Sonny Landreth:

The lean Mississippi native, who grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, had already been playing horn for three years when he got his hands on his first six-string and fell deeply in love. Slide guitar spoke to Landreth immediately. He recalls, “When I realized that my slide heroes had mastered a vocal quality on the guitar, I wanted to do the same thing. At the start, the sounds I made were rough on everybody – my family, and especially my poor dog and cat – but eventually I was able to develop my own instrumental voice and began to apply that to any style I wanted to play.”

At age 17 Landreth attended three very different shows in his home state that would have a great impact on him. “Amazingly, in the span of about a year, I met and heard B.B. King in New Iberia, Jimi Hendrix in Baton Rouge and Clifton Chenier in Lafayette. Needless to say, all that had a profound effect on me. To this day, I still think about those experiences.” Many years later, he became a member of Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band. With steamy roadhouse sets that often ran for hours without a break and stretched songs out for their maximum impact on the dance floor, he was put to the test. Landreth quickly developed the ability to change keys, rhythms and even musical styles in a flash.

Along the way Landreth has continued to develop his vision and his musical voice, growing increasingly original and diverse, expanding from blues, zydeco, folk, country and jazz into increasingly category-blurring musical excursions like Bound By the Blues.

Cindy Cashdollar:
 

Dobro, steel guitar and lap steel player Cindy Cashdollar’s career has taken some surprising twists and turns that have led her to work with many leading artists in various genres; including Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Dave Alvin, Rod Stewart, Albert Lee, Asleep At The Wheel, Marcia Ball, Jorma Kaukonen, Leon Redbone, BeauSoleil, Daniel Lanois, Redd Volkaert, & Peter Rowan. Cindy’s unerring ability to perfectly complement a song or step out with a tasteful, imaginative, and exciting solo – and to do it in so many musical genres – has made her one of the most in-demand musicians on the American roots music scene. Her debut CD, “Slide Show”, features guest artists comprising a Who’s Who from the landscape of Roots & Americana music. Cindy was inducted into the Texas Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame in 2011 (the first female to be inducted), and The Texas Music Hall Of Fame in 2012

Cindy first heard the unique sliding sound of the Dobro in her hometown of Woodstock, New York where she honed her skills playing with bluegrass legend John Herald, blues great Paul Butterfield, Levon Helm and Rick Danko of The Band, and many others who lived in the small but musically hip Catskill mountain town. Eight years and thousands of miles on the road with the premier western swing group Asleep At The Wheel helped her introduce the classic sounds of the non-pedal steel to enthusiastic audiences worldwide, and brought her five Grammy Awards and opportunities to work with musicians of the caliber of Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton and The Dixie Chicks.

Whether adding driving leads behind Rod Stewart or Ryan Adams, swinging an instrumental with Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion band, or trading blazing licks with Texas Telecaster master Redd Volkaert, Cindy does it all with grace, imagination, and taste. And, in answer to her most frequently asked question, yes, Cashdollar is a real name.

Take a listen!

Check out Sonny’s website here

Check out Cindy’s website here