Choose the LP of the month for Blues in Wijk… It’s great to be allowed to do this, but then it turns out to be quite a challenge! After all, several LPs have contributed greatly to the style of my own music, so which one do you choose?…. Brother Dege? His music made me start playing slide guitar and on a resonator. Rory Gallagher? Or will it be… Yes! Then it will be Robben Ford. Because without this blues giant I wouldn’t have been introduced to the blues at all. The album “Talk To Your Daughter” was the reason I wanted to learn to play the blues on the guitar.
This song and the album are really precious memories for me. At some point during my studies at the conservatory, I lost the direction of my own music. In graduation year, you were researching an artist or piece of music. I lost track at that point, had no idea what to choose! The search for my music led me to my old phone that I hadn’t looked at in a few years. There I came across all kinds of MP3s on it. The song “Talk To Your Daughter” came along and I remember it felt like a “thunderclap. It occurred to me: this is what I want! Just play guitar with emotion and bam! I found that in the blues.
For me in this song it’s in the intro, how his guitar pops in. Technically it is very well played, yet there is also a lot of feeling in his playing. At just the right moments he gives space to his solo. There are many good blues guitarists, but with Robben Ford I’m always impressed how he manages to dress it up melodically as well.
For me, it’s an incredibly balanced album. Full of blues traditionals and his own interpretation of them, but also forays into a more “soul and fusion” sound like on the song “Help The Poor. His solos on this album are always on point, bluesy and with forays into other styles.
Once I got to see him live. He hadn’t been in Europe for a while and I really wanted to see him live. So when he was coming to Paris at the “Le Trianon” theater, I immediately ordered tickets. Backed by young musicians, he put on a fantastic live show. Although he himself exuded a tremendously calm energy, his solos were imbued with emotion. Halfway through the show his amplifier failed so he went to play air guitar for a while. Once back in the Netherlands I found out that two months later he would be performing practically around the corner, haha.
