"I hear the same emotions expressed in so many different styles of music but it’s the way those emotions are expressed in the blues that connects to me in the most direct fashion."

Lyndon Anderson Band masterfully mix up a musical hot sauce of blues influenced soulful funk rock that takes the listener on an auricular adventure to soul blues heaven.
Whether it's a hip reworking of a 1950's Chess classic, a chunk of New Orleans funk, rocking Texas shuffles, foot stompin’ Zydeco, jazz influenced West coast swing or one of their many originals there’s something for every lover of the blues. Gumbo Groove is probably the best way to describe the unique sound of The Lyndon Anderson Band who masterfully mix up a musical hot sauce of funk influenced soulful blues that takes the listener on an auricular adventure of swampadelic grooves. 

Having performed at the some of the most prestigious music festivals, including Edinburgh Jazz Festival, the Great British R&B Festival, and Stanley Blues Festival, performing to an audience of over 15,000, they have shared the stage with such luminaries as Jack Bruce, Eric Bell, Paul Jones, Sugar Blue, Eugene Hideaway Bridges and Paul Lamb

Their authoritive, individual and distinctive style is showcased on 3 CD releases both of which have received national and international airplay and resounding acclaim. Their tough high energy sound is a blend of L.A. ’s soulful muscular vocals, innovative and exciting world class harmonica, boogaloo guitar, killer bass lines and razor tight grooves all packed with so much energy that they leave you out of breath yet still wanting more. The band are: Lyndon Anderson (Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar), Davey Dormand (Guitar), Christine Wilson (Bass) &  Kev Hodge (Drums)

Interview by Michael Limnios

Lyndon, when was your first desire to become involved in the blues & who were your first idols?

I guess I kind of fell in to it by accident more than desire. My older brother played guitar and he use to listen to a lot of what we now call classic rock, Led Zeppelin, Free and the like which was ok but occasionally he would put on blues albums and there was something in the music which I really dug, I still to this day cant tell you what it is but I know it when it happens I hear it in a lot of Jazz and Funk as well.

Later on when I started learning to play I was listening to a lot of Sonny Terry, Little Walter and Muddy Waters I really wore those records out learning the harp on that stuff.  It never even entered my mind about playing in public or playing in a band until much later on.

What was the first gig you ever went to & what were the first songs you learned?

I can’t really remember going to a proper concert as such but there used to be a good blues scene here in Newcastle back in the late 80’s Pubs like the Broken Doll and The Corner House use to have bands on every week and The Jumpin’ Hot Club used to have touring bands play there.

I also used to go to a local bar that had Jazz every Thursday and a Folk session on the Monday. It was at the folk session I played for the first time in public, I did the Sonny Terry – Brownie McGhee version of a song called Poor Boy with my brother on guitar I don’t think I have ever been so nervous about playing. We started doing a lot of folk clubs round the region playing mainly Sonny and Brownie stuff so I reckon he was probably my first idol. Definitely Little Walter as well.

How/where do you get inspiration for your songs & who were your mentors in songwriting?

Songwriting is a funny process, I come up with loads of ideas as far as the music side of it is concerned just playing the guitar messing round with  different riffs or chord structures and also riffs on the harp.  I’m a big believer that the lyrics should actually have a meaning or tell some kind of story so I try to take a bit more time working them out not just rehash stuff from other songs.

I think guys like Paul Delay who was really inventive in both their approach to the music as a whole and the lyrics. That band really knew how to arrange stuff.  I was lucky enough to meet Paul and see the band live over in Portland several times. For me they were and still are leagues ahead of the majority of bands that play blues based music.

What are your best songs, the songs you’d most like to be remembered for?

I’m very critical of myself and never particularly happen with anything I’ve recorded, songs aren’t rigid things they develop and alter over time so the recorded version of a song is kind of like a snapshot in time of the way it was when you recorded it.

The songs which seem to go down the best live and we get asked to play the most are Take My Order, which is a zydeco inspired tune that I wrote a long time ago when I used to work as a chef, I came up with the idea walking into work one morning. Cast The First Stone, a slow minor blues, Pete Redhead a great guitar player friend of mine were sitting at a bar and somebody used that phrase and I though yep there’s a song in there.  Same Old Story, I had the music part of this for ages but couldn’t think of anything lyrics wise for it , I was doing a bit of decorating for somebody who was restoring a house and just came up with the words as the day went along. Others favorites seem to be Haven’t Got  A Clue and Back Door Man which a few bands have asked if they can cover which is great that they like it that much. I’m still coming up with a lot of fresh ideas and have a lot material half written that I would like to get finished and would love to try co writing some stuff. I’ve done a few recordings for other people and love bouncing ideas of each other it’s a lot more exciting way of doing it.

Any of blues standards have any real personal feelings for you & what are some of your favorite?

There are so many song songs that I really like, mainly slow blues, so I don’t know what that says about my personality. James Cotton Quartet – Black Night, Robert Nighthawk’s version of Sweet Black Angel and I love the Johnny Adams version of One More Time.

Which of historical blues personalities would you like to meet?

I would have loved to have met Little Walter, the word genius is thrown about so easily but I think Little Walter was just that. When you consider how much he achieved in a relatively short life it’s truly amazing. The way he redefined harmonica playing, he brought a musical sophistication to the instrument that no one else even came close to.

What experiences in your life make you a GOOD musician?

It’s different for each person, I’m not saying I had an easy life but I certainly haven’t had it as easy or as hard as other people. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs but I don’t think having to of had a hard life is a prerequisite for being a good musician. What I do think it gives you is a well of emotion to tap into and hopefully convey that feeling to other people when playing, without it its just empty notes.

Who are your favorite blues artists, both old and new? What was the last record you bought?

I’ll start with the old ones first – Sonny Terry, Deford Bailey, Little Walter, Walter Horton, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, BB King, Albert King, Otis Rush, T-Bone Walker and pretty much all  the other usual suspects

More modern players would be – Paul Delay Band, William Clarke, Sugar Blue, Johnny Adams, Fabulous Thumderbirds and a whole lot more.

That’s just the list of blues artist I do listen to a lot of Jazz ,funk and soul as well. The last CD I bought was a download of Barney Kessel – Live and Rare – I love those jazz players that still had a lot of blues in there playing.

How do you see the future of blues music? Give one wish for the BLUES

That’s a hard one; it seems to be, certainly here in the UK on a bit of a Rock Blues trip at the minute.  Although it’s great to see a younger generation of musicians coming up, that whole Blues Rock thing leaves me completely cold there’s seems to be an never ending supply of young guitarist that are good players for their age but aren’t the complete package yet but are out there being lauded as the next big thing.  I like to hear some music with a bit of depth and soul in it, some originality, some Blues.

Where did you pick up your harp style? In which songs can someone hear the best of your harp work?

I’m completely self taught so I discovered a lot just by trial and error. I bought one book which is still in print when I first started (How to Play the Pocket Harmonica) and from then on just listened to records and learnt a lot steeling riffs here and there. The thing that really helped bizarrely in the early days of me learning was only having a couple of harps I learned to get around on them in a few different positions rather than just relying on second position like a lot of blues players do. I think also listening to a lot of jazz helped, I’m not one of those died in the wool traditionalist that thinks just because Sonny Boy Williamson or George Smith didn’t play it that way that anything else is wrong. It’s a musical instrument at the end of the day not a historical exhibition piece.

I think the two tracks that show my approach to the harp the best are on the Groove-o-matic sounds of CD both instrumentals a kind of Jazzy tune played on the chromatic harmonica called “Don’t Tell Him Pike “ and a funky tune played on diatonic harmonica called “ Lupo Polare “ There’s a couple of free downloads and sample tracks at our Reverbnation Site

 

What are the secrets of HARP? What does “harmonica” mean to you?

The Harp is a peculiar instrument to learn in so much that a lot of the techniques you use happen inside your mouth so it’s hard to learn in the sense that you can’t see what you are meant to be doing you just have to persevere until you hit on it and try to remember what you did and repeat it. The internet is a great tool for people learning nowadays there is so many great free tutorials available online especially on Youtube. The best advice I could give to people learning to play is don’t rush it get the fundamentals off, the most important being a good clean single note before you try any bends or overblows.

I still consider the Harp my main instrument because I’ve been playing it for over twenty years now. It’s a very vocal sounding instrument and I think that’s where it’s beauty lies you can produce so many different sounds and tonal effects on it both acoustically and amplified.

What does the BLUES mean to you & what does Blues offered you?

To me the blues is all about the feeling. I hear the same emotions expressed in so many different styles of music but it’s the way those emotions are expressed in the blues that connects to me in the most direct fashion.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m not really a planning type of person there’s a lot I wanna get round to doing but I’m easily distracted I just love playing even if it’s just sitting round the house noodling away on my guitar playing the harp or performing with the band. I’ve got some songs that just need a bit of tweaking and we should be ready to record a new CD this year and would love to get the band over to Europe for some gigs.  

I have a couple of other projects in the development stage, a more traditional Chicago blues style CD and a  harp instrumental CD covering a whole load of different styles of music.

Tell me about the beginning of the Lyndon Anderson Band

Up until the late nineties I always worked as a sideman in various different bands but it was never quite the style of music I really wanted to play. It was nearly always classic Chicago stuff  or acoustic stuff both of which I love but the way I wanted to play doesn’t really fit these styles of blues so I decided to put my own band together to give me the opportunity to do my own thing.

For a short while I put together a band called the Groovedaddies we did a couple of festivals and a couple of clubs but it still wasn’t quite what I was after so I put together the first line up of the L-A-B.

It was a six piece band with Hammond organ and two guitars Davey Dormand who I have worked with off and on since 89 and John Whitehill who used to work with Paul Lamb. That line up was together for about a year but it was financially viable to take that on the road. We dropped back down to a four piece and went through a few different drummers until we settled with our present drummer.

I never wanted to call the band after me and still to this day hate it. We had a big festival gig booked before we had a name for the band so it just kind of came that by default because we couldn’t come up with anything else in time .

What characterizes the sound of Lyndon Anderson Band?

We kind of tread the line between Funk, Texas Blues and Swing we try to play as much original music as possible but do also put in a few obscure and better known covers as well.

There’s a lot of harp in it so if you’re not a lover of the harp it’s probably not the band for you although I have started playing a lot more guitar lately. We were described somewhere as “Soulful blues-influenced funk rockers –imagine Little Walter meets The Meters and you get the feeling “

Lyndon Anderson Band