Lap steel guitars are played differently to regular guitars.
The instrument is not upright but gets left in a horizontal position in a performer’s lap. The person who plays it is looking directly at the strings. This is not something we see very often, but here we have a man who put on a jawdropping show in Amsterdam.
We knew guitars were cool, but we didn’t know just how impressive the instrument could be until we saw Jack Broadbent doing his thing.
And it involved one of the best uses of a flask we’ve ever seen!
Let’s get one important information out of the way—when you play a lap steel guitar, you don’t create notes by pressing the strings to the fretboard.
Notes are sounded by using light pressure on the strings, though remember that the guitar is in a horizontal position and you play it from above. This pressure can be created from a slide or tone bar, usually made of metal.
Broadbent, however, uses his flask to achieve the same effect.
It sounds amazing! If we didn’t hear it, we wouldn’t believe the sound he makes. But who is Jack Broadbent? The UK-born musician has been wowing international audiences with virtuosic acoustic and slide guitar performances, along with blues-inspired vocals. Broadbent already has four albums under his belt, and the latest one, Moonshine Blue, came out in 2019.
After impressing everyone at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2016, he was dubbed a new “master of slide guitar.”
But those are certainly not the only flattering words people have used to describe this talented man. Broadbent is hailed as “one of the most renowned slide guitar players in the industry” by Rolling Stone France—and even the legendary Bootsy Collins said that Broadbent was “the real thing.”
After performing with many famous artists from Lynard Skynard to Ronnie Wood, Broadbent received acclaim from Billboard, American Songwriter, Rolling Stone France and more.
Judging by this video, “the real thing” is still on the road—and that’s where he feels comfortable.
The way Broadbent communicates with his audience is amazing.
There’s a huge crowd around him and everyone is mesmerized… but we understand it completely. When you walk in a street and hear such a thing, it’s impossible to walk away.
It’s clear that the blues are strong with this one!
What we’ve just witnessed is such a clean sliding technique.
Broadbent is definitely accurate, and it takes a lot of skill to get those slide-notes spot-on. What we loved the most about his performance is that he randomly uses his pinky finger on his flask hand to fret a note while finishing his slide. It’s an outstanding skill!
In the video, Broadbent plays “On The Road Again” from Canned Heat’s Boogie with Canned Heat album.
If you’re a blues fan, you’re sure to love every second of this!
Broadbent has a very powerful voice, we won’t argue that a bit.
Even so, we noticed that he’s singing without a microphone in the video. Imagine the way that corner would blast if he had one! People around him were enjoying themselves immensely. Who wouldn’t? Almost two million YouTube viewers and his 37,300 subscribers can agree with us. If you were as smitten by this show as we were and you want to find out more about this amazing musician, check out his site for more information!
Watch the full performance by clicking the link below:
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