Well that’s how all began…

Once upon a time…

I was about 15 when I came across to Eric Clapton’s disc “Unplugged”…I was amazed by the song “before you accuse me’’, with “Layla” and finally with every single second of this disc. Today, I realize that this was probably the disc with the most successful blues songs, maybe comparable with “from the cradle”! This disc became the inspiration of my blues transformation…
It was my godfather, Paris, who showed me first the blues scale and the 12 bar style of the chords! It was amazing! In a few weeks I could follow Eric’s “before you accuse me”…cause it was a classic 12 bar blues from “E major”! I was so excited, that I recorded myself playing this 12 bar rythme plus a small part of the pentatonic scale, as a little solo. I told (!) to my friends that this recording was Eric Clapton’s song when he started playing the blues…This was my first performance…
My relation with Eric became more and more addictive…The next disc that I bought was a compilation: “Backless”. Among the songs, there was one that determined, in my immature yet blues mind, the style that I would fall in love with…Slow, very slow blues! It was the song ”Have you ever loved a woman”. This is a “C Minor” slow blues, were Eric plays from the deepest of his heart. Both the lyrics as well his passionate playing are a journey full of blues feelings…This is a song that could have been written for Clapton itself, since he had loved his best friend’s (George Harrison’s) wife…Indeed, after so many years I still believe that this is maybe one of his best blues songs.
However, the real magic was playing a blues solo… I spent so many days trying to figure out the solo of Layla and months later when I did it…I felt the magic of being a blues guitarist…Since then in every blues song that I play, I use licks and phrases from that great solo…