ALL MY LOVING
Self-described “mid-century music re-enactor” Joel Paterson has a refreshingly retro attitude towards being a guitarist. “I’m so sorry, I had my phone off,” he says, answering our call some two hours after our agreed interview time. “I’ve been practising all day for a gig tonight. You know, as guitarists, we have to get out of our rooms. There are too many guitar videos where we’re all sitting at home. What’s going on here?!”
What’s going on is that the Chicago native has just released Let It Be Guitar, an album of Beatles classics through which he explores the Fab Four’s music via the Kodachrome and slapback echo textures of the guitarists who influenced his playing.
“I’m kind of a music nerd and I’ve gone through a lot of stages,” says Paterson. “Having started with country blues, I have since gone through phases of western swing, jazz, etc, so by the time I made this record I wanted to take all my favourite influences and use the songs of The Beatles to explore different styles. The Beatles were doing exactly the same thing.”
The record also provided an opportunity for Paterson to pay tribute to some of his favourite session players. “I have a deep love for the unsung heroes of the recording studio, those crack guitar players who are responsible for so many hit records,” he says. “Guys like Ernest Ranglin, who was the Studio One [Jamaica’s answer to Motown] guitarist, from and it’s the best Beatles cover I have ever heard.
