Speaking in Blues
Just imagine if one could be as fluent on an instrument as one speaks a language. That’s where I want to be.” So says one of the country’s finest guitar players, Dan Patlansky. If you’ve ever heard the man coax a melody from his Fender you’ll know full well that this statement makes him a pretty modest fella. He makes six strings gabber in tongues.
The Western musical scale has only twelve little notes to it and yet this man pulls a gob-smackingly dynamic range of noise from that finite palette. It’s widely regarded that one needs to put in at least 10,000 hours on a particular craft to become a master of it. Patlansky is only 29 and by his account “was about 14 years old when the passion for playing really took over.” I’m lousy at maths but it would appear logical to me that he’s been literally glued to his instrument for half of his life.
Images of the guy nestled in slumber while his fingers run some exotic scale over and over on autopilot deep into the night simply don’t seem far-fetched. Funnily, he adds, “It’s amazing how quickly my playing gets stale.” I was present in the throng lucky enough to catch his fiery performance at Oppikoppi this year. Trying to fathom what ‘stale’ might mean for him, based on the energy thrown down that fret board that day, is somewhat laughable. Because Dan Patlansky knows guitar. Like a boss. His modesty again checks my run-away enthusiasm, claiming that even for him “it’s sometimes very hard to keep it fresh. For example, most of the guitar solos are improved on the night. So needless to say some nights are great and some are crap! So, just like any other discipline I still try spend as much time playing as I can.”
For those of you who’ve been somehow left out of the loop, Patlansky is a Blues man. For the last ten years he has been showcasing his incredibly raw and provocative take on the genre to captivated audiences around South Africa, playing pretty much everywhere and anywhere that can stand the heat that peels from his overworked fingers. He’s done stints overseas, New Orleans most notably, where he has made a marked impact. So much so that this young musician has noted a shift in the demographics of his audience over time – “When I started out years back my fans were of the 40+ crowd. I’ve still got a big fan base of that age group, which is awesome, but in recent years younger people have been added to that fan base in a big way! That is really exciting for me. It means that this genre will never die. At my shows today we have a complete spread regarding age groups.”
The fact that his influence is so penetrating could be put down to the fact that, as he says, “I always put 100% into every performance regardless of the size of the crowd. And I’m never satisfied with where I’m at musically.”
Patlansky is the embodiment of an artist, fully invested in his craft and in his creations, a technical virtuoso but still deeply connected to the feelings conveyed and never one to rest on his laurels. He is in the final stages of producing his fourth album, one which has high expectations considering all previous outings have been critically acclaimed. He says of the new record, “I’m really excited about the new album. I think it has rawness to it and a lot of heartfelt energy. I think it’s far dirtier than my previous albums, with the strongest songs so far in my opinion. It’s a blues album, but with an old school Rock n’ Roll twist.”
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