Alastair Greene – Blues and Beyond!
Alastair Greene has never followed the norm when it comes to his music. Hailing from Southern California and a part of their music scene, he’s been playing and touring for close to 3 decades. Whether it’s Blues, Southern Rock, or other genres, he’s been constantly playing all over the place.
If you’re not familiar with this artist, there’s a good chance you’ve seen him perform with other artists. Of course, like the rest of the musicians around the world, lately the pandemic has put things on the back burner.
The Luminaries He’s Toured With
Besides recent performances at the Chicago Blues Festival and Big Blues Bender in Vegas. He’s been spending a lot of time touring with high profile musicians. Including filling in on guitar with Starship featuring Mickey Thomas.
Other guest appearances include Eric Burdon, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, Savoy Brown, John Nemeth, and Debbie Davies. We can only say that while some consider him a star on the rise, we already think he’s a star and happy to see him creating a new musical path to stardom.
The Early Years
Like most of us starting off our musical paths during our tender years. We find inspiration in the music of our family members. Same situation with Alastair starting off by discovering music through his mother playing the piano. Next, her record collection which includes such classics as The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John. While his father’s tastes at the time leans more towards Bach and Beethoven. Which is a nice way to start things off!
His biggest inspiration turns out to be his grandfather, the late Chico Alvarez who played trumpet in the Stan Kenton Band in the ’40s and ’50s. Lastly, he takes piano lessons, saxophone and then discovers the guitar in high school. Being mostly interested in rock, he later finds his path to the blues through a friend of his father who loaned him records of the important essentials of the blues.
These artists were B.B. King ‘Live at the Regal’, Buddy Guy ‘A Man and the Blues’, Johnny Winter ‘Second Winter’, The Allman Brother Band ‘Live at Fillmore East’ and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble ‘Couldn’t Stand the Weather’. This is why I find it interesting to see what their music influences are growing up. You learn a lot!
‘The New World Blues’
‘The New World Blues’ came out this October 23 of 2020 and it’s been on constant rotation in my music playlist! Recently released on the Grammy-nominated blues guitar star Tab Benoit’s Whiskey Bayou Records. Furthermore, the record really showcases what kind of artist Greene is when it comes to his styles of playing. As well as songwriter, and vocalist.
The recording sessions take place in Houma Louisiana where he’s in the studio with Benoit. Who also happens to produce, plays drums, sang harmonies, and co-writes several of the 11 original tracks on these sessions. With this kind of help behind the making of this album, it’s no wonder its considered one of 2020’s top albums! Check it out…Enjoy!
BE SURE, TO CHECK OUT THE OTHER BLOG POSTS: HTTPS://JBONAMASSA.COM/CATEGORY/BLOG