Luke Winslow-King

Luke Winslow-King
Music So Good You’ll Want To Slap The Guitar Player

Luke Winslow-King

What do you get when you combine modern jazz, the music of Woody Guthrie, Delta blues, and Antonín Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet?

You get Luke Winslow-King.

Born and raised in Michigan, a crime landed him in New Orleans. But, ever the optimist, Winslow-King decided to stay. Luke Winslow-King’s talent has drawn aggressive praise. One music lover, who was moved to weep while listening, slapped Winslow-King at the end of the song.

And Luke Winslow-King has stayed busy since we last spoke – in between his European tour and the release of his latest album, Everlasting Arms, he married his “musical counterpart” Esther Rose.

Everlasting Arms

Since we last spoke, Luke Winslow-King released his 4th full-length album, Everlasting Arms, on Bloodshot Records. Accompanied by Esther Rose King, this latest work continues to blend the nostalgic eclecticism, virtuosity and sincerity that Winslow-King’s fans have come to love.

From the folks at Bloodshot:

Everlasting Arms is an album like a biography, reading of Luke Winslow-King’s road to the current. There are snapshots of the picturesque scenes that detail struggle, risk, misunderstanding, and celebration, all of it cumulatively generating growth and eventually a unique sense of self.”

VIDEO: You And Me
Luke Winslow-King played “You And Me” for us while we recorded our interview at the Marigny Studios of Elephant Quilt Productions. It’s a tune he wrote with Esther Rose. The video was shot by Matt Robinson.

The Influences
Asking a musician you admire for a list of musicians he admires produces a list of players you definitely want to check out.

Roberto Luti

My living maestro is Mr. Roberto Luti who we have the pleasure of touring with when we go back to Italy. Brilliant slide guitar player who really inspired me to learn slide guitar myself. It has always been great to watch him and be able to tour with him. He helped me when I was in college and I was learning how to shred. I was learning how to play fast. I went and saw Roberto and I was like, “Forget that, I could spend my time trying to find more passion out of fewer notes.”

Mississippi Fred McDowell

Mississippi Fred McDowell is my biggest influence as far as slide guitar playing. As far as people I listen to on recording. He has a very simple style of playing with a broken bottleneck. He is a country boy and never learned a thing about music theory but has this really incredible rhythmic style that is just so rough and rustic it makes you want to jump.

Todd Duke

Todd Duke — who plays with John Boutté — is just best all around. Todd can do anything. He has all these great chord voicing and voice leading. He plays with a 7-string and does those crazy bass lies. Stuff that I could never imagine doing. He is a great guy to watch.

Joseph Spence

Another one that is unique is Joseph Spence, the Bahamanian guitarist. He sings with his family choir and he just accompanies the choir with guitar and he’ll sing part of the line and then finish it with his guitar. It is a really rough style but it has a little bit of blues but a lot of that Caribbean influence along with gospel music. His guitar is always a little bit out of tune. You can tell he is playing a really crappy instrument. I think he might have a cigar in his mouth while singing. That is the only way I can describe his singing voice. He’s coughing and grumbling and singing and playing guitar all at once. He’ll just leave parts of the melody out. Very casual style of playing but no one else plays like him. No one in the world can get that sound.

Flying Rat: A Film by Cosmo Segurson
A restless city dweller gives up the rat-race and heads to bigger horizons. This hand processed 16mm film was made by Cosmo Segurson in New Orleans with the guidance of Helen Hill.

The Coming Tide
We’re not going to argue with the folks at Bloodshot Records. This is what they have to say about Luke Winslow-King’s latest release, “The Coming Tide.”

The Coming Tide asserts that while life’s issues can be dire, there’s always a reason to find the silver lining. When Winslow-King and Esther Rose harmonize like tag-team town criers on the title track, it’s easy to be transported in time and place. “You better come inside for the coming tide,” sung amid a scurrying hi-hat/tomtom shuffle, buoyant upright bass, and languid brass line, settles the nerves and sends the crowd back home to make amends before the shit hits the fan.

Playlist
Here’s a complete playlist of the music heard in this hour.

Cover Photo
The image on the homepage comes to us courtesy of the artist.