"When I first heard real blues, it just felt right – the point of blues wasn’t to be fashionable, but to say something truthful."

Keith Wyatt: Blues is the truth

Keith Wyatt is a Los Angeles-based guitarist, educator performer, teacher, writer, and developer of music curriculum and educational media. Since 1996, Wyatt has toured and recorded with renowned LA-based “American Music” group The Blasters. The Blasters’ latest release, Fun on Saturday Night (Rip Cat Records) hit #1 on the Roots Rock Charts!

He has also worked with a variety of other groups and artists including Albert Collins, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Robben Ford in Los Angeles and internationally as a solo performer. In 1978, after graduating from the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, Wyatt joined the faculty and assisted in curriculum development under the direction of GIT founder Howard Roberts. After serving for a decade as Director of the Guitar program in what had become Musicians Institute, he was named to his current position as Vice President of Programs with responsibility for overseeing curriculum development for the institution. He also maintains a regular teaching schedule at the school with a specialty in blues guitar.

Wyatt is also known as a writer, teacher, and director of music instructional videos, beginning with his first title, Rockin’ the Blues, in 1988 and eventually including over twenty DVD titles on subjects ranging from blues and roots guitar styles to comprehensive beginning guitar methods. Behind the camera, he has also developed multimedia titles (Play Blues Guitar and Play Rock Guitar CD-ROMs for Play Music, Inc.) and directed dozens of music-instruction videos for other artists covering a wide array of subjects and instruments. Wyatt has also written and co-written popular music instruction books. He is a regular columnist for Guitar World, and has written hundreds of columns and articles for guitar-oriented periodicals.

Interview by Michael Limnios

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

When I started playing, my first inspirations were things like surf music, the Rolling Stones, and Marty Robbins. Then I got into what they called “heavy” music – Cream, Hendrix, Zeppelin etc. As I was listening to those guitar players, I became curious about where they got their ideas, which led me to blues. A few years later I met a musician from LA named Jimmy Wood as well as Norman Dayron, a former Chess producer, who turned me on to some of the greatest blues recordings ever made – stuff like Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Robert Nighthawk and Howling Wolf. I also discovered Albert King and Freddie King, but it took me a little longer to appreciate BB King because at first I thought he sounded too jazzy. One big problem for young musicians back then was that you couldn’t find many of the really great blues records in regular record stores, so to hear the best music you had to know the right people. Now you can hear pretty much everything, but it still helps to have somebody steer you in the right direction.

                                                                                        Photo by Carole Pellatt

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

There were lots of concerts and festivals going on all the time, so I was lucky enough to see some great bands. Some of the most memorable were Hendrix and Zeppelin, but my friends and I saw almost everyone who came through. The first songs I learned on the guitar were things like “Gloria” by Them, “Hey Joe” by Hendrix and “Light My Fire” by the Doors.

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

When I first heard real blues, it just felt right – the point of blues wasn’t to be fashionable, but to say something truthful. The lesson of blues, for me, is to strip your playing down to its essence and find the depth and intensity in each note; if you can’t hit one note and make it sound good, there’s not much point in playing a lot of other notes. Albert Collins is an idol of mine for that reason – he could hit one note and make you feel like something really important had just happened, and make you want to go right back and hear it again and figure out how he did it.

How would you describe your contact to people when you are on stage?

Before I go on stage I picture people standing up and cheering, turning over the tables and chairs, screaming that it was the best show they had ever seen…which doesn’t actually happen very often, but visualizing a wild result helps subconsciously to get ready to put everything you can into your performance. There’s no point in doing it if it’s going to be just halfway, and you owe it to people who spent their time & money to see you to give them the best that you have.

                                                                                                 Photo by Jim Coke

Tell me about your beginning with the Blasters. How did you first meet the band? How and where did it start?

I had played with James Intveld for several years in the ‘80s and ‘90s before he joined the Blasters and also knew the drummer at that time – Jerry Angel – from playing in different bands. When James left the band Jerry recommended me, so I got together with Jerry, John and Phil & played some Blasters songs. It went pretty well, so next thing you know we started doing shows, but we never really rehearsed - I just learned the songs from records and we figured it out on stage.

Do you have any amusing tales to tell of your gigs and recording with the Blasters?

However crazy things might get otherwise, when we actually go to work we are pretty organized and everybody is focused on making the music sound as good as possible. Sometimes funny things happen, or at least they seem funny later on, for example, we do this instrumental “Boneyard” where I have to tune my low E string down a whole step, and several times the noise level on stage caused me to mis-tune and only go down a half-step – when the guitar and bass hit a big, loud note a half-step apart, it’s pretty insane. Now that everyone has a video camera in their cellphone and everything is instantly uploaded to the web, you can’t really afford to have an off night, so we stay on our toes.

What advice has given Albert Collins to you, which memory from him makes you smile?

I only met & played with Albert a couple of times and he didn’t really give me any advice in words, just by example. Albert was a guy who was playing better and with more intensity the older he got – at an age when a lot of players slack off or quit, he was reaching for new stuff. He was a no-nonsense person, but he also didn’t take himself too seriously and had no attitude. He could be the most generous guy on earth and tell you to solo for another chorus, and then cut you to shreds with his first note – he wasn’t trying to prove that he was better than you, he was just doing what he did, which was to play 100% all the time. Before I met him I looked at his pictures and thought he must be a tough, scary guy but he was a sweetheart, and the older I get the more I am inspired by his example.

Are there any memories from Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Robben Ford, which you’d like to share with us?

Ginger is a real stylist – nobody plays drums like that. At that time he was just coming out of a difficult period in his life; things were kind of unfocused and the shows were very much a “Spinal Tap” experience, but there’s nothing quite like playing “Sunshine of Your Love” with Ginger Baker laying down the beat. Playing with Jack Bruce was also like a fantasy – we didn’t rehearse, but I knew most of the Cream songs so to have him just call off one of those songs and hear my guitar mixing with his bass & voice was really incredible. Robben is also a guy who I had listened to for years, and before meeting him I thought he must be a real “jazz guy” because he played difficult music with such finesse, but he’s really a street guy with a fantastic ear and touch. He’s also a huge Albert Collins fan, so right away it felt like we had a lot in common.

How do you characterize Keith Wyatt’s music philosophy?

Start with the emotional effect you want to create with the music and use whatever technique you need to use to achieve it. Play what you hear and let your fingers follow your ear, not the other way around.

From whom have you have learned the most secrets about the blues music?

There’s no real secret except to find your own voice -all of the great blues musicians have done that each in their own way. If you take any great player and really drill down deep into their style, getting “underneath the notes,” you learn how blues really works – the notes are just the beginning.

What are some of the memorable stories from the road with the blues?

The stuff I remember most is the times here and there when things click on stage and you feel like you can’t go wrong. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it keeps you going until the next time. Otherwise, traveling as a musician is pretty much the same from day to day – you get up, travel, soundcheck, play, sleep, and repeat. The hour or two you’re on stage is great, the rest is pretty much about taking care of business; sometimes things don’t go as planned (like when Phil wound up in the hospital in Spain), but you just try to roll with it.

                                                                                        Photo by Carole Pellatt

Which was the best moment of your career and which was the worst?

I’m hoping that the best is still ahead and the worst is long past, but among the best so far was playing with Albert Collins – I learned more from being on stage with him for an hour than just about any lesson I’ve ever had. One of the worst was the first concert I ever played when I was still in high school – me and my buddies were playing in front of the whole high school, and I had to start “Hey Joe” by myself – I was so nervous that I screwed up the intro and somebody in the audience laughed. It was so humiliating that I swore that I would never let myself go on stage again without being totally prepared. In its own way, it was a great lesson too.

Do you think the younger generations are interested in the blues?

When good young musicians are exposed to good blues, it always creates a connection because the good stuff is timeless. There are young players around right now who are passionate about the oldest music on record – guys in their 20s playing music from the 1920s - and doing it very well. There isn’t much of an audience for that stuff right now, but that can change at any point – the big wheel of style keeps on turning, and blues has never been massively popular but at the same time it never disappears. The musicians who defined the style many years ago are almost all gone so young players today can only learn from records rather than through direct contact, but for each generation it’s brand-new and the excitement of discovery is the same.

How easy is it to learn guitar from books and DVDs? What difference has a self-taught by one who has studied music?

Blues originated as music that was passed along from one musician to another and learned through constant performance and interaction, and books, DVDs and computers still don’t substitute for that experience. Information about guitar playing is available everywhere for free, but it takes a lot of organization and discipline to make steady progress over time. Few people have the ability to analyze themselves and figure out what to do next, so that’s where it helps to have a good teacher who can provide that perspective based on experience; a school or other organized program like Musicians Institute will provide not only the teacher, but a comprehensive curriculum plus the opportunity to play with other musicians. Performance is one piece of the puzzle that’s often overlooked – you can learn how to play guitar at a certain level by just working alone in your bedroom or with a private teacher, but unless you have the opportunity to play regularly with other musicians you won’t learn how to feel comfortable on stage, how to listen and how to interact with each other.

What advice would you give to one anonymous young blues musician?

Just keep playing – the cliché that says that 90% of a career is just showing up is not far from the truth. If you keep playing, opportunities will keep happening; they only stop when you stop.

Some music styles can be fads but the blues is always with us.  Why do think that is? Give one wish for the BLUES

Blues is the truth, and the truth doesn’t go out of style. A couple of generations of major blues influences have come and gone, but blues is very adaptable, so even though it may (and should) sound different in the future than it did in the past, it will survive.

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