Acclaimed guitarist Landreth brings a taste of La. to the suburbs

Few artists create as vivid a sense of place with their music as Sonny Landreth does.

Listen to one of Landreth's songs and you're transported to the Louisiana of his youth, where he grew up surrounded by jazz, r&b and the distinctive sounds of the local Cajun and Creole cultures.

"I grew up in a cultural outback, in the sense that I was surrounded by such a unique array of influences," Landreth said. "Plus, song and dance is just a huge part of life there. That place is definitely a huge part of my songwriting."

The 59-year-old singer and slide-guitar virtuoso is on the road in support of the recent rerelease of his 2000 record "Levee Town," which features remastered sound and a second disc of bonus tracks. He plays at the Clearwater Theater in West Dundee today, and has two additional Chicago-area shows coming later in the month.

Landreth, who was born in Mississippi and grew up in Lafayette, La., is known for his unusual slide-guitar technique: While playing with a slide on one finger, Landreth uses the other fingers to do traditional fretwork. The result is a uniquely haunting, mournful guitar sound.

"I kind of stumbled onto that," he said. "I was practicing with the slide and it just occurred to me to use my other fingers to change chords. That really opened up a window for me. I could see there were lots of possibilities there."

His playing has garnered him a long list of prominent fans, including Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Buffett and Buddy Guy, all of whom he's recorded with during his career.

Landreth started writing and playing original music back in his grade school days. His big break came, though, when he was asked to play someone else's songs; John Hiatt recruited Landreth to play in his touring band shortly after the release of Hiatt's acclaimed 1987 record "Bring the Family."

In joining the band, Landreth had to live up to slide-guitar legend Ry Cooder, who played on the recorded "Bring the Family" album.

"It should have been intimidating, because Ry's playing is just incredibly beautiful on that record, but it wasn't," Landreth said. "I had been playing in bands for a long time before that, and something about those great John Hiatt songs pushed me to do my best."

By the time his association with Hiatt had ended, Landreth had built up a collection of original songs, and with the release of "Outward Bound" in 1992, he focused primarily on his solo career.

Nearly two decades and eight records later, Landreth is releasing many of his studio albums again, this time on his own label, Landfall Records.

"To tell you the truth, working on these reissues is just about the best feeling I've had in this business," Landreth said. "Before, I bought into the notion that you had to do things the way the label wanted to. That's totally changed now.

"If I have any advice to bands just starting out, it's to retain ownership of their masters. That's what's allowing me to do what I'm doing."

In addition to the show at the Clearwater, Landreth will play June 24 at Fitzgerald's Nightclub in Berwyn and June 26 as part of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. Fans will hear songs from throughout his career, along with a few glimpses into Landreth's new, all-instrumental record, which he hopes to release next year.

"That's my goal, though it's taking some time to pull together. But since I'm releasing everything through my own label now, that means I can't blame anyone else if things don't get done."

Sonny Landreth

When: 7 p.m. Friday, June 4

Where: Clearwater Theater, 96 W. Main St., West Dundee

Tickets: $23. Call (847) 836-8820