Blutone's Boutique Baby!

  On Thursday 9th June, I witnessed one of the most amazing Blues gigs that I have ever had the pleasure to watch.  The artist was Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram .  Not long afterwards Fender released the   Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe . So what did I think of the gig and more to the point the guitar in question given that I got to see a signature guitar being demonstrated by the artist himself? About 'Kingfish'! Straight out of the legendary town of Clarksdale, Mississippi and endorsed by, one of my heroes, Buddy Guy, Christone Ingram at the age of 22 has become one of the shining stars of 21st Century Blues. Rolling Stone declared that Kingfish " is one of the most exciting young guitarists in years, with a sound that encompasses B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Prince.” What was Kingfish's gig like? In June, I watched him play at the Islington Assembly Rooms in London as part of his tour to promote his latest album entitled 662. All I can say is that he was fabulous! 

 Last night I visited on of my favourite live music venues, The O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire  to see Blues Rock and Roots musician, Samantha Fish . I have been following the progress of Samantha Fish for years.  Being Stateside I haven't been able to see her live and have only had her records and YouTube clips to rely on.  If I am really honest, I saw her as someone who was significant in the industry but the recorded work didn't fully resonate with me and this has puzzled me because I have found her work to be interesting with the use of multiple types of guitars including her trademark Cigar Box Guitar, but the music, at least when accessed remotely and not live left me a little flat. Skip on a few years and Samantha has honed her crafted, rebranded into this 1950's esque look that is perfect for her and in 2021 she released her 10th album, Faster that followed the critically acclaimed album from 2019, Kill Or Be Kind. Produced by Martin Kierszenbaum (Lady Gaga, Sting)

  This week I had the pleasure of visiting Fidelity Guitars in Cambridgeshire. Luthier Matt Oram jumped out of the marketing executive rat race in 2017 and started Fidelity Guitars with the aim of helping guitarists to express themselves fully in whatever style they choose by  coming up with unique designs that focus on versatility and clarity of tone. With a nod to early 1960's era design, Matt has designed the JB , Double Standard and Stellarosa models that can be fully customised at the request of the guitarist. Current artists playing Matt's guitars are J.Willgoose Esq from Public Service Broadcasting , Richard Dawson , Josh Hayward from The Horrors and many more. So what happened when Blutone turned up to check out Fidelity Guitars? Well Matt also does repairs and I had a Fender 1972 Reissue Thinline that needed some work done on it and Matt does repairs too which is great , so I jumped in my car and drove over to his workshop just outside Ely. After the initial hell