The T-Bone Fisher
Pages
biography -
music- tour stories- tour
schedule - fisherman's friends - lessons
California-born bluesman T-Bone Fisher is succesfully taking music that is considered typically North-American to listeners throughout the world. A former student of legendary bluesguitarist Brownie McGhee, he satisfied the giant that a white boy could and should be playing the blues. Not only did he learn about the blues directly from Brownie, but working and living with him let T-Bone meet other notable blues players, including Sonny Terry, Lightning Hopkins and Muddy Waters. From them he learned his versatile fingerpicking sound, which consists of various covers ranging from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters.
He sounds like 3 guitars are being played at the same time, one with the thumb playing the bass line, one with the index and middle finger playing melodics, and one with the rest of the fingers playing authentic solo lines. On top of this is his dark, experienced voice forming the basis of many key-and rhythmic changes that follow a clear black tradition. He tells about that: 'I don't play strict measures anymore, it's a form of imprisonment if you do that. Brownie taught me how to improvise, sit along and get it going, so that deep inner feeling comes out of the heart into the sound.'
T-Bone Fisher plays over 100 songs, of which 20 are on his first cd (named 'Endless Hiway Blues', and recorded in Venezuela, 1997) and another 15 on his second cd, 'Amsterdam Blues', which is recorded for the Raoulmusic label.
After T-Bone learned how to play the black-scale blues he began touring the west of the U.S., with a band and later on as a solo-artist. In 1979 he began a sailing trip which lead him from Florida via the Caribbean islands to Venezuela. There he made a living as tourist attraction and headliner of the annual blues festival.
Currently T-Bone is doing the 'Endless Hiway' tour which leads him around the world. At this moment he is accepting bookings.
