Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonardo Gianola.
Hi Leonardo, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have been performing solo, acoustic country/delta blues music primarily from the ’20’s and ’30s’s for over the last 20 years. My main focus is to perform my country blues narrative with songs in public libraries in southeastern Michigan where I tell the story of the blues from its beginning up to the mid ’30’s. I do not use any sound reinforcement and perform the songs as they were originally played. I also encourage the audience to ask questions to guide the narrative.
Many people play guitar, but to me the blues has always spoken to me and performing solo, acoustic brings out the original feel.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I started out playing guitar tuning it to standard tuning which is the way that most people tune them. This allows you to play just about any form of music. For me, I tune the guitar to what is called open tuning where the guitar is tuned to a chord using just three notes instead of 5 for standard tuning. Once I started doing this about 25 years ago, the guitar made a lot more sense to me. Current players that use open tunings would be Keith Richards (open G) and Derek Trucks (open E).
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I enjoy interacting with the audiences and hopefully, sharing some of what I have learned with them. Not many players specialize in solo, acoustic playing as the electric guitar is quite popular. I am proud of creating my country blues narrative with songs and it becoming known among the libraries of Michigan; I do not know of anyone else that does this.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
The riskiest part of performing solo, acoustic is that there is just you and all of what the audience hears comes from you. I also play in a few bands where you can hide your mistakes, but performing solo is just more enjoyable.
Pricing:
- $175 for 90 minutes
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.leonardoblues.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leonardocountryblues/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@leonardo-countryblues
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/leonardocountryblues
