Sonny Landreth

Friday, March 26, at the Beachland.

By Steve Byrne on Wed, Mar 24, 2004 at 4:00 am

Never Die Alone

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Sonny Landreth is the second-most famous slide-guitar player born in Canton, Mississippi, after the legendary Elmore James. He's also the second-most well-known resident of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, behind Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme.

As for firsts in his life, the 52-year-old became the first Caucasian to join zydeco superstar Clifton Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana Band in 1979. Landreth has also been a first choice to play slide guitar by artists such as John Hiatt, Dolly Parton, Junior Wells, Beausoleil, Zachary Richard, and Steve Riley. It's on his six solo albums, however, that Landreth really displays the lightning-fast fretwork that makes him one of today's most gifted peddlers of simmering down-home blues. His latest CD, the Grammy-nominated The Road We're On, is more Canton than Breaux Bridge -- abandoning the Cajun and Creole influences in favor of a more Chicago-by-way-of-Mississippi style that will remind fans more than a little of James.