Find the entire Off The Road series at hawaiipublicradio.org/offtheroad.
Today, we’re concluding a three-week celebration of Off The Road, marking a second anniversary of the series this month! Off The Road started when the pandemic cratered the entertainment touring industry, which often provided guests prior to the start of what would be Off The Road, in April 2020. The series has gone on to be a regular music feature, including artists who have returned to touring.
To celebrate, three remarkable guitarists join us.
HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence welcomed back guitar monster Joe Satriani for his second appearance on Off The Road, and today continues with a guy making his third visit on Off The Road, John McLaughlin. It was a thrill to have him on in 2020 and 2021, and now he's back with "The Montreux Years", offering samples of some of his many concerts at the Swiss music fest that began in the late 60s.
Yesterday, we heard music from the album, and the gifted guitar superstar, known for his work with Miles Davis, his groundbreaking Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti fusion projects, and numerous solo and collaborative efforts, explained the new release, shared stories about his time during the pandemic since last on with us in 2021, and dug into stories connecting to the new album and his career. That includes a fascinating story about the impact of John's mom on his musical direction, how Muddy Waters factors into John's evolution from violin to piano to guitar, and how Muddy influenced Jimi Hendrix, who John then shared incredible stories about!
Today, we'll hear more from the new album, and conclude with John sharing firsthand accounts of time with members of Led Zeppelin, like Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and great stories about his decades of relationships with Carlos Santana and his wife Cindy Blackman Santana! We've also posted the complete new interview.
MORE:
See a video of John live at Montreux:
See another of John's many performances at the festival:
Hear the track "Acid Jazz" which we used in our feature:
Hear the track "Florianopolis" which we used in our feature:
Hear the complete new interview:
Hear our previous interviews with the great John McLaughlin: 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2021.
Off The Road started in April 2020 when the pandemic led to a halt in the touring entertainment industry. Connecting with artists around the world since, we’ve offered intimate conversations and many exclusive musical performances with some of the biggest names in music, spanning many genres, eras and styles. Some of the recent artists we’ve welcomed include Joe Satriani, Smokey Robinson, Keb Mo, The Moody Blues' John Lodge, The Yardbirds' Jim McCarty, Don McLean, Joss Stone, Third World’s Stephen “Cat” Coore, Deep Purple’s Don Airey, Herb Alpert, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Artimus Pyle, Pat Metheny, Black Uhuru’s Derrick “Duckie Simpson”, Taj Mahal, Judy Collins, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Linda Ronstadt, Al Di Meola, 10,000 Maniacs’ Mary Ramsey, Alice Cooper, Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner, George Benson, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, The Doors’ John Densmore, Randy Brecker, Peter Frampton and System of a Down's Serj Tankian.
