(photo
by Kasey Cox)
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Being a
guitarist and songwriter since 1967, Jeff Wyatt has been
affected by many musical influences that inevitably rear
their heads in his music. But when it comes to overall
preference of musical styles, he often falls back onto
composition that includes some type of blues or blues/rock
influence, although he would not strictly try to label
himself a blues-man. Even though he tinkers with a variety
of instruments, guitar is by far his specialty (electric,
finger-style acoustic in standard and open tunings, and
slide which he uses on both electric and acoustic guitar).
Since his work is both instrumental and lyrical, electric
and acoustic, it is difficult at times to strictly
categorize. People compare his guitar work and vocal style
to a combination of Ry Cooder, David Wilcox, Mark Knopfler,
Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Gordon Lightfoot, Jeff Beck and
others.
Jeff, originally from the Saskatchewan prairies (where he
performed with the popular 70's prairie band EDEN), has
been involved with the Canadian west coast music scene
(writing, recording and performing live) since 1991, prior
to his 24 year involvement with the Canadian prairie music
scene. As well as being a musician he also graduated from
the 'Digital/Analog Automated Recording Arts' program at
Columbia Academy in Vancouver, Canada in 1992.
His earliest solo recording project of his own music dates
back to 1990 with the album
Flight of the Hawk, which
was a folksy, bluesy, rootsy compilation of original tunes
presented in a simple, uncomplicated fashion.
In 1994 he produced a follow up solo EP entitled
The Bullfrog Session, which
featured Jeff’s acoustic guitar playing skills as he
further explored and expanded his acoustic guitar technique
using slide and alternate tunings. The Bullfrog Session,
also bluesy and rootsy, was recorded with Jeff performing
on vocals and a single guitar only,…no additional
instrumentation,… leaving it intimate, simple, clean, crisp
and acoustically melodic. This album has been digitally
re-mastered and re-released as of November
2011.
In 2005 Jeff co-invented a musical duo with songwriter
Barry Greenfield, simply known as 'greenfield and wyatt'
(subsequently shortened to 'greenfield wyatt'). Jeff and
Barry released their collaborative album
Songs from the Rothstein in
October 2005, which veteran music reviewer Tom Harrison of
the Vancouver PROVINCE favorably scrutinized, complimenting
Jeff's contribution with...
“Greenfield’s fourth and most atmospheric album thanks to
Wyatt’s stately strings and fluid guitar…”.
With the eclectic concept album
Reflections at Every Corner release
in 2008, veteran guitarist, singer, songwriter Jeff Wyatt
presents a clever mix of Blues, Pop, Rock, Folk, Jazz,
Ethnic, World and Classical music influences in his
original and unique acoustic and electric song stylings.
Jeff released his 4th solo album
People Do Blues in
February of 2011. The album’s 14 tracks explore various
blues styles that have developed across the United States,
including Country Blues, Southern Blues Rock, New Orleans
Blues and Chicago Blues. Although each track is not
necessarily “strict” blues as such, blues lovers will
easily be able to hear and enjoy the inherent blues
influences.
PEOPLE DO BLUES Album Reviews:
“Wyatt sings and plays with charm and those who favour a
flavourful approach to swampy and slide guitar driven
blues-rock to flashy but sterile blues (the curse of most
contemporary blues) will like this record.”
-Tom Harrison of the Vancouver
PROVINCE
“What strikes you from the first time you listen is the
crafty, prominent sounding deep slide sounds in all the
songs. A sound in the opening song "People do Blues" which
resembles Mark Knopfler's "Money for Nothing" and a
beautiful instrumental sound midway in the cd "Bodhi
Surfing" is a similar approach.” -
Ron Bervoets, Rootstime.be,
Belgium
“That the man (guitar / slide) knows what he is doing is
underlined with bravado on "I Just Got the News", "Chasing
My Tail" with its beautiful country blues ode to
"Mississippi" RL Burnside and "That's My Mom" (dedicated to
his mother on her 80th birthday).” -
Francois Braeken, Bealestreet.be,
Belgium
2011 also saw Jeff release 2 guitar instrumental singles,
entitled
Max and the Squirrel and
Mind the Time. And
near the end of 2013 he released a guitar instrumental
rendition of the Christmas classic
Oh Holy Night.
Jeff brought in the New Year 2014 with the album
release
Wanted (Soundtrack to Mike Reilly's
"Tumbleweed"). He had
recorded it throughout the summer and fall of 2013.
Canadian west coast comedy scriptwriter MICHAEL B. REILLY
of Canamera Entertainment Group (Radio
Comedy Shows) hired
Jeff to create this musical soundtrack for his fun Wild
West production of
TUMBLEWEED.
In February of 2014 Jeff worked once again with MICHAEL B.
REILLY, this time arranging, recording and producing a song
Mike co-wrote with MICHAEL VINCENT, also of
Vancouver.
Heaven Knows was the
song that was initially presented as a demo recording to
Jeff. Although MICHAEL B's purpose was to add this
recording to the tail end of his
TUMBLEWEED album,
permission was also granted to Jeff to release it on his
own Cardboard Alley Music record label. Jeff released his
single of
Heaven Knows in June
of 2014.
My
Christmas Guitar, Jeff’s
November 2014 release, is a contemporary approach to
traditional Christmas favorites, with an obvious emphasis
on guitar as the featured instrument. Electric and
acoustic, finger-style and slide; the guitar playing styles
vary, but the BLUES influence is evident. Reviews for this
album have been posted on the
Reviews page
of this website.
2017 had been a busy year with the following album
releases:
Life in the Woodshed,
Off the Floor (with
Jeff Wyatt & the Wreckn' Crew) and
Privy to the Blues.
I last
performed in the blues trio
Jeff Wyatt & the Wreckin'
Crew,
with a solid rhythmn section consisting of Phil Howell
(bass & vocals) and Vince Iormetti (drums).
THANKS
FOR VISITING !!
