Posted on 08/13/2008 9:55:53 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
ELKHORN, Wis. - When Tallan "T-Man" Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. "I turned around to my dad and said, 'That's exactly what I want to do.'"
Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He's played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
good luck to the kid.I hope he makes a ton of $.
I would agree.
There have been other blues prodigies like this...I have done a longtime college radio blues show and just the other day I was playing Canadian Jimmy Bowskill, 14 at the time the
CD was recorded; and some have been as young as 12, 10,
or yes, even 8.
Boston area guitarist Mike Welch cut his chops as a young teen at local blues jams and appeared at the opening of
the first House of Blues (Cambridge). “We’re not calling you Little Mike anymore,” said co-founded Dan Aykroyd. “Now
we’ll call you Monster Mike.” Later, a 10 or 12 yr old
kid appeared in the movie Blues Brothers 2000 as a young
prodigy though I understand his harmonica playing was
actually done by John Popper of Blues Traveler.
The name escapes me at the moment, but there was a kid in Massachusetts (around ‘96 or ‘97) who was also a Blues Guitar whiz, and at 16 his voice was as deep and gravelly as I’d ever heard.
That’s it. Monster Mike Welch is the guy I was thinking of. I have one of his albums.
Blues musicians are like Obi Wan Kenobi - Knock them down and they just have more fodder for their art.
Kids gonna wind up with more moola than Limbaugh. p-ss off libs to boot.
I like Popper. What ever happened to Blues Traveler? are they still around?
Hahahaha Joe Satriani is what turned this kid on?
Watch out...once you have been bitten by the Satch bug...you are infected for life.
Awesome!!!!
I prefer Stevie Ray Vaughn, but yeah, he can play,too.
I think they still may be. Popper had to lose weight (and he did, big time; he was almost 400 pounds at one time)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_Traveler
>>The band’s latest release is an acoustic “remix” greatest hits album called Cover Yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Popper
>>In 1999, he suffered a near-heart attack brought on by years of compulsive overeating. (He had been diagnosed with diabetes a few years earlier.) Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center performed an emergency angioplasty which saved Popper’s life: he had 95% arterial blockage.Popper later underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost a significant amount of weight.
He’ll be singing the blues about his stolen bicycle, bad school lunches, playground bullies, a mean older sister and being grounded.
Monster Mike Welch is fantastic - another one of my favorites is Joe Bonamassa, who opened for B.B. King when he was 12 years old and is now hugely popular amongst the blues set.
Saw Popper on some Sunday morning A&E interview. He was 1/3 of the size. His voice wasn’t quite the same. Strong, but I think part of his original sound was due to the weight.
I wonder if he’s still a big time firearms collector.
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