acoustic. I also saw him perform the night that Stevie Ray Vaughan died, and then again the night after when we were all mourning his loss. That, my friends, is another story.

Sonny Landreth is from a parallel guitar universe. He plays slide guitar, something completely removed from Johnson’s guitar prowess. But as far as slide guitarists are concerned, he is a legend. When I first heard of him, I managed to dig up two cassette tapes of his earliest material. He and Ry Cooder became my slide guitar mentors. I listened to those tapes intently, trying to decipher how he was doing what he was doing. Landreth was everything to me when I was playing guitar live in the early ‘90s.

Friday night’s show would turn out to be a special one for me. The musicianship was impeccable - as expected. The emotion and passion behind the notes were incredible – as expected. Landreth opened with his set, then Johnson played his set. Both sets were epic – as expected.

But it was the four songs at the end that really stood out.

Johnson had warned us earlier in the night - “I might just bring him back for an extended hippie jam” – and he wasn’t kidding. First, it was Eric Johnson playing with Landreth and his band for two songs. Then, it was Landreth playing with Johnson and his band for two songs. It was a phenomenal musical extravaganza – as I could have only imagined. The show lasted well over 3 hours.

There is something to be said for being a master of your instrument – and there is no doubt that both of these players are definitely masters of two separate genres. But what made this evening even more special was the passion with which they both played and how they somehow met on common ground and played their hearts out. In the midst of it all, there was an intense feeling of knowing that I was witnessing something very special in that moment. Friday night was one of those nights, and I was one lucky man to experience it firsthand.

Photo credits: Wikipedia