“Music started with the first time I heard “Smokestack Lightning.” Holy shit, what is that? The blues has always been beguiling, magical, mysterious, sexy and voodoo. Mississippi was exotic and wild compared to the straightforwardness of England and the end of the Thatcher era. It was a voice reaching out that made sense. When I was 15 or 16, I listened to Ry Cooder and the Paris, Texas soundtrack. The open tuning and bottleneck guitar were new to me. A few years ago I went to a blues festival in Mississippi and got Robert Johnson’s The Complete Recordings. I also went to Clarksdale and played at Red’s Lounge and Ground Zero. That was exciting for me.”
Martin Harley
