Sonny Landreth

It’s 1995, and Sonny Landreth is recording his soon-to-be breakthrough album South of I-10 in Maurice, Louisiana (population 900) and has invited New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint to play piano on the Landreth-penned track “Congo Square.” Toussaint sits in the studio and watches as Sonny begins to simultaneously fret melodic chords and play incendiary slide with his left hand while strumming, tapping and finger-picking potent notes with his right. When Landreth finishes, Toussaint turns to the recording engineer and says, “That boy just found a different way to play guitar.”

Fourteen albums, two Grammy nominations, nearly a dozen major awards and more than four decades into a career like no other, Sonny Landreth is an artist who’s found a different way to play guitar and then some. Music journalists have called him everything from “the Cajun Santana” (Blues Society) and “an innovator on the order of Eddie Van Halen” (All About Jazz) to “a slide sorcerer who knows truths mortals can’t comprehend” (Glide Magazine) and “one of the finest guitarists America has ever produced” (Rock & Blues Muse). Eric Clapton has said, “Sonny Landreth is probably the most underestimated musician on the planet, and also one of the most advanced.”

"All that still blows me away," Sonny Landreth says. "When I sit down to play, ideas just seem to occur to me and then flow. I started out on trumpet and played in both school band and orchestra into my college years, and all that experience on a wind instrument helped me to approach the guitar with a different sensibility. There was a measured-breath vocal quality to slide guitar that spoke to me immediately. And while I can appreciate the technical aspects, my music heroes have always been the soulful players. As a songwriter and performer, what I look for first is the opportunity to resonate with audiences on a soulful level."

A Lafayette, Louisiana native, Landreth began playing guitar at age 12. By his 20s he was sitting in with local Creole and Cajun musicians and became the first white member of Clifton Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band. "Though I was writing and recording my own music early on, I had an instinct to always keep my antenna up," Landreth says. "What Clifton and his band were doing harmonically and rhythmically was pure genius. Plus being raised in a community where music is such a huge part of the culture, loving Robert Johnson and Duane Allman as much as Mozart, I just absorbed every one of those influences and somehow crystallized it into my own style."

As his international reputation grew, Landreth also developed a celebrated association with John Hiatt, helping define the sound of the Slow Turning album and as a member of Hiatt’s touring band The Goners. He was invited by Jimmy Buffett to be a guest performer in the Coral Reefer Band for more than a decade, and he has appeared on albums by John Mayall, Kenny Loggins, Gov’t Mule, Little Feat, Beausoleil, Elliott Murphy, Junior Wells and Mark Knopfler.

Notable albums and highlights:
- Blues Attack (1981)
- Way Down In Louisiana (1985)
- Outward Bound (1992)
- South of I-10 (1995)
- Levee Town (2000) — featured guest vocals by John Hiatt and Bonnie Raitt
- The Road We’re On (2003) — #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart; Grammy-nominated
- Grant Street (2005) — Billboard Top 3 live recording
- From The Reach (2008) — Billboard #1; featured Clapton, Knopfler, Buffett, Dr. John, Vince Gill, Robben Ford and Nadirah Shakoor
- Elemental Journal (2012) — Billboard Top 5
- Bound By The Blues (2015) — Blues Foundation Best Album Award winner
- Recorded Live in Lafayette (2017) — Grammy-nominated
- Blacktop Run (2020) — worldwide Top 5

Landreth’s live following has continued to grow internationally. “It’s tremendously rewarding that so many people come to the shows and know all the songs,” he says. “When you're playing live, the audience provides an energy you can tap into. It’s a bond that inspires me to take chances and reach higher. As a musician, those are the moments I live for.” He has opened for Eric Clapton at seven Crossroads Guitar Festivals.

He’s currently recording a new album — his first since 2020’s Blacktop Run — and maintaining a busy touring schedule. His song “Congo Square” has become a standard covered by artists ranging from The Neville Brothers to John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers.

"I still believe that music can possess the same magic that we all felt when we were kids," Landreth says. "You want it to feel personal and be inspiring. Whenever my music communicates or resonates with people, it’s a great affirmation."

For Sonny Landreth, it’s a soulful level that matters — and delivers — now more than ever.