Muddy John
guitar
“I
was probably hearing the sounds of bluegrass and old-time before I knew
it, since American Forces Radio was a regular feature in my childhood household
in Paris, France. Father ‘Muddy’ was into the big band sounds
of Glen Miller and a great fan of the Hot Club de France, which you heard
a lot on those radio stations at the time.
Those sounds were soon swamped by the musical revolution of the 1960s and
I became musically enlightened by the Beatles, Stones and, further down
the line, the West Coast sound of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Poco,
the Eagles, etc. It was Neil Young’s plaintive voice and guitar
that inspired me to take up the instrument in the mid-70s.
Playing the guitar drew me towards the roots of country rock ... folk music! Here was something you could actually play at home! It wasn't long before the opportunity to form a band came along and the tough apprenticeship of playing pub gigs began in earnest. I did a stint on the club circuit playing guitar for a contemporary singer — we called our duo Lady and the Tramp.
After several line-ups, many years attending festivals and listening to an ever wider range of acoustic music, I eventually found some kindred spirits and in 1990 formed bluegrass band, Split Break, with Moira Fraser and Simon Fossey. The band survived a few permutations on the personnel front and a couple of changes of name, eventually becoming String Fever. It finally bit the dust early in the new millennium.
Since String Fever's demise I hadn't been playing very much but kept busy organising events and sound engineering at folk and bluegrass festivals. It was not until, seduced by the voices of the ‘Kitties’ at Sore Fingers Summer School 2006, that I realised how much I was missing the playing. So I volunteered my services to the KittyHawks as rhythm guitarist.
I plays Martin guitars (HD28 and 0028EC) and use D'Addario Phosphor Bronze medium gauge strings.”